receipt print modification
TRANSCRIPT
Receipt Print Modification
Right Click 3.0Kevin Devine
Euclid Public Library
August 22, 2007
The Problem
• Handwritten slips for reserves
• No consistency
• Bad spelling / penmanship• 100s handwritten each day
• Even in front of patrons waiting to checkout!
The Goal
Before After
From the beginning
• Can it be done?
• How will it work?
• Can our ILS do this?
• Initially, the answer was “No”, but the question lingered… Could this be done?
TIME PASSES…
A New Problem Arises
Goal Revisited
Routing Before Routing After
Options?
• Screen capture / OCR / Print
• Utilizing Window Handles to get Textboxes
• Staff copy and paste to another application
• Change ILS to a system that works better
• Capture Spool file and modify output
Spool File
What are these?
Escape Codes
• Specific to each brand of printer
• SDK on website
• List of commands– Font height and width– Bold, Underline, Italics– Line feeds, cut paper
– Change text orientation
Example Escape Code (in code)
• ChrW(27) & ChrW(104) & ChrW(51) & ChrW(27) & ChrW(87) & ChrW(49) & ChrW(27) & ChrW(45) & ChrW(49) & ChrW(27) & ChrW(69) & sName
• ChrW(27) & ChrW(104) & ChrW(48) & ChrW(27) & ChrW(87) & ChrW(48) & ChrW(27) & ChrW(45) & ChrW(48) & ChrW(27) & ChrW(70)
• Bold, Underline, Height = 4, Width = 2 turned on• The second bullet turns those all off
Capturing a Print Job
• Small jobs enter and exit the spool quickly
• Pause/Unpause the queue?
• Create a “dummy” printer• Copy modified spool file to real printer
A Little Bit of Code
• Monitoring application– VB.net– Watches the “dummy” print queue
– Looks for keywords in spool file• HOLD FOR:• in transit to:
– Modifies the spool file with escape codes– Copies to the real printer
Results
• Circulation was ecstatic!
• Reserves have readable names
• Routing slips are easy• Patrons are not waiting for the staff to
write out slips
• Customer Service and line speed have increased
Time Comparison
Before
• Writing reserve slips– 20 seconds
• Writing routing slips– 20 seconds
• Reserves per month: 9000
• Routing per month: 4000• Total Time:
– 72 hours a month
After
• Printing reserve slips– 2 seconds
• Printing routing slips– 2 seconds
• Reserves per month: 9000• Routing per month: 4000• Total Time:
– 7 hours a month
It cut the work down to 1/10th of
before!
Any Questions?Receipt Print Modification
Right Click 3.0
Kevin Devine
Euclid Public Library
August 22, 2007