Automatic Printing of an Online Order

[snowyej]

I tried searching on this (in the forums and elsewhere on the web) and haven't had much luck. I'm not even sure if this is the right forum or not, but since I'll probably be coding the online ordering process in ASP I thought I'd post it here...

Anyway, is there a way that when someone submits an online order that it could automatically print that order in the restaurant? Some orders will be coming through the same network that the printer is on, but most will not.

Is there any way to do this?

Thanks in advance!
Elizabeth

 

[DotNetGnat]

try this link:

http://javascript.internet.com/messages/print-page-auto.html

-DNG

 

[snowyej]

That's not exactly what I'm looking for. Basically a user will submit an order for this restaurant online. When they hit the Submit button it should shoot that order to output on a printer inside the restaurant. The restaurant will not have access to the order website, nor do I want the order printed for the user that submits the order. Does that make sense?

Thanks for the fast response though!

Elizabeth

 

[DotNetGnat]

oh ok i got that straight now. As far i know JavaScript can't print a web page automatically but i can pop up a print prompt which the users have to click ok to print the page...


you can try this link but this software is not free:

http://www.download3000.com/download_8929.html

-DNG

 

[DotNetGnat]

Elizabeth,

Is that the kind of software are you looking for? Let us know...if not give more details and i am sure you will get solution from someone on this forum.

Thanks

-DNG

 

[Sheco]

You'll need something running on a computer at the restraunt and that computer will need a connection to the Internet. From that point you have basically 2 choices:

A) The computer at the restraunt "polls" the order website and downloads new orders every X minutes, seconds, whatever ...

or

B) The computer at the restruant runs some sort of server process that can receive a "pushed" order from the order-taking website. This can be as simple as a web server or as complex as some program you write that listens to a TCP/IP socket for new orders.

 

[Sheco]

I think I would go with option B and use IIS for my server process within the restruant. The IIS on that machine would only have 1 page, maybe call it neworder.asp and it wouldnt even need visual interface.

Then, on the order-taking website, you take the order and assign it an order number. Then using the server version of xmlhttp you call the restraunt web server with neworder.asp?orderNum=xxxx

The ASP page on the server takes the value out of the querystring and then turns around and requests the full details of the order from the order taking website using that key.

Then it would print the details in the restruant using that program that DotNetGnat linked.

 

[snowyej]

Thanks everyone, I think option B definitely sounds doable and I am going to check out that program. Thanks for the fast responses!

Elizabeth