Does this sound feasable?

[tag141]

I don't want to know how to do it, just if it sounds possible.

My clients have a book of orders, which they fill out and bring in with them when they come to get their orders. I want to build a small application that sits on their computer and prints out the order form in their office and my work. (I don't want it to be web based due to privacy complications.) This would speed up the processing of orders as we would have the order ready before they leave their office. My printers are networked, so if I knew the name and IP of my printer, could I set it up to print on my printer as well?

 

[rsinj]

you have privacy concerns about running a web server, but not about giving out your IP addresses?

sure you can do it - but how are you then going to prevent anyone in the world from printing to your printer?

 

[tag141]

I wouldn't be giving out the IP address as it would be part of the root to the printer.

I think I'll rephrase the question. Can I print to a printer in work from home using an application built with vb?

 

[fredericofonseca]

yes you can.

but you will need to know the IP of your printer/PC with printer, this needs to be a public IP (or at least your firewall/router needs to be), you will have all kink of configuration issues (firewall, anti-virus, blahblah)

Alternativelly you can set-up a special email that will print any email received automatically.

You can also create a small client/server application in VB. There are samples for this on

http://www.microsoft.com

(and I think also on MSDN or even with VB 6 itself).
Using TCP/IP streams if I recall correctly.
You can set this app to listen to a specific port.




Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com

 

[MichaelRed]

I would advise the use of ther small app on clients system which simply sends the info via an e-mail. You can then set up your email to filter the incomming on any number of criteria and place the incomming orders in a specific mail folder. Another small app could easily scan the mail folder, retrieve the messages, "decode" them, generate the local db order entry and print a local copy.

While simple in concept, there are several potential issues, such as handling the occassional error, making sure the printer actually generates the paper copy (or some alternative to at least make sure someone is aware of the orders' existance) and (most importantly) making sure that the customer gets feed back re the status or the orders.

There is an entire industry engaged in the scheme, loosely reffered to as "EDI" (Electronic Data Interchange) with standards and protocalls set up for various industry segments. There are a few references to this here (Tek-Tips fora) and a huge body of material available in the wider arena (WEB). But this 'sounds like' it would be more of a reference for concepts than a ready source of useable application code for you.




MichaelRed

 

[rsinj]

Can I print to a printer in work from home using an application built with vb?

yes, you can.

that being said, I think that you (or your users) are blowing the "privacy" issue out of proportion with regard to a webserver. additionally, to the other suggestions, if there is a privacy issue, then how is email going to reduce it any?

are you going to build encryption into the app on the send/receive side of the email?

how is it any more secure without encryption than a web server using secure protocols like SSL and https?

further, though a user might not want to use a website, there isn't any reason why your VB program on the user's desktop couldn't communicate directly back to your webserver using https.

You can also create a small client/server application in VB. There are samples for this on

http://www.microsoft.com

(and I think also on MSDN or even with VB 6 itself).
Using TCP/IP streams if I recall correctly.
You can set this app to listen to a specific port.

as I just said - you have a webserver, you can easily have a VB client talk to it.

in any case, bottom line, there are numerous ways you can develop a client/server distributed application like this - with or without a webserver. security/privacy will be an issue you have to contend with no matter what approach you choose.