Selecting records to print in BarTender 1

[tturner33]

We just implemented BarTender Enterprise 7.x (waiting for 7.7 upgrade) and are connecting to our Maximo DB via ODBC. The Select Records feature in BT is pretty weak. We have over 16,000 parts and scrolling through that list each time to print a label or two is not an option.

Is there a feature like LoftWare's On-Demand Print anywhere in BT? I have not been able to find it.

So far my workaround has been to query the DB before I open the label. It works OK for me but our shopfloor techs aren't real skilled at SQL commands. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

-Tom

 

[James529]

Not familiar with "Maximo" but I use Bartender. To get it to work for us I needed a way for an associate to select items from a database and type the quantity of labels needed for each item.

To get this to work, I used Access. I designed a form with an underlying table of items sorted in alphabetical order (about 6,000 items).

Then I designed a method whereby the user can type one or more characters of the item name (with each letter typed, the database is advanced to the first item containing the typed letters). The user can then scroll to the item they want labels for (if they have not landed on the exact item using the type ahead feature) and type the quantity of labels desired.

The user can select as many different items / quantities as they want (typically, for a selection, they will select about 30 different items and print 400+ labels).

I button(s) on the form which, when clicked, calls bartender dynamically. The call passes the name of a label and the folder that it resides in. The label has been pre-designed with it's data ODBC access data source using an SQL statement for all the fields from the access table along with the quantity to print.

With this design, what used to take about 30 to 45 minutes using a purchased archaic design off the shelf label system, it now take about 5 minutes.

I originally ran this stand alone on a PC using Datamax and Sato printers but now run on a terminal server printing to a network PC workstation that has the printers attached to it.

 

[James529]

One more thing. To make things more flexible, when I designed the labels in bartender, I saved them with the printer they print to as the "default" printer.

In my Access form, when the user clicks on the button to print sticky lables, I go through a code routine to set the default printer to the datamax printer. When the user clicks the button on the form to print tags, I set the default printer to the Sato printer. I set the default BEFORE I call Bartender. This way it's automatic and labels can be selected and printed from any workstation and the labels don't care where they are going as they get directed to the default/

 

[MSatish]

Hi
I have fresh installed Bartender 7.4 and backend database is 9.2.0.5. We are using ODBC connectivity for the database access. Connectivity is taking a very long time and data access for a very small query is taking very long time. Anybody faced similar issue? Any suggestions?

 

[James529]

and backend database is 9.2.0.5" ......... What database is this? I'm using Bartender 6.0 to design labels that get their data ODBC from an access database (relatively small, only 6,500 recs). The database resides on a terminal server, the same server that bartender is running on. The access table has all the label data plus a quantity field that tells Bartender the quantity of labels to print for each label selected. The select query is part of the label design and is driven by the qty to print field in the database table being greater than zero.

When told to print to a printer on the network, printing begins almost instantaneously, could not ask for any better speed.

Is your bartender application getting it's data from a database across a network?