Explorer component

[paal.berg]

Hi,

We have encountered a strange problem for out kiosk that was supposed
to run XPe. We are using our own browser which is basically a .Net
windows application with the Internet Explorer component
(axWebBrowser).

At one of the pages in our web application we must print a receipt. To
avoid printer dialogs we are using an ActiveX component that prints
directly to the default printer without any user interactions. What we
experience is the following:

- Using our browser in XP Pro the page is printed
- Using our browser in XPe the page is not printed
- Going to the page by using the ordinary IE in XPe, the page is
printed

I would really need some advices for how to track down this problem. I
think it quite common to use a custom browser (for e.g. keeping an eye
on the network connection and try to get connected if the net goes
down) and an ActiveX component for printing to avoid the printer
dialogs (does anybody know a way without using an ActiveX?). Should
there be any difference in XPe and XP Pro for our application?

Regards,
Paal

 

[Heidi Linda]

Hi,

We have encountered a strange problem for out kiosk that was supposed
to run XPe. We are using our own browser which is basically a .Net
windows application with the Internet Explorer component
(axWebBrowser).

At one of the pages in our web application we must print a receipt. To
avoid printer dialogs we are using an ActiveX component that prints
directly to the default printer without any user interactions. What we
experience is the following:

- Using our browser in XP Pro the page is printed
- Using our browser in XPe the page is not printed
- Going to the page by using the ordinary IE in XPe, the page is
printed

I would really need some advices for how to track down this problem. I
think it quite common to use a custom browser (for e.g. keeping an eye
on the network connection and try to get connected if the net goes
down) and an ActiveX component for printing to avoid the printer
dialogs (does anybody know a way without using an ActiveX?). Should
there be any difference in XPe and XP Pro for our application?

Regards,
Paal

Is it running as a service? We had a problem with an app that can't
print to the default printer because it's a service but which prints
just fine to a named printer... then again, that happens in Pro as well
I think... or might have been happening under win2k now I think about it...
Is the default printer actually behaving as a default printer otherwise?
Could it be a security setting difference?

 

[Paal]

Hi,

I've tracked down the problem a bit more. If the size of the receipt is
below 1977 bytes, the receit will print, above no actions to the
printer occurs. The receipt is just an ordinary aspx/html page. The
ActiveX we use for printing also uses the IE COM object, but this is
made in C++ (our browser is coded in C#). So, nothing runs as a
service, but I don't think that's the problem. The printer behaves just
fine, even in the standard IE accessing the same web pages and using
the same ActiveX for printing.

Does anybody know of any limitations in buffer or similar for the IE
component (axWebBrowser)? I'm having a real hard time of tracing the
problem.

My next step is to try out some other methods for printing. I guess
that there is no way around using an ActiveX for not having the printer
dialog showing up. Any suggestions for a free or cheap program that
contains a method for printing an url?

Paal