Question

Photo of Landon Pendleton

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Ipad Checkin Printer Override Settings/Question

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I have installed Rock on Azure in base configuration to evaluate for our church.  I am an executive in I.T so feel free to use technical jargon :)    We currently use another product for checkin, which utilizes Ipads and portable Citizen bluetooth label printers.   I have been successful in getting the Rock check-in app working through the test setup on the Ipad, however even after reading the check-in documentation im not sure what to do with the printer override to get the check-in app to print to the connected printer.  The setting is simply a text field, so Im not sure what to enter there.    Any ideas?  Has anyone else used this same configuration?

  • Photo of Bronson Witting

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    We are currently using iPads for check-in.  Keley is correct - that field is for the IP address of the printer.  Rock check-in only works with Zebra printers (we are using GX420d's) and if you are using iPads, those printers must be network-enabled via Ethernet or WiFi, and must be on the same network as the iPad. 

  • Photo of Landon Pendleton

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    ANy help on the printer override setting?  Is there supposed to be a choice there if it detects a printer?  

  • Photo of Kelley Langkamp

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    I don't have an ipad handy to test with but I believe that you are supposed to put the IP address of the printer in that field to print to a network printer.

  • Photo of Landon Pendleton

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    Ok I see.  So from 30 seconds of Google research, it appears that model of Zebra is not a network printer but a direct attach to desktop model.  Or do you have a print server or something that is serving them to the network?  We have about 10 of these (expensive!) bluetooth printers that connect directly to the Ipads.  

  • Photo of Landon Pendleton

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    Actually, a little more research seems to show that perhaps it DOES have an ethernet port at least (of course we dont have ethernet in the building either lol)

  • Photo of Landon Pendleton

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    I will formerly do a feature request elsewhere, but it would be definitely something advantageous to many churches to support these Citizen Bluetooth printers.  They are able to run on batteries and bluetooth to the Ipad.  This allows the checkin volunteers to be totally mobile and work anywhere in the building or outside as long as wifi or internet is available.  

    • Jim Michael

      Jim Michael

      Just FYI, Zebra also makes mobile, battery-powered printers that could potentially work in your situation yet still work with Rock. It sounds like you have roaming "check in people" that walk around checking kids in, which is cool but also a bit outside the box from norm (though I do know of one other church doing that.) As for Rock supporting non-ZPL printers... I wouldn't hold your breath (just being honest.) This isn't quite as simple as just deciding to support "Printer X" and tweak a few settings. It's much more complex than that, so they chose the most common workhorse printer to support that also had the necessary features to work well with Rock. That said, an enterprising c# developer COULD potentially rewrite the parts of the code necessary to do this, so perhaps a church with such talent and the need for said printer support will jump in an contribute the code to Rock... that's part of what Open Source is all about, after all!

    • Photo of Jim Michael

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      For what it's worth, we use Airport Express units to make our USB-only Zebra GK420 (not G*X*420) printers wireless. This is necessary because our check-in kiosks are mobile. In any case, it works great assuming you have good wifi. That said, as Bronson indicated, Rock uses the ZPL language to print exclusively to Zebra printers (though a non-zebra printer that implements ZPL 100% MIGHT work) so I'm afraid you're probably dead in the water with your bluetooth printers. :-(

    • Photo of Landon Pendleton

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      You are correct in that we do currently have roaming volunteers for one segment of our child checkin.  Im not a developer, but manage several and could perhaps get someone to look into extending the code and at least assess the difficulty level and time involved with printing.  ANother issue, since you are currently just allowing IP settings would of course be that the bluetooth is directly attached to the Ipad, so the ipad app would need some changes as well.   My guess is that is probably going to be a pretty extensive project overall.  It may be easier to just re-vamp with different printers.  

      Using airport express is an interesting option for the USB printers. At least that would allow us to man the regular checkin stations with less expensive printers if we have to replace the Citizen's.  

      • Jim Michael

        Jim Michael

        If it's any consolation, the Zebras are possibly a lot cheaper to run than your current solution. I can't speak for the Citizen label costs, but when you compare Zebra to other popular printers like Dymo, the difference in cost of labels alone usually makes the Zebras pay for themselves in short order.