Question

Photo of Brendan Yost

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Check-in Labels wonky when printing from iPad

3

We are having trouble with our check-in labels.  We have several PCs set up running the Windows Client with Zebra G420k printers attached with a USB cable.  The labels look great and everything works perfectly on these machines.  The problem is with our iPads (and Zebra G420k printers connected via ethernet, or via an Airport Express).  These labels print black boxes on every tag whether there or not there are allergies or legal notes.  It also prints an ampersand after every security code on the parent pickup receipt.

If we use the ICON labels, it prints the same two icons on EVERY tag (whether or not they have allergies or legal notes).

Please see the attached picture. The labels on the left were printed from the Windows check-in client.  The labels on the right were printed from the iPad app. 

Has anyone else encountered this?  It seems that the problem has to be in the iPad app itself since the printers can be connected via ethernet or usb (to an AirPort Express) and the same problems occur.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  We would like to make the switch to Icon labels, but we can't until we get this cleared up.

IMG_6859.JPG

  • Michael Garrison

    Michael Garrison

    Brendan, I actually just asked about this, this weekend, when we made the switch from Windows (browser) to iPads. I wasn't sure if it was the iPads or our update to Rock v6 that caused the issue. Can you share what version of Rock you're running, for my information?


    Edit: it's looking like this may be a more applicable question: are you using server printing or local printing?

    • Photo of Michael Garrison

      2

      David Turner from Spark has provided what is hopefully the answer to the problem! 

      Go to the "Merge Fields" page under "Checkin". We need to take out any line breaks in the merge fields- my guess is, like me, you need to specifically look for the "Legal Icon", "Legal Note", "Allergy Icon" and "Allergy Note" fields. My installation, for instance, had a line break between the {% Assign %} and the {% if %} lines. Delete the line break so it's all on one line and the black boxes should go away.

      In testing for us, Jim found that in this configuration, they had the WRONG icons printing out when using icon labels. If you experience that, check the actual contents of your label- there may be a line break on the corresponding text line. Any lines that begin with ^FT should end with ^FS - if it doesn't, it's probably on a shorter line below: delete (just) the line break so that the ^FT line ends with ^FS.

      This second issue is much easier to spot and resolve in Rock v6, by the way.

      Thanks David, for your hard investigations!! 

    • Photo of Brendan Yost

      0

      We are currently running version 6 (the most recent version. We are up to date). However the problem has existed from the beginning - which is why we switched back to text labels from icons. We've had bigger issues and are just getting around to tackling this one. While the black boxes on the text name tags are a little obnoxious, they are far better than everyone getting alergy and alert icons. 

      We use local printing. Our server is located offsite and we have 10 campuses. 

      For the record, every other configuration works. It is just the iPad printing that is giving us fits. 

      • Jim Michael

        Jim Michael

        I can also confirm that we see this behavior in testing, but ONLY with the specific combination of iPad app AND client printing on the kiosk. The iPad app functions as expected when doing server printing, but that is of course difficult if not impossible when you're cloud hosting. I'll open a bug for this.

        • Michael Garrison

          Michael Garrison

          I did some further testing last night, regarding this issue and also the label order change (usually with family checkin it groups the labels by label type, but whenever it prints the black boxes it also groups the labels by child). In an effort to have a permanent reference for us as we investigate, I want to post my results here:


          iPad browser/server printing:
          √ No black boxes
          √ Labels grouped by label type


          iPad app/client printing:
          ɸ Empty black boxes in inverse text fields
          ɸ Labels grouped by child


          Windows app/client printing:
          √ No black boxes
          √ Labels grouped by label type


          Windows app/server printing:
          √ No black boxes
          √ Labels grouped by label type


          Windows browser/server printing
          √ No black boxes
          √ Labels grouped by label type


          I was unfortunately unable to restart the app on the "guided mode" iPad last night to test the iPad app/server printing combo, but I believe that Jim said that was their usual way of checking in, and they hadn't observed the black box/reordered labels issue before.

          • Jim Michael

            Jim Michael

            Correct. Our exclusive mode here has been iPad app/server printing and our labels print perfectly with that combo, but when I tested iPad app/client printing (which we had never used before) the issues above appeared.

          • Photo of Brendan Yost

            0

            First up, THANK YOU!  This took care of the icon issues and the black boxes.  Thank you so much.

            We are still having trouble with the & appearing at the end of the parent code on the Child Pickup Receipt.  I tried \0E and \& and both print on the tag.

            Are there any other ways we can force a line break that might work with the iPad configuration?

            • Michael Garrison

              Michael Garrison

              I haven't personally seen any multi-line labels that work properly...even in the stock labels on the pickup receipt the lines that appear to be multiline are actually two single lines. Are you saying that you're designing your labels and merge fields to insert a line break command?