Printing from a mobile with Firefox OS - printing

Is it possible - and if so, how? - to print from a Firefox OS phone?
Looking for a real mobile solution - e.g., printing out a receipt using mobile phone and a small receipt printer (connected probably through usb or wifi tethering) at a marketplace, on a train, etc. (The mobile will communicate through internet with a server, so it will have an internet connection.)

If you can get the printer on the same network as the Firefox OS device then you could try running this pure JavaScript implementation of the Internet Printing Protocol to send a file to the printer from your app. It would definitely need some changes to use standard web APIs rather than Node JS APIs. It may be possible to implement it with XMLHttpRequest or perhaps something lower level like TCPSocket.

Related

Web Bluetooth send text from phone to browser

I've been doing a lot of reading and research on Web Bluetooth.
I just want to send some text from a BLE Server (in this case a web app running on iOS WebBLE app)...and have the text appear on another web app running on Chrome on my Mac.
I just want a textarea and a send button for the Server and a dynamically updatable span on the client.
Seems like all tutorials assume Server is some kind of peripheral (monitor, light bulb, etc)..and that you just have to write Client code to interact with it.
Is it possible to do this? Seems like it should be simple. Thanks
I guess I'm asking how to turn desktop Chrome into peripheral device using Web BT
How can I get my Mac browser to advertise using Web BT?
The Web Bluetooth API does not include APIs for acting in the peripheral role. A page using the API can only take on the role of the central.

About Jasper IoT Platform

I am just bit curious. I am new in IoT and currently started working on it using ESP8266 device. I know that it needs some firmware to write and install, like smart.js.
But I have read, Jasper (http://www.jasper.com/) can connect any device and manager, monitor etc. So I am bit curious how it works internally. I am not sure whether it installs firmware created by Jasper or in other way. I was reading this article: http://www2.cumulocity.com/guides/users-guide/jasper/#link-sims
Anyone knows about this? I mean how Jasper works to connect to any devices?
Cisco bought Jasper, which is useful for IoT business. However it might be better way for you to check Interactor(www.interactor.com) which is great for IoT development. Interactor works to conntect to any device with any protocol.
Cisco Jasper should not be confused with device management libraries (whether they be server based, or device based or both).
Jasper is a telecom based service that allows you to see and manage the connection state of sim inserted in the device. Regardless of the state of a device, the modem and sim (provided they are powered) will connect to the telco and provide basic information about the connection.
Think of it as a network tool (server originated) for the gateway on the device, not the device itself. It allows you to force disconnect devices from the network, ban sims from the account so a stolen or runaway sim can eat through data, basic connectivity tests (is the modem powered, does the sim have permission to transmit data over the network, etc).
The main value of jasper is that it allows you to manage you data costs by applying the appropriate rate plan to each device, and disconnect devices that are using too much (for whatever reason).
Jasper does not cost anything to use, however telcos will apply a rev commit (min monthly spend) usually $500/month to gain access. the sims are the same as PCS (phone) sims, but they are on their own network internally, and are specific to that telcos jasper. i.e. you can't take 500 devices using PCS sims, and import those sims into jasper. you'd need to do a physical swap of the sims.

Print web page using printerprovider APIs in chrome extension

I am developing chrome extension using printerProvider APIs to print a webpage loaded in the browser.
I have added a new printer using onGetPrintersRequested() & onGetCapabilityRequested() APIs in my extension. I have not installed printer drivers of this printer on my local system.
My understanding from reading API documentation and other references is, using onPrintRequested() and providing printJob info, job (contents of web page) can be sent to the printer I added in my extension.
My question is, how does job reach the printer? Should I write some code to actually send the job to printer? OR is it automatically handled by the chrome APIs OR soes it use any default driver?
Basically my question is, how is printing handled by chrome extension if it is not using any printer drivers or cloud ready printers?
Thanks in advance.
You need to handle the printing yourself. The onPrintRequested event gives you data about the print request. You should then call the result callback with the status. To communicate with the printer, there are a number of app APIs. If you need to communicate with a printer from an extension, you will need to use a companion app and messaging.

How to make networked software aware of itself?

I have an Android and iOS app that I would like to be accessible through PC software. Currently, the mobile application will display an IP address and the PC user must manually type this number in to create a connection.
I know there is some sort of broadcasting standards, but I'm having trouble figuring out what method make sense in my case.
A solution that works for both Android (native activity, version >= 2.3.3) and iOS would be ideal.
Bonjour by Apple might be what you're looking for. It allows your application to broadcast your service over the local network so that the PC will automatically discover it. You can find more information here.

Provide geolocation data to iOS from Windows

I'd like to use a computer using Windows 7 to provide data to an iOS device. I guess there is no way to do that by Wifi so I'd like to simulate a bluetooth GPS device on my Windows 7 computer so that the iOS device would connect to it.
My question is, what kind of data should I sent ? Can I directly send NMEA frames or should I implement another Apple protocol ? Where can I find specification on those protocol in iOS ?
The idea is to make geolocation data to be available to the whole system. Maybe by "simulating" a bluetooth external GPS receiver using a software that I would develop on Windows. So what kind of data should my Windows software send by bluetooth to iOS ? And how can it be detected by iOS as an external GPS receiver ?
Thanks.
I recommend to use bonjour.
It's a auto-connecting protocol which finds other "player" in the same subnet (lets say same "WiFi".
Theres a windows sdk written in C:
https://developer.apple.com/opensource/
How you do submit the data is up to you. You might create a JSON payload out of your GPS Data. You can also create a binary format and compress it with libz (zip) before sending it to your iOS Device through bonjour.
You can also set up a web server and a web service on your PC and simple connect to it through local network (WiFi) from your device. I think this requires the least work from both server and client side. Which format do you use (JSON, fractions of NMEA, something else) is really up to you since you will have to code both server and client side. For JSON and XML however there are a lot of free frameworks and even some SDK support on both client (iOS) and server (php, asp, servlets, etc) side.

Resources