How to print to an specific printer by name?

[juancarlosgzs]

I'm trying to print to an specific thermal printer but I just have the data that is returned by the getPrintersAsync function from Electron. In the past with other libraries, I used the name itself of the printer in order to print to an specific printer, how can I do that with this library?

In my use case I need to handle all printers that are connected to the computer, either for it to be usb or bluetooth.

@dohooo

[dosubot]

Hello @juancarlosgzs! I'm here to help you with your issue. I'm a bot designed to assist you with bug fixes, answer your questions, and guide you on becoming a contributor. Let's work together to solve the problem you're facing.

To print to a specific printer by name using Electron and handle all printers connected to the computer (USB or Bluetooth), you can use the following approach:

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');
const { Bluetooth, Printer } = require('..'); // Adjust the path as necessary

app.on('ready', async () => {
  const mainWindow = new BrowserWindow();

  try {
    const availablePrinters = await mainWindow.webContents.getPrintersAsync();
    const preferredPrinterName = 'Your_Printer_Name'; // Replace with your printer's name
    const selectedPrinter = availablePrinters.find(printer => printer.name === preferredPrinterName);

    if (selectedPrinter) {
      console.log('Connect to ' + selectedPrinter.name);
      const device = await Bluetooth.getDevice(selectedPrinter.address, selectedPrinter.channel);
      const printer = await Printer.create(device);

      await printer.text('hello');
      await printer.cut();
      await printer.close();

      console.log('print job done');
    } else {
      console.log('Printer not found');
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.log('error', error);
  }
});

This script will:

1. Retrieve the list of available printers using getPrintersAsync.
2. Find the printer by its name.
3. Connect to the printer using its address and channel.
4. Send a print job to the printer.

Make sure to replace 'Your_Printer_Name' with the actual name of your printer ^[1].

To continue talking to Dosu, mention @dosu.

[juancarlosgzs]

Any ideas? Still can't find a way

[dosubot]

To print to a specific thermal printer by name using Electron, ensuring compatibility with both USB and Bluetooth printers, you can use the ESC/POS Printer driver for Node.js. Below are example code snippets that demonstrate how to connect to both Bluetooth and USB printers by name.

Bluetooth Printer Example

const { Bluetooth, Printer } = require('escpos-printer-driver');

(async () => {
  try {
    const availablePrinters = await Bluetooth.findPrinters();
    const preferredPrinterName = 'Your_Printer_Name'; // Replace with your printer's name
    const btPrinter = availablePrinters.filter(p => p && p.name === preferredPrinterName)[0];

    if (!btPrinter) {
      throw new Error(`Printer with name ${preferredPrinterName} not found`);
    }

    console.log('Connect to ' + btPrinter.name);
    const device = await Bluetooth.getDevice(btPrinter.address, btPrinter.channel);
    const printer = await Printer.create(device);

    await printer.text('hello');
    await printer.cut();
    await printer.close();

    console.log('print job done');
  } catch (error) {
    console.log('error', error);
  }
})();

USB Printer Example

const { USB, Printer } = require('escpos-printer-driver');

(async () => {
  try {
    const device = await USB.getDevice();
    const printer = await Printer.create(device);

    await printer.text('hello');
    await printer.cut();
    await printer.close();

    console.log('print job done');
  } catch (error) {
    console.log('error', error);
  }
})();

For both examples, you need to replace 'Your_Printer_Name' with the actual name of your printer. The Bluetooth example filters the available Bluetooth printers to find the one with the specified name and then connects to it. The USB example directly connects to the USB printer. Both examples use the ESC/POS Printer driver for Node.js to send print commands to the printer ^[1][2].

To continue talking to Dosu, mention @dosu.