what are the interface, dll, classes I have to call from an external application to print from zebra 22xi4?

Hi Tobias,

Because you are not using the designer to print via a database directly you can use the actually free version of  ZebraDesigner Basic Barcode Label Software | Zebra .  Just save your design and open it in this version and you should be able to export the template.

There are two things you can do with it then:

1. If you know the printers are networked, you can open a TCP socket and send the template and csv data - formatted as in red below - directly to port 9100 on the printer.

2. Create a new Generic Text printer and point it at the same port as your zebra printer.  Then you can use the code below to print in vb. 

There may be a simpler way to handle this, but this works.  It assumes the generic driver is default, but you can add a PrintDialog to let your user select the printer instead.  The form just has two buttons on it (one for sending the format, the other for printing the CSV)  Always send the format to the printer first, but it is saved so you only really need to do it once.

Form1.vb

Imports System.IO

Imports System.Drawing.Printing

' Based on the sample code found in https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.printing.printdocument(v=vs.110).aspx?cs-save-lang=1&cs-lang=vb#code-snippet-2

Public Class Form1

    Private printFont As Font

    Private streamToPrint As TextReader

    Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click

        Try

            streamToPrint = New StreamReader("C:\My Documents\Format.zpl")

            ' Contents of format.zpl file:

            ' ^XA^DFE:Format.ZPL^MNN^LL400^FS

            ' ^FO20,20^A0N,50,50^FN11^FS

            ' ^FO20,70^A0N,50,50^FN12^FS

            ' ^FO20,120^A0N,50,50^FN13^FS

            ' ^XZ

            Try

                printFont = New Font("Arial", 1)

                Dim pd As New PrintDocument()

                AddHandler pd.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.pd_PrintPage

                pd.Print()

            Finally

                streamToPrint.Close()

            End Try

        Catch ex As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Try

            Dim startPrint As String = "^XA^XFE:FORMAT.ZPL"

            Dim endPrint As String = "^XZ"

            Dim setField As String = "^FN"

            Dim setData As String = "^FD"

            Dim endData As String = "^FS"

            Dim myData As String = startPrint

            Dim CSVData As String = "Hello, World, 12345"

            ' Take the csv and convert it to ZPL for printing  - This may need to be modified based on the template

            Dim words As String() = CSVData.Split(New Char() {","c})

            Dim word As String

            Dim index As Integer = 11  ' most templates in the designer start at field number 11

            For Each word In words

                myData = myData & setField & index.ToString & setData & word & endData

                index += 1

            Next

            myData = myData & endPrint

            'print the label

            streamToPrint = New StringReader(myData)

            Try

                printFont = New Font("Arial", 1)

                Dim pd As New PrintDocument()

                AddHandler pd.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.pd_PrintPage

                pd.Print()

            Finally

                streamToPrint.Close()

            End Try

        Catch ex As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)

        End Try

    End Sub

    ' The PrintPage event is raised for each page to be printed.

    Private Sub pd_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal ev As PrintPageEventArgs)

        Dim linesPerPage As Single = 0

        Dim yPos As Single = 0

        Dim count As Integer = 0

        Dim leftMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Left

        Dim topMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Top

        Dim line As String = Nothing

        ' Calculate the number of lines per page.

        linesPerPage = ev.MarginBounds.Height / printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

        ' Print each line of the file.

        While count < linesPerPage

            line = streamToPrint.ReadLine()

            If line Is Nothing Then

                Exit While

            End If

            yPos = topMargin + count * printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

            ev.Graphics.DrawString(line, printFont, Brushes.Black, leftMargin, yPos, New StringFormat())

            count += 1

        End While

        ' If more lines exist, print another page.

        If (line IsNot Nothing) Then

            ev.HasMorePages = True

        Else

            ev.HasMorePages = False

        End If

    End Sub

End Class

Hi Tobias,

Thanks for the extra info.  I don't believe you will be able to use vbscript.

To explain what you can do, it's necessary to explain a few things about how ZebraDesigner Pro works.  The designer allows your customer to create a label template with some fields that get filled in via the database.    As an example,  if they were printing shipping labels, they design it to place the address always in one area and the tracking number in another.  They would also place a barcode that would take the same tracking number for data.  Columns in the database table would likely be labeled 'address' and 'tracking_number'. 

So, your customer needs to export the template to a file and send it to you in order for you or your app to print the same labels your customer is.  Otherwise the printer has no idea where to put each cell of data.  You could design something yourself with the free version of ZebraDesigner or VB, but it wouldn't match your customer template.

Once you have the template, you have a few options.  What OS are you printing from and are you printing over USB, network, Bluetooth, or don't know?