PrinterCE
SDK
General
Info
Download
Purchase & Pricing
Developer Info
eVC MFC
eVC C/C++
eVB
Special Features
AsciiCE
PrintDC
BarcodeCE
Documentation
PrinterCE SDK
AsciiCE
PrintDC
BarcodeCE
Special Topics
Supported
Printers
Bluetooth Printing
Network Printing
.Net CF C# or VB.Net:
PrinterCE.NetCF
SDK
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Software Developers
PrinterCE SDK
PrinterCE.NetCF
SDK
PocketHTMLprint SDK
Printing Utilities
PrintPocketCE
PIEprint
PocketPixPrint
PocketShot
PocketClipPrint
Arcade Games
SockOut
MazeCraze
Special
AsciiCE2 Topic:
Reading Data from Special-Purpose
Printers
[AsciiCE2 Documentation] [AsciiCE2 Developer Info]
in addition to the standard writing (printing) of data to printers, AsciiCE2 supports reading data from specialized printers, . This gives developers opportunities to support special-purpose printers which might include data readers such as magnetic-card and smart card readers. AsciiCE2's data reading capabilities are generic in nature, so it is the responsibility of the application to use AsciiCE2's write functions to send appropriate commands to the printer that will trigger the printer to send data back. Note: AsciiCE and PrinterCE use an infrared protocol called IRLPT to communicate with IR printers, so AsciiCE can only read data from devices that can send using the IRLPT protocol.
The following provides a brief outline of the steps involved in using AsciiCE2 to read data from a printer. Refer to AsciiCE2 documentation here for full details on the commands.
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Use SelectPortEx to enable data reading from the printer. SelectPortEx (an extension to SelectPort) establishes a communication link to the printer (IR or Serial). If the ReadBufferSize parameter is non-zero, it causes AsciiCE2 to create a read-thread with a read-buffer that is "ReadBufferSize" bytes long. The read-thread will watch for any data received from the printer and save it in the ReadBuffer until your application is ready to use it.
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Use any of AsciiCE2's "write" methods ("Write", "WriteVar" or "Text") to instruct the printer to perform whatever tasks (such as read a magnetic card swipe) are necessary to gather data and begin sending via the established IR or serial port.
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Use any of AsciiCE2's "read" methods ("Read", "ReadChar", "ReadString", "ReadVar", or "ReadStringVar") to read data sent from the printer. "Read" (for C++ or MFC) and "ReadVar" (for eVB) provide special functionality to support timeouts (in case data isn't received in some specified amount of time) and several simple data handling operations.
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Process the data (or handle timeout or other errors) then close the AsciiCE2 connection