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Printout and label printing

Overview

There is actually no direct support for printout in the OGS station runtime (monitor.exe). However, as printing is a pretty common use case (primarily Label printouts or end-of-line result report sheets), there is support for printing using a report generator.

This is usually used in one of the following ways:

  • As a custom LUA tool which prints a label at some step in a workflow.
  • As a pdf file creator (or sheet printout) at the end of the workflow to document al process steps done (station-build report or end-of-line report (with Databanking)).

Both features use either the heLabelPrinter.exe or the locate.exe helper applications shipped with OGS. heLabelPrinter.exe is mainly used, if no SQL queries from the OGS station.fds database are needed, else locate.exe is used. Both applications can run in two modes:

  • Commandline mode: If called from a LUA file, commands and variables for the reports are passed over the command line. The application does not show a GUI window, but creates a file or a printout and exits after everything was completed.
  • Interactive/GUI mode: For heLabelPrinter.exe, this allows to interactively edit the printing template. locate.exe also supports this, but can also be used to show data stored in the station.fds database - and create printing template with complex SQL queries.

Both applications use the FastReport VCL report generator to create and print/save the documents. See the FastReport Online help on how to create and test reports and how to create reusable report templates.

Usage

heLabelPrinter.exe

Design a report

To design a label, run the executable heLabelPrinter.exe without parameters. Click the button "Edit label template" to open the FastReport template designer.

The following screenshot shows a typical template with some variables (to be provided by a LUA script from OGS over the command line) and a generated 2D-barcode:

FastReport designer view with variables

To add the report variables (as text) to the design surface, simply drag&drop from the "Variables" tab (on the right hand side). To create new variables, use the main menu Report --> Variables.... This will show the variable editor, where you can then add new variables.

To test the newly created report, got to File --> Preview....

Execute a report (with variables)

To execute a report from the command line, the following syntax is used:

heLabelPrinter.exe [key1=value1]...[keyN=valueN]

The following key values are defined:

  • form=: Defines the report template to use
  • show=: If set to YES then show the console progress window.
  • output=: Defines the printer name for printing the report or the output file name for saving the report (in pdf format)

All other key values are used as variable values for the report variables. If you specify e.g. MN=123, then the report variable MN will be set to 123 - this will then replace the template field accordingly.

Typical command lines are:

@rem Generate a pdf report and show it. Use INT_VAR1=12345 and STR_VAR2=YES
heLabelPrinter.exe [form=label.fr3][show=YES][INT_VAR1=12345][STR_VAR2=YES][output=C:\\tmp\\mumu.pdf]

@rem Print the same report on printer KYOCERA FS1900. Use INT_VAR1=12345 and STR_VAR2=YES
heLabelPrinter.exe [form=label.fr3][show=YES][INT_VAR1=12345][STR_VAR2=YES][output=KYOCERA FS1900]

locate.exe

Compared with heLabelPrinter, locvate requires a station.fds database with workflow result data. Whereas heLabelPrinter can be easily used for simple print jobs (like labels), locate.exe is used for build-, tool- and partdata-reports.

Design a report

To design a label, run the executable locate.exe without parameters. Choose a database to work with andcheck the "design" checkbox in the top row. To open the FastReport template designer, click either the "print" button or the "..." (ellipsis) button next to the "design" checkbox.

Compared to the heLabelPrinter gui, you will see the data tab populated with the OGS station database tables. You can use these to build queries and create reports. For more details, please request the database schema documentation.

Execute a report

To execute a report from the command line, the following syntax is used:

locate.exe [key1=value1]...[keyN=valueN]

The following key values are defined:

  • db=: full path to a database file (station.fds)
  • sn=: current serial number (required)
  • form=: Defines the report template to use
  • show=: If set to YES then show the console progress window.
  • output=: Defines the printer name for printing the report or the output file name for saving the report (in pdf format)

All other key values are used as variable values for the report variables. If you specify e.g. MN=123, then the report variable MN will be set to 123 - this will then replace the template field accordingly.

NOTES: - Variables can also be used in SQL queries! - the paramete sn is mandatory, as locate.exe is typically used for reading the current parts data.

Typical command lines are:

@rem Generate a pdf report and show it. Use INT_VAR1=12345 and STR_VAR2=YES
locate.exe [db=station.fds][sn=123456][form=label.fr3][show=YES][INT_VAR1=12345][STR_VAR2=YES][output=C:\\tmp\\mumu.pdf]

@rem Print the same report on printer KYOCERA FS1900. Use INT_VAR1=12345 and STR_VAR2=YES
locate.exe [db=station.fds][sn=123456][form=label.fr3][show=YES][INT_VAR1=12345][STR_VAR2=YES][output=KYOCERA FS1900]

LUA integration

Automatically execute a report at the end of a workflow

To automatically generate a report and save or print it at the end of a workflow, add the print.lua module to your projects config.lua.

Info

As the functionality for automatic printing is shared with the XML file output (see End-of-process (XML) file), make sure to add the print module to the end of the requires = {}-list in config.lua!

Then add a [PRINTER] section to the projects station.ini as follows:

[PRINTER]
; Set ENABLED=1 to automatically generate a report at the end of a workflow
ENABLED=1
; Define the *.frx template file to use to generate the report
FORM=
; Set PDF=<pdf output folder> for pdf file generation
;PDF=<pdf output folder>
; Set PRINTER=<name of printer> for automatic printout
PRINTER=<name of printer>

Info

Note that you can define when a file/printout is generatesd by setting the parameters Result_OK, Result_Nok and Result_incomplete in the [GLOBAL] section of station.ini. As automatic printout uses the same functionality as XML-file creation, see the documentation at End-of-process (XML) file - Define when a file is generated for more details.

Typical code to run a report

Typical LUA code to run a report (save pdf or print) is as follows:

-- prepare the command line
local fmt = 'heLabelPrinter.exe [form=%s][show=NO][MN=%s][SN=%s][output=%s]'
local cmd = string.format('label.fr3', 'MNum', 'SNum', 'output.pdf')

-- execute the command (with a hidden window)
local err = CreateProcess(cmd, 134217728) -- CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag 0x8000000
if err then
    SetLuaAlarm('PRINTER', 'Print failed! Error='..param_as_str(err))
end

Hints

When working with printers, a lot of errors can happen (paper jam, out of paper, printer shutdown or disconnected). As a lot of them cannot be detected through the Windows API, it is good practice to allow reptinting a label, when the operator notices, that the printout has failed.

A simple way to implement this is to define a LUA tool, which does the actual printout, then use it as a pre-task aktion. Assign an acknowledge action as the final task. This will result in the following behaviour:

  • If the tast is executed, it will first execute the print (through the pre-task LUA tool print action).
  • It will then immediately show the acknowledge button - if the label printout was ok, this can be acknowledged "ok" by the operator. If there is some problem with the printout, then the operator shall use the "nok" acknowledge.
  • If the "nok" acknowledge is selected, the default retry behavior kicks in - it deletes the current state of the task and restarts it - effectively executing the pre-task action again (and therefore printing another label).