Print Label from Crystal 2008 to Zebra printer LP2844

[former_member533532]

I'm currently in the process of moving an application from VB6 to VS2008 and from Crystal Reports 8.5 to Crystal Reports 2008. One of the features is to print a barcode to a zebra printer (LP 2844). In 8.5, I was quickly able to create a 4 line label, print on a 4X2 label, and rotated 90 Degrees. I opened the form in Crystal Reports 2008 and tried to print - instead of printing 90 degrees, it has decided to print in the middle of the label and uses 2 labels. Any help would be appreciated. I'm not even trying to do this from inside my application at the moment. Just developing and testing the labels in Crystal.

HELP

RoseAnna Smith

In tears

[former_member188030 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

If its a query regarding the crystal reports designer, please post in the appropriate forum ( Crystal Design ).

If you are trying it from the code, please specify the SDK used to develop the application.

Thanks,

Bhushan.

Edited by: Bhushan Hyalij on Oct 14, 2010 9:45 PM

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure where you are directing me. I'm having major problems trying to navigate this forum. I'm having a problem with the Crystal Reports 2008 product. I can't do in CR 2008 what I can do in CR 8.5. That just isn't right!. I thought the problem was with the printer since I have been sending test prints (from inside code) to various non-label printers. So tell me exactly how to get to the correct forum or maybe to the technical support since I can't seem to find a way to contact Crystal Reports to report a problem with the Crystal 2008.

Thanks

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

You've made no fewer that 3 post to these forums re. the same identical issue. Please choose one that you want to work on and use that one thread.

Ludek

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Please provide guidance and help. I'm trying to get a label to print from Crystal Reports 2008. It does just find in Crystal Reports 8.5.

I did use one of my old posts to get started - I always have a difficult time in trying to open a thread. Then I made a comment on someone else's thread that seems to be having a similar problem. I responded to both the individuals who responded to me. I'm at a total loss of what you want me to do now.

I've been working on this issue since yesterday. I thought the problem was with the printer but after testing with the CR 8.5 which WORKED!!!! I now believe the issue is with the CR 2008 version. Looking for any way to get around the problem. I working straight from the the Designer while I debug the label printer issue. I already have the application (VS2008 VB) calling the CR Report (2008) using a regular printer and PDF. So I have the format that I need to have printed. Now I just need to have CR2008 talked nicely with the Zebra LP 2844.

Thanks

RA Smith

In Tears and Totally Frustrated

Edited by: RA_Smith on Oct 14, 2010 4:57 PM

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Hi Rosanna,

I have a Zebra printer here for testing and I know we have all these issues resolved. First you must use the Zebra printer driver, it is the most stable and always works. Just download their latest build. You may have to check on or check off the Dissociate Paper.... in the Page setup.

Second here are the link to get the patches:

Requires a complete CR un-install first.

https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100009989492010E/cr2008_sp3_fullbuild.zip

Incremental:

https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100007123572010E/cr2008_sp3.exe

Note if the incremental complains about previous Service Packs are required it will be easier to use the full build.

fix Pack:

https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100010605962010E/cr2008sp3_fp31.exe

Please verify you are on a version higher than 12.3.0.601.

Then you should have no problems

Thank you

Don

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply.

I am now in REAL trouble. I uninstalled Crystal Reports 2008 and now cannot get it re-installed from the disk. it just sticks on the "determining your disk space requirements" form.

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Be patient.... that part can take a while to get through....

If not then Try clearing your temp folders and then re-boot.

Thank you

Don

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for you reply. My issues have progressively gotten worse. I've uninstalled CR2008 and reinstalled from disk but now it starts up and then quits without any warning. I've called our IT support to have my machine checked. If you have any further suggestions/comments, I would really appreciate the inputs.

Rose Anna

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Make Sure DEP is disabled and that you are a local PC Administrator with full rights to modify the registry and register COM components.

Also be sure to have .NET installed first. or CR won't integrate properly. Before installing you may want to do a repair install of .NET, it may be causing problems for CR.

Also, it was never asked or mentioned but is your application using .NET components or are you still trying to use the RDC engine?

You should also post any errors you are getting as well as look in the application event logs to see what the error is.

Thank you

Don

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply,

I don't know about DEP but I do have admin privileges on the machine. I had been okay until I added the Zebra printer then things just fell apart. I am using VS2008.NET (Framework 3.5) and had several CR2008 reports working fine from within the application using the CR viewer (they were printing to network printers). I have been trying to load CR2008 to another computer running Windows 7 but having problems. Weird thing is that we have CR2008 running on another Windows 7 machine without problems. My machine is running under XP.

Thanks so much for responses.

Rose Anna

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

I have finally gotten the CR2008 to version 12.3.1.684 but I'm still having problems printing to the Zebra.

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much for your help. I am now printing the labels, formatted as expected, from CR2008.

Rose Anna

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Rose Anna I would really appreciate it if you'd document how you solved this. This label printing issue has been a very frustrating event for us in TS (not to mention users of CR) since CR 2008 SP1 and knowing details of your solution and why it appeared that the fix was not working for you would be so great to have.

Thank you in advance,

Ludek

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Good Morning Ludek,

During my struggles with the printer and CR, my laptop running XP became unstable. I have moved to a desktop running Win7. Following Don's instructions, we installed the SP3-FullBuild and the FixPack. And as Don said, be sure remove the current CR2008 version from the system first or it won't install!! For the printer, I'm using the Zebra Universal Driver v5.5.7.25. I configured the printer with the printer settings in Windows, then ran my labels using CR2008 (version 12.3.1.684) and my labels printed as expected. As with most software, I did have to do a little experimenting to get the orientation and margins just right but that was to be expected. I didn't have any luck with the ZDesigner driver and I haven't tried running through my application yet.

I really do appreciate the help and patience in working through this issue.

Rose Anna

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hello Rosa Anna

And I do appreciate you having taken the time to explain what you had to do to get this working. It is so nice to know that we are finally getting this label printing thing in order. It's been a tough road for all concerned.

Have a great day and happy coding,

Ludek

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I've just completed testing the labels through my application (VS2008/VB). The application version prints differently than the Designer (?) version. I had to rotate all my fields and when a numerical field was rotated, it printed "##" instead of the number. I solved this by creating a formula that converted the number to a string. The printer has 4X2 labels and some labels need to be printed at a 90 degree rotation while others do not need any rotation. In the designer this was not an issue but from the application it was. My work-around is not the ideal solution but it works for this application.

Thanks

Rose Anna

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for posting your solution. I should have mentioned that we have not tested with any third party Zebra print drivers. I worked with Zebra developers and they confirmed all of their drivers are universal, same driver for all of their printers, so it is a must that you use Zebra's printer drivers for the best results. You may lose all the "fluff" the third party drivers add but at the same time you get consistency using the original manufacturers drivers.

Thanks again

Don

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Good Morning Don,

I'm using the Zebra Universal Driver V5.57.25. The ZDesigner that I mentioned earlier is on the Zebra download page and I did download that also but it didn't help. So as far as I know, I'm not using a 3rd party driver.

As I mentioned, from the CR2008 (full product version), I did finally get the report to print labels to the Zebra as expected. But then when I went into VS2008 and tried to run the report through the PrintToPrinter call, I didn't get the same result. I changed the formatting so that all my text boxes were rotated 90 degrees. If the text box contains numerical data, it is displayed as "##" instead of the number (My solution was to create a formula to convert the numeric value to a string and use that in the text box instead of the field.)

Thanks

Rose Anna

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Hi Rosa Anna,

All of the fixes were not put into the CR Basic Report Engine and PrintToPrinter methods. So I'm surprised you got it to work. If you do more updating you should use the Report Application Server ( RAS ) and the PrintOutputController to make it work in .NET. Search using the top right corner search windows and paste in "PrintOutputController " and it should return sample code on how to use this API.

Also, when you design the report and rotate the text select the font that begins with the "@" sign. These are the versions of the fonts that are used when CR Rotates the text. But if you found a work around then continue using it....

Thanks again

Don

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Don,

My Crystal Reports 2008 is unable to start again. I'm getting an error with CRW32.exe. I'm now using Win7. Does this have to do with the DEP that you mentioned and how do I fix it?

Thanks

Rose Anna

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Hi Rose Anna,

This is a new issue. Please post a new question but search first.... lots of suggestions on how to make CR work and debug what and why your system is blocking CR from running.

Thank you

Don

[former_member533532 · Accepted solution]

Just a coincidence that CR2008 became unstable while I was trying to add the Zebra printer. So it all seems to be the same problem for me. Found a solution to the "Crystal Reports stopped working". Hopefully our IT guy will come back soon and do this searching for answers to issues like these.

Thanks

Rose Anna

[saurabh_pathak]

Hello,

Make sure that you are on SP3 + FP 3.1

you can download them from

https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap%28bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==%29/bc/bsp/spn/bobj_download/main.htm

Thanks,

Saurabh

[former_member533532]

I'm not sure what you are trying to tell me. I also don't have permissions?? to the link you suggested