Printing From Appsheet

[Jonathan_S]

Hey everyone,

First, Dont suggest Google Cloud Print.

How is everyone printing from app-sheet these days?
I’m looking to have an action fire a workflow which will create a PDF. I than want this PDF printed. What is the most effective way to do this where it is compatible with almost all makes and models of printers?

Thanks in advance,

[GreenFlux]

Jonathan_S:

First, Dont suggest Google Cloud Print.

Google: Announces Cloud Print shutting down
AppSheet:
Google: Buys AppSheet
AppSheet:
Google: …
AppSheet: Google Search: 'Cloud Print alternatives'

[Jonathan_S]

haha. Its true…

[LeventK · Accepted solution]

@Jonathan_S
Most of the brands like HP, Canon, Brother etc. have printers with e-Print feature where the printer by-default comes with an factory associated email address. When this email address receives an email, it directly prints it if you have enabled the e-print feature via the printer’s desktop software. I use an HP Officejet 7612 and it works perfectly.

[GreenFlux]

I haven’t tried it yet, but this looks promising:
https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/HowToMigrateFromGoogleCloudPrintToMobilityPrint

So far, this is the only alternative I could find that has a free version, works on Window/Mac, and works with most printers.

---

Another option is setting up a folder that is monitored for new files, and printing them as they are added.

You can install Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox, and use a workflow to save attachments to a folder that will be synced to your Mac/PC.
Then, you just need a program or script that prints new files when they are added to a local folder. This simplifies the requirements and opens up lots of options.

The exact solution would depend on your OS, coding skills, number of users/devices involved, etc. But it’s much easier to find or write a program to auto-print files from a local folder, than to write a cloud-printing solution.

So just consider your hardware and user case, then look for a way to auto-print local files and combine that with a cloud sync.

[Damazo]

Hello, I'm interested in to implement your idea, in my case I'm using android and posibly in a future windows. I have read that you use Mac so finder is a good idea. Do you know a similar app for android/windows?

[Aleksi]

One option… http://www.automatic-print-email.com/

[elis_elis]

I use epson printer with email (Epsonconnect), using the printer since 2018

But currently (may be since end of June 2020) the workflow generated pdf is almost 15MB, previously under 1 MB, eventhough its triggered from the same data. When the pdf hit 20MB, the files is not delivered to my email.

[Jonathan_S]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, I will need to implement printing this week sometime, Will let you all know how I go about it,

Thanks,

[Jonathan_S]

So I ended up just Eprinting.

The problems I found with Eprinting are the lag in time from clicking on the action to spitting out the printer. This was over a minute long.
Also had a challenge where there was no control to only print off the attachments. Eprint prints off all attachments up to 10 as well as the email body which appsheet has a 1 liner by default if you set it to blank no matter what.

solutions.
Do Not create attachments. Put all printable data in the email body template. Allot of if conditions depending what the user is all printing at once. Also, need to offset the template to 0 margins on the left as the email body itself already has some margin.

Doing everything in the email body also sped up the from click to print speed considerably. There is now no more than a 25-30 second delay which is OK. They are only printing items maybe 10 times on a regular day.

Also some pointers, make sure you add noreply@appsheet as an acceptable email for the printer you are communicating with. In the printer settings somewhere.

Also make sure you set the Reply too: and the From Display as blank. When these where filled in, it somehow spoofed the printer and it wouldn’t print.

Thank you,

[Jonathan_S]

Also I have yet to see if there is a limit on the body size, 20mb or not.

[Tom191]

Hi all!
I use GCP + Zapier to print product labels from my Dymo 450. I need multiple copies of the same label. This can be done with Zap for examble with the file name.
Has anyone found a way to set amount of copies with these alternative printing services?

[Jonathan_S]

Honestly, I’ve looked around with this as well, my only solution for this is to send multiple requests, but I don’t think this would work to well with labels, especially if you need hundreds of copies etc,

[sunil_prajapati]

this is one more alternative

https://www.foldermill.com/

not tested yet
but va dropbox may be this is possible.

[FOKOzuynen]

I use Gofullpage extension that print all the web page for top to bottom . There are not to many extensions that they can print all the page like this one. Also the posibility to save in pdf

[Hocappsheet]

https://youtu.be/Ishn9XmCljk