Print from Your Handheld
WMS Express offers the ability to print to a local printer from your handheld.
Because Business Central Cloud is a cloud service, it cannot reach local printers connected to users’ machines. However, it can connect to cloud-enabled printers. WMS Express uses a third-party service called PrintNode to connect local printers to the cloud.
The following describes how to set up PrintNode and configure Business Central to allow you to print from your handheld to a local printer.
Set Up PrintNode
- Go to www.printnode.com and create an account.
- Select a free or paid plan depending on your printing needs.
- Install the PrintNode Client on the computer(s)/server(s) that have access to the printers you want to use.
- The PrintNode Client will list the available printers and you can choose which ones to make available.
- On the PrintNode website, create an API Key and make note of it as you will need to enter it in Business Central.
Configure Business Central
- Go to the Insight Works PrintNode Setup page and enter the API Key you created.
- Go to the Insight Works PrintNode Printers page and then select Actions > Functions > Get Printers.
- Make note of the Printer Name for the printer you want to use.
- Go to the WMS Express Device Configurations page and open the configuration for the handheld you want to print from.
- Fill in the Label Printer Name and Regular Printer Name with the names of the printers you want to use.
- You will now be able to print from your handheld.
Note
You can specify one label printer and one regular printer per device configuration. If you need to print to multiple printers, you will need to create additional device configurations. Simply create a new device configuration with the same settings as an existing one, then change the Label Printer Name and Regular Printer Name. You can then swap between these configurations on your handheld to print to the desired printer. A common approach is to create a Device Configuration Label for each configuration to allow for easy swapping between configurations by scanning the label.
Test Print
- In Business Central, go to the Insight Works Report Selection page.
- Change the Usage to “Item Label”.
- For the Report ID, enter “23044511”.
- For the Printer Type, choose “Label Printer”.
- From the Warehouse Insight home screen on your handheld, open the Item Inquiry application.
- Scan an item. If you do not have a barcode you can manually select the item with a double-tap on the item or by tapping the item and selecting Menu > Choose—or, if your handheld has a physical keyboard—tapping the item and pressing Enter.
- Select Menu > Print.
- The item label will print to the label printer specified on the WMS Express Device Configuration page in Business Central.