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Serial Port Browser Plug-In?

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Oct 17.2005

Does anyone know of a browser plug-in that will let JavaScript directly address a serial port from my browser?

I want to write a browser based point of sale system, and need to send a receipt to a receipt printer on completion of sale. This raises some major hurdles.

First, there are very few such printers with Windows drivers. Most are serial printers that require a printer string to be sent directly to the serial port.
Second, by directly addressing the port, I would be bypassing the windows print manager, saving time while the print dialog loads, and a mouse click to actually send the document.

Finally, windows print requests are page based, and are not designed for printing on continuous rolls. If I could simply address the serial port, and send character strings and cr/lf commands, it wouldn’t matter how long the receipt was. It would just keep printing until it received the end of print command.

Any suggestions?

CTB

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2 Comments(s) ↴

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@Stephen_PhilbinOct 17.2005 — Don't think you can. For security reasons Javascript has a very limited sphere of influence in a persons PC (usually referred to as a sanbox or the like).
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@chestertbauthorOct 17.2005 — Thanks Stephen.

I guess I was just hoping that someone, somewhere had written a browswer plug-in or activeX control that would do the job, but after hours of trawling search engines, I think I'll give up and find a windows compatible receipt printer that will do the job.

Cheers (he says, feeling rather depressed and defeated)

CTB
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