iOS I must support print to a mobile printer. Where start

[mamcx]

I'm building a app as a mobile POS for the iPhone.

I have the requeriment to support printing to a mobile printer (like http://pos.epson.com/products/prodsPMOP.htm). I know that the status of native iPhone printing is still gray right now, but considering that:

- I'm free to decide which kind of mobile printing I will support. Only requeriment from customer is that must be suitable for sales on the road
- I have time. I expect launch the App in 2-3 months, but can delay native printing to 6 months.
- I know about wireless printing,like HP have in the AppStore. That is ok, I will support that, but is just not enough for that customers.

So, where to start? Where to look for code, or advice?

 

[CommanderData]

I'm building a app as a mobile POS for the iPhone.

I have the requeriment to support printing to a mobile printer (like http://pos.epson.com/products/prodsPMOP.htm). I know that the status of native iPhone printing is still gray right now, but considering that:

- I'm free to decide which kind of mobile printing I will support. Only requeriment from customer is that must be suitable for sales on the road
- I have time. I expect launch the App in 2-3 months, but can delay native printing to 6 months.
- I know about wireless printing,like HP have in the AppStore. That is ok, I will support that, but is just not enough for that customers.

So, where to start? Where to look for code, or advice?

Bluetooth is out indefinitely, tethering/USB is out indefinitely. WiFi is your only hope, and I doubt Epson will make it easy for you.

I'd say your *only* hope at all is to buy one of those 802.11b TM-T88 printers and reverse-engineer the protocol with a packet sniffer if you can't get it by signing up for their tech resources here http://pos.epson.com/developers/index.htm

 

[mamcx]

I'd say your *only* hope at all is to buy one of those 802.11b TM-T88 printers and reverse-engineer the protocol with a packet sniffer if you can't get it by signing up for their tech resources here http://pos.epson.com/developers/index.htm

Do you mean that that printer act as a kind of wireless router, not depending of a normal router for comunications?

 

[chbeer]

I would have a look at linux and CUPS as the protocol. OSX uses CUPS as a printing framework, too.

Hiere is a link about sharing a USB printer in OSX:
Sharing A Mac USB Printer Over The LAN

Since CUPS is open source you should find out about the protocol easily. What you could also do with linux is providing a simple pdf2cups service that you can access from the iphone. For printing you simply create a PDF and send it to your service using HTTP or something. Then you can build the service on the server using PHP, Java or what you like.

Link to CUPS:
CUPS

Since CUPS is developed by Apple you should also find a way to build a client for the iPhone.

ADD: I read in the CUPS docs:

CUPS is based on the Internet Printing Protocol ("IPP"), which allows clients (applications) to communicate with a server (the scheduler) to get a list of printers, send print jobs, and so forth.

(http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/api-cups.html#CLIENTS_AND_SERVERS)

So maybe IPP is a choice for you? But easier would be to use CUPS for that...

Also: OSX provides a nice Bonjour service for the printer.

 

[CommanderData]

Do you mean that that printer act as a kind of wireless router, not depending of a normal router for comunications?

I wouldnt' know. But I'd assume that it is capable of WiFi ad-hoc connections. Epson's site is woefully inadequate unless you register...