Ask HN: Printing via an HTTP request to a thermal receipt printer

Re:Ask HN: Printing via an HTTP request to a thermal receipt... by buf on Thursday May 22, 2014 @08:53AM (#7783545)

The setup I'm trying to achieve is minimal. On site, there would only be a printer which is connected to the internet via ethernet port (or wireless). From off site, I want to send an http request to the printer (As an aside, I'm trying to make the request secure somehow).

The http request would look something like this ideally:

curl -X POST --data-urlencode 'html=<html><head><meta charset="utf-8"></head><body><p style="font-family: Comic Sans Ms; font-size: 36px;">YOUR MESSAGE HERE</p><p>YOUR EMAIL</p></body></html>' http://remote.bergcloud.com/playground/direct_print/Q9UCCLRT...

So I wouldn't have the luxury of having an on site server unfortunately.

PS - I couldn't find your email in your profile. It was empty when I clicked through.

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Re:Ask HN: Printing via an HTTP request to a thermal receipt... by djb_hackernews on Thursday May 22, 2014 @09:53AM (#7783846)

If I get what I think you are trying to achieve, I don't think it is possible with just a printer.

1) You'll need some hardware to act as a webserver that can turn the HTTP requests into something the printer understands. Printers don't really have webservers built in to them with HTTP APIs.

2) Firewalls will be a problem even if you have a dedicated webserver. Most likely you'll add some hardware that connects to a central service as a client, and your central service will relay messages down to your device on site.

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Re:Ask HN: Printing via an HTTP request to a thermal receipt... by m0nty on Thursday May 22, 2014 @09:38AM (#7783752)

Email sent, I hope.

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