kickbk / star

Test app featuring a working solution for a star printer integration. Based on Expo

react-native-star-io10 on Expo

The react-native-star-io10 library can easily be installed with an Expo custom dev client using the attached Expo config plugin. The withStarPrinter config plugin adds the necessary bluetooth permissions, and updates the minSdkVersion for android, from 21 which is currently supported by Expo SDK 43/44 to 23 which is required by react-native-star-io10. Warning: changing the minSdkVersion may result in unexpected errors on Android.

How this project was created:

• Started a new project with expo init star and selected the typescript tabs template. You can choose any template.
• Added expo-dev-client with expo install expo-dev-client
• Installed react-native-star-io10. see instructions
• Installed Expo config plugins with expo install @expo/config-plugins
• Used patch-package to generate a patch as described in PR #38 (why is this not merged yet?)
• Generated a config plugin in plugins/withStarPrinter.js. Credit Kim.
• Added the configuration for the config plugin to app.json:

"expo": {
  ...
  "plugins": [
    [
      "./plugins/withStarPrinter.js",
      {
        "minSdkVersion": 23,
        "bluetoothAlwaysPermission": "My permission description",
        "localNetworkUsagePermission": "My other permission description"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

• Built the project with EAS: eas build --profile development
• Installed on phone via the QR code Expo provided
• Connected a star TSP650II printer via ethernet cable to my router
• Opened the app connected to the router's wifi network
• The app runs the useStarPrinter hook in TabOne screen, which searches for printers. I slightly changed the default discover code since it only shows how the app discovers a single printer, but in reality, the code will discover more than one printer, and in my use case, the user may want to select one of many printers. Note I use each printer interface in an array loop to avoid breaking the discovery if one of the interfaces is not supported by the device you install the app on.
• Added two buttons - One to get the printer status and another to print. Reference.

• Tested using Hermes as well (test by adding "jsEngine": "hermes" to app.json), and it worked.
• Don't forget to check the console.log while testing

What doesn't work

Printing with an image returns Invalid source. Tried with icon.png which is placed in the same directory TabOne. Maybe one of the maintainers can comment on this?

Thanks to the maintainers for providing this library.