This is a POC of Zebra ZPL printing via the Web USB API.
The cool thing is that you can print ZPL from your browser without user interaction with the browser's default print dialog.
The Web USB API requires HTTPS, so you'll need to serve the index.html file over HTTPS.
So first you need a cert and key for you to spawn a server.
I recommend the mkcert tool to generate these, as it will automatically install the local CA in your system.
With the certificate and key in hands, you just need to start an HTTPS server.
One quick way to do that if you have Python installed is by running the handy server.py script.
Considering you have your certificate and key as cert.pem and key.pem respectively in your working directory,
you can do as following:
python server.pyTo use this demo you'll need:
- A printer that understands ZPL/EPL connected over USB;
- Chrome, Opera, Edge 76+, or any browser that supports the Web USB API spec;
- ZPL/EPL payload to send, check the ZPL docs for additional info.
To access the local demo, start your server, and head to https://localhost:4443 if you started the server using the server.py script. Or just go to your server and port if you started the server yourself using another method.
When running the demo for the first time the browser will ask you to specify the printer to give access permission. You'll need to select your printer and accept it for this demo to work.