Best way to print labels to Zebra ZM400 printers from E1

I am our CNC administrator for our JDE 9.0 install. I have been researching ways to utilize Zebra ZM400 label printers we currently use on our network with our new JDE install. I understand Zebra printers are not officially compatible with E1 but it seems a lot of people have gotten them to work just fine with E1. We would like to have labels print immediate to our Zebra printers. I have found several very useful posts on this forum and some useful articles spread throughout the Internet. From my research it looks like a have a few options and I was hoping anyone using Zebra label printers could provide recommendation and guidance as to what works for them and if it would be applicable for our install. The options I believe to have are the following. I understand these at a high level but any tips or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

1. Setup the Zebra printers on my Linux Enterprise Servers as Line printers and set them up the E1 printer program as a line printers. User Zebra Bartender software to create the ZPL code and copy this into ERW so report produces text output in ZPL format.

2. Use BI Publisher with Zebra Enterprise Connector.

3. Use third party software to print to Zebra printers such as FormScape, Create!Forms, Loftware Print Server, etc.

For what is is worth, we already own Bartender licenses and have an OBIEE server so if we can make use of them that would be great.

Here is the information about our environment. Let me know if I can provide any additional information to help provide useful feedback. Thanks in advance!

Tools Release 8.98.3
Database Server - Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 64-bit, Oracle 11g Database
Enterprise Servers - Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 64-bit
JAS Server - Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 64-bit
Deployment Server - Windows Server 2008 64-bit

Hi Matt,

I cannot tell anything about option 2 and 3, but we currently use option 1 with our Oneworld Xe platform, with some smaller zebra printer (LP28).
About printer setup, we install them on the server with a "Generic / Text Only" driver. And in Oneworld, we define them as laser printer, with PCL language.
Then indeed we created UBE that generate the zpl code for the labels. In Print setup of the ube, we checked "export to csv". And when you print immediate them, you get the label.
As i was a bit afraid of end users asking for changes in label design (move an info from there to there, change the font size, ...) that would have required to change ube ER, with a production promotion/package process, we use an external text file containing the model of the zpl code of the label.
It means that you create a text file, with the zpl code, and a convention of how to identify fields you'll fill from your ube, and then you read the text file line by line, replacing the fields with what you need, to generate the line.
For instance, in your text file model, you have :
^FO25,86^A0N,16,16^CI7^FDItem number:^FS
^FO89,80^A0N,24,24^CI7^FD&ITM&^FS

In your ube, you read text file line by line, and you replace "&ITM&" by the item number you need, and add the line to your ube output.

This way to work doesn't prevent from new development if users need new information (like 2nd item number in addition to item number), because it has to be set in ER.
But at least you can do "on the fly" change if you just need to change a bit the design (fonts, positions, ..) of the label.

The name and location of the text file with model can be changed using some processing option and a specific table.

Antoine,

Thanks for the explanation of your configuration. The more I research this topic, I think option 1 is going to be the route we have to take. The Zebra Enterprise Connector option looks expensive although it is very streamlined and I would like to avoid third party software if possible.

I don't do any application development so I'm a little unsure of the process for creating the UBE to export the data/variables and pair it with the ZPL code. If you can provide any further detail on how to do this I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Matt

Friend could you print direct to zebra printer?

Hi Matt,

Are you able to successfully print label on Zebra Printer using option 1? I am also trying the same option but printer is not responding to the submitted text file.

I need your help as I have stuck. Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Swapnil