pikopong

Apparently there’re some codes scattered on the net telling people that you can print to a Zebra printer by sending ZPL II codes using PrintService. But the problem is, it’s not working, I don’t know why, maybe because of a different version of printer or model but I’m pretty sure the thing that came out from the printer is just ordinary text not barcode which is what the code was supposed to output.

New Version

Thanks to Oleg for pointing out on how to print using Zebra S4M connected either via USB or network.

The solution is pretty simple, all you have to do is do not install Zebra S4M as a Zebra S4M (sounds weird, I know), instead, just install it as a local raw printer (Linux) or generic text printer (Windows).

For CUPS user in Linux, this is the example for the correct configurations:

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#/etc/cups/printers.conf
<Printer Zebra>
Info
Location
DeviceURI socket://10.1.1.5:9100
State Idle
StateTime 1223445299
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
Option orientation-requested 3
</Printer>

You can always add the printer using the web interface, just make sure you choose the RAW as the Make/Manufacturer and Model/Driver.

For Windows user, please take a look at Oleg comment.

Test this Java code, it should print out a barcode:

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import javax.print.Doc;
import javax.print.DocFlavor;
import javax.print.DocPrintJob;
import javax.print.PrintException;
import javax.print.PrintService;
import javax.print.PrintServiceLookup;
import javax.print.SimpleDoc;
import javax.print.attribute.PrintServiceAttribute;
import javax.print.attribute.standard.PrinterName;
 
public class SimplePrint {
 
   public static void main(String[] args) {
 
       try {
 
           PrintService psZebra = null;
           String sPrinterName = null;
           PrintService[] services = PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(null, null);
 
           for (int i = 0; i < services.length; i++) {
 
               PrintServiceAttribute attr = services[i].getAttribute(PrinterName.class);
               sPrinterName = ((PrinterName) attr).getValue();
 
               if (sPrinterName.toLowerCase().indexOf("zebra") >= 0) {
                   psZebra = services[i];
                   break;
               }
           }
 
           if (psZebra == null) {
               System.out.println("Zebra printer is not found.");
               return;
           }
           DocPrintJob job = psZebra.createPrintJob();
 
           String s = "^XA^FO100,40^BY3^B3,,30^FD123ABC^XZ";
 
           byte[] by = s.getBytes();
           DocFlavor flavor = DocFlavor.BYTE_ARRAY.AUTOSENSE;
           Doc doc = new SimpleDoc(by, flavor, null);
           job.print(doc, null);
 
       } catch (PrintException e) {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }      
   }
}

Old Version

So, I started looking around for other methods. I even tried posting on java’s forum and offered 10 duke points, but no one seems to answer my question. After googling around, I found out that I could upload a file containing the ZPL II to the printer, so, I tried and it did work. But another problem arise, Two people cannot ftp simultaneously due to the limited access set by the printer.

Printing using FTP (I’m using Apache Commons Net library)

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import java.io.FileInputStream;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTP;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;
 
public class FtpPrint {
 
   public static void main(String[] args) {
 
       try {
 
           FTPClient f = new FTPClient();            
 
           f.connect("10.1.127.3");
           f.login("anonymous", "");
           f.setFileType(FTP.ASCII_FILE_TYPE);                            
 
           FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("/path/to/file");
           if (f.storeFile("filename", in)) {
               System.out.println("Upload ok");
           }                
 
           f.logout();
           f.disconnect();
 
       } catch (Exception e) {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }
   }
}

In the end I had to find another solution. After 3 days of searching the internet up and down, I found out that Zebra’s website offered a piece of code in Java to print using ZPL II using socket programming which automatically solve all of my problems, I was like, what the.. Note to myself, always search for the manufacturer site before googling around. However, a few modifications needed for the given code such as the printer port and the language sent. You can get the codes below:

Printing using socket (Got it from Zebra website)

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import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.net.Socket;
 
public class SocketPrint {
 
   public static void main(String argv[]) throws Exception {
 
       for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
           Socket clientSocket = new Socket("10.1.127.3", 9100);
           DataOutputStream outToServer = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
           outToServer.writeBytes("^XA^FO100,40^BY3^B3,,30^FD123ABC^XZ");
           clientSocket.close();
       }
   }
}

Download guide to ZPL II

This guide is more towards Netbeans project, but it can be used as a reference for you to customize the script to suit your needs.

The signer bash file:

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#!/bin/bash
find . -name "*.jar" -exec jarsigner -keystore /path/to/your/key -storepass yourpassword '{}' yourkeystorename \;
echo 'JARs signed';
exit 0

This script will actually search all files ending with .jar from the current directory recursively and then sign it. This means, it can be used separately without ant script. Just make it executeable and run it.

Put this in the last line of your build.xml but it must before the closing tag of the “project” (build.xml can be found in your main project directory)

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<project>
    .
    .
    .
    <target name="-post-jar">
        <exec dir="${dist.dir}" executable="/path/to/your/signer" os="Linux" />
    </target>
</project>

This script will basically sign the jars after all the jars has been build. Please note that it’s better if you set all the path using absolute type of path.

After this, you just have to use Clean and Build to automatically generate the JARs and also automatically sign it. This script will also sign all of your libraries. Good luck :)

If this is your first time reading my guide in reading MyKad, I suggest you read my first post regarding MyKad. It will give you the basic idea what this is all about.

This article will only guide you what you should do so that you can read MyKad in Linux. However, your success rate still depends on the type of hardware you use, especially the reader since there are not so many reader that support Linux. These are my working environment in Linux:

• Slackware 12
• JDK 6 Update 3
• Netbeans 6.0
• Athena Smart Card Reader

For more info about the application used at the end of this guide, please refer to my post about Reading MyKad in Windows. I would like to thanks my colleague for guiding me on how to do this before. So, here it goes:

1. Login as root first.
2. Since my reader use USB, I need to get libusb library.
3. Install libusb library

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   tar zxvf libusb-0.1.12.tar.gz   cd libusb-0.1.12.   ./configure   make   make install

4. Get the latest version of PCSC Lite.
5. Install PCSC Lite

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   tar zxvf pcsc-lite-1.4.4.tar.gz   cd pcsc-lite-1.4.4   ./configure   make   make install

6. For pcsc-lite-1.5.1, change the 3rd line to

   ./configure --enable-libusb --disable-libhal

   Thanks to pakdo for the update :)

7. Download the driver for the reader first. In this case, I’m using a reader from Athena.
8. Install the driver

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   tar -xjvf asedriveiiie-usb-3.5.tar.bz2   cd asedriveiiie-usb-3.5   ./configure   make   make install

9. Get Windows Binary of JPC/SC Java API, I know it’s for Windows but it also has precompiled linux library in it.
10. Extract, copy and update

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    unzip jpcsc-0.8.0.zip   cd jpcsc/bin/linux   cp libjpcsc.so /usr/lib   ldconfig

11. Start the pcsc service

    pcscd -f

12. Download the application here.
13. Run. It should be working now.

For my first post in this blog, I decided to give out an example application to read MyKad which is written in Java. This application has successfully read:

1. Old and new IC number
2. Name
3. Sex
4. Date of birth
5. Birth place
6. Nationality
7. Race
8. Religion
9. Address
10. Photo

Do take note that for the photo part, it is not completely bug free, I’ll fix it when I got time which may not be happening :) There are a few things that I need you take note first:

• Almost 70% codes of this application are not written by me. I’m merely putting pieces together from multiple references in order to read the MyKad.
• Main credit should be given to Xenon who somehow managed to reverse engineered MyKad APDU so that we can read it without needs to pay a single cent for the SDK.
• Don’t expect a perfect code here since it’s my first time writing Java codes after 3 years and I don’t see any needs to upgrade it, at least for now. But you can be sure that it’s working at the time of this post is written.
• Even though it’s written in Java, it can be a guide for you to write in your own favorite programming language.
• This application only reads data from Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN).

These are the system environments that I use to run this app:

1. JDK 6 Update 2 (JDK 5 should be working just fine).
2. Windows XP.
3. Netbeans 5.5 (you may need to update the GUI Builder Pack to the beta version if you want to edit the GUI, however it’s recommended you use the latest version).
4. A smart card reader, I use Athena (got Linux support). Other brand will do, just make sure the driver is installed correctly.

Follow these steps to read your first MyKad:

1. First thing first, you need to download Windows binary of JPC/SC Java API.
2. Get the Netbeans project file here.
3. You must include jpcsc.jar as the library. You can get the file from Step 1.
4. You must also put jpcsc.dll into your main project folder and if you want to distribute the application, you MUST put it together with your main jar file. You can also get it from Step 1.
5. Plug in your reader.
6. Run the application (either directly or from Netbeans).
7. Insert your MyKad.
8. Wait till the app finished reading it.
9. A GUI will popup presenting your MyKad data.
10. If no data is showing, it is possible that your MyKad chip is spoiled that is if you’ve done everything correctly. It will only take 14 days to get a new one.

If you have any question regarding the Java itself, you can ask in the comment section, but if you got question about the APDU commands, I suggest you read this post by Xenon, the explanations given are very detail. There’s also a simple application made by him to read MyKad written in C.

Screenshot of the interface:

Summarize links of all files in this post:

• Netbeans Project File
• JPC/SC Java API
• Xenon Console App

Stay tune for the Linux version :)

Update 1: Linux version is available here.
Update 2: Read MyKad using Visual Basic