Most users print their first BarTender Software labels using the same "stand-alone" print method of most Windows programs -- simply clicking on the "Print" option of the File menu. But, with BarTender Software, many users are looking to add the label printing capabilities to other programs, such as manufacturing, inventory, shipping, receiving, accounting and other supply-chain applications running stand-alone and networked across the enterprise.

There are a number of easy ways to automate control of BarTender Software. In fact, your users don't even have to know that it's BarTender Software actually printing the labels. One of the automation tools, the Commander utility available in the Enterprise Edition of BarTender Software, even allows for control from non-Windows programs.

Depending on your goals and the capabilities of your other programs, there are three basic ways to control BarTender Software:

ActiveX Automation

What Can You Do with ActiveX Automation?

Any program that can issue ActiveX commands can automatically launch BarTender Software into "the background" (where it stays "invisible" to your users). You can then have your program specify one or more print jobs and then either close BarTender Software when done or leave it open (ready to instantly process the next print job request).

A wide variety of functions are available for interfacing to and controlling BarTender Software. You can:

• Load BarTender Software
• Load multiple label formats
• Control selected Print dialog options, including:
• Which printer to use
• Whether or not to print to a file instead of the printer
• Control selected Input Data dialog options
• Transmit explicit values for bar code and text objects (instead of or in addition to having BarTender Software read this information from a data file)
• Request BarTender Software version information
• Find out if a print job is in progress
• Exit BarTender Software
• And more

What Kinds of Applications Can Issue ActiveX Commands?

Most standard Windows development tools can issue ActiveX Automation commands, including:

• Visual Basic
• Visual C++ (and other versions of C for Windows)
• Power Builder
• Access
• and many more.

Many prewritten applications also provide an interface that gives users access to Windowsī ActiveX capabilities. (Any application such as MS-Word or Excel that supports "Visual Basic for Applications" certainly will have that capability.)

Command-Line Interface

What Kinds of Programs Can Issue Command Lines?

Almost any development environment is capable of issuing a command line, as can any prewritten application with the ability to start up other programs.

Sample Command Line

This is a sample command line for use inside of Visual Basic. It launches BarTender Software (if itīs not already running), loads a label format called "ucc-ean128.btw," and prints it:

Shell("bartend.exe /f=ucc-ean128.btw /p")

The "Shell" part is specific to Visual Basic and differs somewhat in other development environments. The part inside the quotes is the actual command line and will not change for other environments.

What Can I Do and Not Do Using Command Lines?

Among the available functions are:

• Load BarTender Software
• Select and load a label format
• Specify a data source to import label data from
• Execute a print job
• Exit BarTender Software
• Various other functions

Some capabilities not available when using command-line control instead of ActiveX Automation are:

• Direct control over selected options in certain dialogs.
• Loading multiple label designs without first closing ones that have already been opened.
• Asking BarTender Software questions, including its version number and whether or not a print job is in progress.
• The ability to specify label data directly (instead of having to export it to a file for BarTender Software to read).

Commander Integration Utility for Enterprise and Stand-Alone Applications

The methods discussed above for integrating BarTender Software with other label programs involve passing one or more commands from another program to BarTender Software for execution. Sometimes, however, itīs not convenient or even possible to control a Windows program in this manner.

When You Might Need Commander

Here are some challenges that Commander solves.

• You donīt know how to issue Windows commands from the program or environment you are using.
• You are using a prewritten application which doesnīt offer a "run" type of option and for which you canīt access the source code.
• Your program or development environment does not support the issuing of ActiveX commands or even command-line parameters.
• You are working with a non-Windows platform, such as SAP, UNIX or AIX, and no means exist for directly transmitting the necessary command(s) to the Windows system running BarTender Software.

How Commander Works

The Commander Integration Utility in the Enterprise Edition of BarTender Software lets you launch and control label jobs with little or no changes to your current applications.

• When your application needs labels, it need only know how to place a text or database "trigger" file in a location of your choosing on the network.
• At your predetermined time intervals, Commander checks to see if this file has suddenly appeared.
• Once Commander detects the arrival of the file, it "wakes up" BarTender Software so it can read your data into the label design and automatically print your labels.

This is an ideal solution for large, non-Windows enterprise systems where directly controlling a Windows program would be difficult, if not impossible.

Great for Windows-Only Systems Too!

Although Commander's full benefit is achieved when giving Windows capabilities to non-Windows applications, such cross-platform operation is not required. Commander is so easy to set up and use that some people use it in pure Windows environments so they donīt have to code even the simplest ActiveX Automation or Command-Line functions.

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