Printing a file to a printer in Ruby

Question

I need help with sending a formatted text to a printer using Ruby on Ruby on Rails OR sending a pdf file to a printer from Ruby program. I can write the code to create a pdf file from Rails app but don't know how to print that pdf file to a default printer. I am trying to write a small ticketing application with Ruby on Rails.

Answer 1

On Linux and Mac OS X you can use the "lpr" command line program, passing it the name of the PDF file (not sure about Windows though). For example:

def print_to_paper
  your_code_to_write_a_pdf_file("file.pdf")
  system("lpr", "file.pdf") or raise "lpr failed"
end

Answer 2

Here is a solution in Windows environement : Foxit ! http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

You can call foxit.exe (standalone executable) to silently print a PDF in background.

Syntax : foxit.exe /t "your file.pdf" "The Printer Name"

shell = WIN32OLE.new('Shell.Application')

shell.ShellExecute("foxit.exe","/t \"#{filename}\" \"#{printer}\"")