Printing

Stockly does not create carrier labels. A shipping module asks the carrier for one, receives the finished label and hands it over. From that moment the print queue takes care of the rest: it decides which device the job belongs on, and something delivers the bytes.

Stockly → Operations → Printing.

The chain

1. A shipping module hands over a label, a document rule picks up a generated document, an automatic printing rule asks for a warehouse document the moment the work happens, or an operator presses a print button on an operation and the shop is set to send those to a printer → Packing settings.
2. The queue chooses the device: an explicit choice first, then the default printers, then the printer at the operator’s packing station, then their own printer, and finally the only active device carrying the right stock type. When more than one device would fit, the job waits instead of guessing.
3. The bytes are delivered by the shop server, by a program running at the packing station, or by the administration itself.

Note

A job with no printer is not an error; it is a question. Assigning a device in the print queue makes it print.

Caution

The station now decides before the operator’s own printer. The bench stays put while the person walks, so the device standing next to them is the better answer. On a shop where both were filled in, work that used to come out at the printer linked to the person now comes out at the bench.

Who sends the bytes

Three routes, and the choice is made per printer when it is added:

• the shop server — for a device it can reach over the network,
• the browser — the printer icon in the top bar collects work for whatever the local print service can reach, on any page,
• a program at the station — a local agent or a vendor helper, for shops whose server is hosted elsewhere.

The printer icon in the top bar names the devices this computer is collecting for, and a greyed-out icon means the local service is not answering.

The overview screen

Four figures: Active printers, Waiting to print, Failed, On hold.

Two lists underneath:

• Recent failures — what did not print and why,
• Printers with no output today — a device that has gone quiet. Sometimes that is a quiet day, sometimes an address that changed. Last printed and Has never printed distinguish the two.

In-product help

Every screen in this module has a ? button that opens How printing works, which carries the same material as these pages next to the thing it describes, including worked examples and the developer notes for connecting a shop’s own software.

Next steps

• Getting printing working — the whole chain in the order that leads to a correctly printed document.
• Printers — adding a device and calibrating the label position.
• Print queue — what each status means and what to do about it.
• Document rules — printing Shopware documents automatically.
• Automatic printing — a pick list on the printer before the operator gets there.
• Default printers — where a sheet comes out, per station, operator or warehouse.
• Stock types — what a device is loaded with, and what keeps a pick list off the label printer.
• Printing settings — attempts, retries and retention.