How to print from an iPad app without the use of AirPrint? - objective-c

I am developing an iPad application where in there is a requirement that application should be able to print using any WiFi Printer even though it does not support AirPrint.
I need to do it without the use of AirPrint and AirPrint Hactivator.
I have referred to almost all questions on StackOverflow but none did seem to help.
I have seen a sample application which is on app store and which implements this.
Printing for iPad By Ndili Technologies, Inc.
What are my options to make this work?
Thanks

I found this API/SDK, which I haven't used, but looks promising :
http://www.e-workshop-dev.com/PC_EN/develop_title_e.html

I don't think there is any way of doing this. As far as I know Apple will not let you install printer drivers on the iDevice. And even if you could you would have to get all of them yourself (there are a lot and you would likely miss some). And then you would have to find a way to implement all of them so that they would work. If you have found a way to do this, then kudos to you, but I do not know of any App Store developer that has accomplished this yet, and I doubt it is possible.

I think you could develop some sort of system that relies on connecting to a service on computer that has a printer. When apple originally Released the beta of AirPrint you could send a print to iTunes and then it would send it to the printer.

The Print n Share Pro (product page, iTunes) app has drivers for most WiFi printers and print email/webpages & files etc. direct without a computer. They also have an API to allow other apps to print using their app but you will need to contact them about that.

Related

How to use biometric fingerprint reader to develop a fingerprint database

I have purchased a simple biometric fingerprint reader that is usually used for laptop security through a USB connection. It is just called biomentric finger print reader, not branded! It came with the software for creating security for laptop, and it works great.
However, I had a different idea for it: I am intending to create a database of users fingerprints so that I can identify which user swiped their fingers on it, ie, to use it for different users' authentication using fingerprints. I don't seem to be making any head or tail on how to go about that.
I would like to find out if there is other kind of software to install that will make this gadget print the fingerprint or a code to say a spreadsheet or database whenever I swipe a finger on it? I was thinking it would be a simple as when I use a bar code scanner to print codes of various items to a spreadsheet.
Could someone please advise how to go about this. I believe it should do that but I just dont know where to start.
thanks.
As an alternative wrapper to WinBioNET as mentioned by Robinicks there is WinBiometric.Net.
Disclaimer: I do not own this project.
It has a really nice test project for playing around with the different API functions available in the Windows Wiometric Framework. This test project was monumental in helping me understand the Windows Biometric Framework.
The WinBiometric.Net wrapper has a claim of 100% API coverage, a NuGet package and has the MIT license.
I found it to generally have a very high quality of code as well.
As for storing the fingerprints in a database you could use the WinBioCaptureSample API function to capture a sample, which can then be stored in a database.
The sample can be converted into an image as well, there is a nice example of this in the wrapper.
I know this is an old question but I figured I'd post anyway.
You can use the WBF (Windows biometric Framework) API that is free, but you must first verify if your biometric device is WBF compatible. The documentation and samples for WBF are for C++, but there is a wrapper sample in C# that you can download here: Cirrostrata biometrics Regarding how to convert the scanned data into an image, you can check this post: How to convert winbio data into image. Hope this helps to start.
You can use the WinBioNET .NET wrapper for Windows Biometric Framework (WBF). It has a demo winforms app in the solution. Just open it up, select the demo app as the "startup project" and run. If you have any devices connected it will enumerate it at startup.

"Guided Access" equivalent

I have to develop a windows store app which will be usable on public devices, that means users aren't supposed to be able to quit my application.
On iOS devices, an option called "Guided Access" allows to do this easily, buttons are disabled and you can specify an area where user can interact.
After some researches, I haven't found a way to do that, it seems that Microsoft has not implemented this option in Windows 8, so I'm looking for a way to do this with some code, directly in my app but I have no idea on how to do that precisely. Please, can you tell me if it's possible and, if it is, can you give me a point where I can start ?
Thanks.
I´m not sure whether or not this made it into the newly released preview of the Windows 8.1 Update, but check for "Assigned Access" it was rumored to be a new feature especially for Windows store apps
Edit: See the offical 8.1 product guide here, it only mentions it two times but maybe it is worth installing the preview.

Turn iPhone into a server programmatically?

I want to make my iPhone app display on a Mac's screen, kind of like AirPlay does with other machines. The only way I have heard to do this is, although I do not like it, turn the iPhone into a server. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to do so. I also wanted to set it up in such a way that my Mac automatically detects it. I have seen a similar setup in the game Chopper 2. My Mac app will have a simple timer that fires every few seconds to look for the iPhone, in the same way that Chopper 2's "Find iPhone" button does.
Is there a simple way to turn the iPhone into a server, or start a "session" like Game Center does?
One last thing: I know it is somehow possible, because another app I have actually gives my iPhone a web address at the click of a button. It is called the Dicenomicon, if you want proof.
First there is no easy way to redirect your display to Mac, even if you made it a server of some kind.
Second, to discover or publish customized services on WLAN, you may want to refer to the samples on Bonjour:
CocoaHTTPServer: a simple TCP/HTTP server.
WiTap: an app that discovers and connects to services of the same kind on WLAN by Bonjour.
I'm not really sure what you mean by "server", because there is no way to share the screen of an iPhone using the official SDK, although this is possible by jailbreaking.
It would be possible, however, to send data back and forth between the Mac and iPhone, and display the data on the iPhone, on a Mac. Using that data, you could try to recreate the interface on the Mac. All of this could be accomplished using sockets. A class that might help with that would be cocoaAsyncSocket, which makes network programming a lot easier.
The auto-discovery of iPhones on the local network is achievable with Bonjour. Without getting into too many details, NSNetService would allow you to publish a service for your app from an iPhone, and NSNetServiceBrowser would allow you to find that service on the local network from the Mac. From the NSNetServiceBrowser, you could establish a socket connection with the iPhone.
Good luck!
You might want to take a look at the GameKit APIs, I know they do something similar between two iOS devices.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/GameKit_Guide/Introduction/Introduction.html

VB.NET Use API Messenger

I know how you can use the api in vb.net IM
I wish simply by pressing a button sends a message to all my contacts.
I apologize for my ignorance but I'm still learning, thanks
You don't mention what IM network you're talking about so I'm assuming you're talking about Live Messenger. If that's not the case, only the bit about Pidgin might still be relevant.
Unfortunately, my understanding is that nowdays there's no easy API for doing what you want, and you might have to write your own client to do this, here's a website that discusses the protocol:
http://www.hypothetic.org/docs/msn/index.php
You might also want to look at Pidgin since it supports Messenger and is open source:
http://www.pidgin.im/download/source/
There's a Live Messenger API, but I don't think that can be used to send a message from a standalone VB.Net desktop client since it seems more for writing Addins to the standard Live Messenger client, but here's the information about it in case I'm wrong:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa905675.aspx
If you're running XP or earlier you might be able to use the Windows Messenger SDK:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms630961%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

Set instant messenger display message programmatically

Would a script that sets display messages for instant messengers be simple or complex? After some searching, there doesn't seem to be any information about this at all.
For the sake of an example, if I had a text file of quotations, would it be possible to have the google talk display message change to a different quotation hourly?
Depends on which client you're using. As far as I know, Google's client doesn't offer any interface for plugins, but the open source instant messenger Pidgin does. I think there already is a plugin for what you want to do, but you can write your own using the documentation and examples they give you.
The complexity of writing something like this is based on how much C or Perl you know, since you can program in either of those for Pidgin. Reading code from other people's plugins, you should be able to figure out the Pidgin API.
You can use Kik API to programmatically send rich content and files between mobile applications. It is available for iPhone and Android platforms and takes only about 5 lines of code to integrate into your app. There is more info at the API website: http://www.kik.com/dev
Disclaimer: I'm on of the developers behind Kik API :)