Bartender Automation setup

Bartender Automation zipped package contains two folders: Server and Thunderbird.

Thunderbird folder includes Mozilla Thunderbird extension file set (client).

Server folder contains set of files and folders for background server application, which interacts with both Thunderbird extension and Bartender.

1. Unpack bartender.zip into some temporary folder.
2. Copy Server folder in any location, for example C:\ProgramFiles\ folder.
3. Copy content of Thunderbird folder into Thunderbird profile directory. This path will depend on operation system, user name, local language, etc. In my case (Windows 7), this path the following: C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\g5fc2wx3.default\extensions\. In this folder should be placed subfolder bartender@deitsolutions.com from Thunderbird folder.
4. Create subfolder 'bartender' in folder C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\g5fc2wx3.default\.
5. Client part does not require any setup. All the settings used for labels import and print are located in settings.xml file, in Server folder. Structure and purpose of settings will be described later.
6. Bartender templates (.btw files) which will be used in data import process should be located in 'templates' subfolder in Server folder.
7. It's needed also to create shortcut for Server.exe in 'Autostart' submenu in 'Start' menu (Start → All programs → Autostart) in order to automatically launch Server.exe when system starts working.

In order to import data in Bartender or print labels, Server.exe and Bartender itself should be launched and stay in active processes.

To import data or print labels, open Thunderbird and select email to be sent to Bartender.

If all components of Bartender Automation package were installed properly, in 'Tools' menu of Thunderbird you will see 'Send mail to Bartender' item.

Click this item or press Ctrl + Shift + B to open extension dialog and start import / printing process.

Dialog window has the following appearance. There are three tabs on this window to realize three reqired functions.

1. Print All tab allows to send all existing in email designs onto proper printer via Bartender.

To use this function simply push 'Print All' button. During printing will be used predefined print settings from settings.xml file.

2. Import image tab contains dialog for label image import into Bartender.

This tab includes the list of label designs in left part of window and changable settings fields inright part of window.

Here you can select needed printer, change number of copies (sets quantity defined on site) and number of labels on sheet, define gaps between labels - horizontal and vertical.

To send design data into Bartender push 'Import' button. This will open filled template in Bartender but will not produce any printing.

3. Print test labels tab could be used to print test labels set.

This tab also contains label design selector in order to define which label should be printed as test. But settings are autodetected and not changable.

To print test simply push 'Print' button.

Bartender template (.btw file) used for data import located in Server directory, in 'templates' subfolder.

This file determines standard print settings and page layout - number of columns and rows per page, page margins and initial values for label dimentions and gaps.

Server directory contains also settings.xml file. This file includes instance-depending import settings and has the following structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Settings>
  <Instances>
    <Instance name="090" url="http://merkalt.com/no/shipment_notifier.php?order_id={0}">
      <Set name="product_name_1">
        <Iron-On quantity="300" labelsInRow="3" rowsOnSheet="2" template="template1.btw" labelWidth="30" labelHeight="14" labelGapHorizontal="2" labelGapVertical="2" imageSettings="picw1140\pich532\picwgoal2726\pichgoal1272\picscalex62\picscaley62" />
        <Self-Adhesive quantity="100" labelsInRow="3" rowsOnSheet="2" template="template1.btw" labelWidth="30" labelHeight="14" labelGapHorizontal="2" labelGapVertical="2" imageSettings="picw1140\pich532\picwgoal2726\pichgoal1272\picscalex62\picscaley62" />
      </Set>
      <Set name="product_name_2">
        <Iron-On quantity="20" labelsInRow="3" rowsOnSheet="3" template="template1.btw" labelWidth="30" labelHeight="14" labelGapHorizontal="2" labelGapVertical="2" imageSettings="picw1140\pich532\picwgoal2726\pichgoal1272\picscalex62\picscaley62" />
      </Set>
      <Set name="product_name_3">
        <Iron-On quantity="120" labelsInRow="3" rowsOnSheet="3" template="template1.btw" labelWidth="30" labelHeight="14" labelGapHorizontal="2" labelGapVertical="2" imageSettings="picw1140\pich532\picwgoal2726\pichgoal1272\picscalex62\picscaley62" />
      </Set>
    </Instance>
  </Instances>
  <Printers>
    <Printer product="Iron-On" color="black">Datamax M-4308 Mark II</Printer>
    <Printer product="Iron-On" color="red">Automatisk ROSA Stryke</Printer>
    <Printer product="Iron-On" color="blue">Automatisk BLЕ Stryke</Printer>
    <Printer product="Self-Adhesive" color="black">Datamax M-4308 Mark II</Printer>
    <Printer product="Self-Adhesive" color="red">Automatisk ROSA Klistre</Printer>
    <Printer product="Self-Adhesive" color="blue">Automatisk BLЕ Klistre</Printer>
  </Printers>
</Settings>

This file describes two main sets: 'Printers' and 'Instances'.

'Printers' section example contains six printer names - one printer for each possible combination: for three possible colors and two possible products.

'Instances' section contains the set of instance-depending settings used for label data import.

Each instance described with a tag <Instance name=“xxx” url=“http://merkalt.com/no/shipment_notifier.php?order_id={0}”>, where 'xxx' - the unique value of INVOICE_ID_POSTFIX constant from settings.inc.php file of instance configuration.

These codes are given in details on special page.

Url value is used to provide shipment notification functionality. It should vary depending on instance

'Instance' item includes settings for product sets.

Each set properties are described with a help of tag <Set name=“product_name_1”>, where attribute name=“product_name_1” relates set properties with corresponding product from products.xml file in instance's xml/ folder.

<Set> tag describes which real products (iron-on or self-adhesive labels) are included into the set.

So the allowed children for this tag are <Iron-On> tag and <Self-Adhesive> tags respectively.

Each of these 'child' tags has a set of properties which affect on printed or imported label appearance in Bartender.

These properties are:

• quantity=“300” defines a number of labels in product set. For example, it could be 81 labels of each type for 'product_name_1' or 300 self-adhesive labels for product type 'product_name_3'.
• template=“template1.btw” sets the name of template which will be used for import in Bartender.
• labelWidth=“30” and labelHeight=“14” determines the size of imported label. As standard 30×14 mm label used. Measure units (mm or inches) depend on Bartender settings.
• labelGapHorizontal=“2” and labelGapVertical=“2” properties allow to set aps between label rows and columns on printed sheet respectively.
• imageSettings=“picw1140\pich532\picwgoal2726\pichgoal1272\picscalex62\picscaley62” property defines the algorythm of image transformation to fit the image into label size.

The next 2 options a re new and added to support different page setup at Bartender

• labelsInRow=“3” This parameter defines number of columns per page in bartender page setup
• rowsOnSheet=“2” This parameter defines number of rows per page in bartender page setup

The values labelWidth=“30”, labelHeight=“14”, labelGapHorizontal=“2”, labelGapVertical=“2”, labelsInRow=“3”, rowsOnSheet=“2” rewrites btw file setup options shown on the picture below -

So all these settings could be separately defined for each product type of each instance. The number of instances in 'Instances' section is equal to the number of sites which create orders on labels printing (excluding navnestempel.no, dorskilt.no, etc.).