Expert: Concise Systems/Laird Scranton - 2/7/2008

Question
QUESTION: We use an AS400 in our company and have a programming staff that does all programming for the company.  We are looking for a way to print barcodes directly from AS400 programs (COBOL, RPG, CL) to HP printers.  We are currently on the AS400 version 5.3 and are moving to version 5.4 soon.  Does anyone know of a way, or a product, that will allow us to send barcodes to an HP printer directly from the AS400 and not through a PC program?

ANSWER: I apologize for the delay in answering your question - I  have been out of the country for the past six days and without access to e-mail.

If your printer is capable of handling advanced-printer-function commands, then you can create a DDS printer file, compile it using the advance-printer-function *YES option, and code a field as a barcode field using the BARCODE keyword.  This will print a barcode in place of the numeric value of the field.

- Laird

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your response.  It is very much appreciated.  How can I identify if my printer is capable of handling advanced-printer-functions, and are there any examples of this on the Internet that I could refer to?

Answer
The manual that came with your printer should indicate whether it is capable of advanced printer functions. Or you could code a sample program and simply try it. Below is a link to one website with an example of barcode printer DDS.  You can find others using search engines like google.com, scanning for the keywords:

DDS AS/400 BARCODE

http://www.as400pro.com/tipView/category/Printing/key/131

- Laird