Set up printing with PrintNode

PrintNode is typically used as a printing extension when you don’t have a direct access to the printer you wish to use, or you’re not connected to the same network. Once installed on your computer, PrintNode can be used to send a webservice call to the cloud, from which a request can be sent to an available printer to carry out the print job.

Before you can use PrintNode to perform print jobs, you need to take the following actions:

Prerequisites #

• (Situational) Have the credentials for signing into PrintNode.
  Typically, NaviPartner consultancy team will need to perform the setup on the PrintNode side for you, in which case you may not need to have an account, or perform any of the steps in the PrintNode client or website.
• Have the API key for establishing connection between the PrintNode client and the cloud.
• Make sure you have the latest PrintNode client version installed on your machine.

Procedure in the PrintNode client and on the PrintNode website #

1. Open the PrintNode client, and sign in.
   The program is now running in the background.

2. Bring up PrintNode by clicking its icon in the notification area of your operating system.
   Among others, you will see options for Printers and the Account.

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   The Printers list contains the global ID of each connected printer. These numbers need to be referenced when performing print jobs, instead of printer names. You can dictate which printers will be available for printing via the Active checkbox.

3. Open the homepage of the PrintNode online app, and sign in.

4. Click API Keys in the upper right corner, and create a new API Key.
   The API key will need to be input in Business Central.

Procedure in Business Central for Reports #

1. Open the PrintNode Setup administrative section in Business Central.
2. Provide the previously created API key in the designated field, and click Test Connection.
   If the connection is successful, you’ll receive a confirmation message.
3. Open the Printer List from the ribbon.
4. Find the printer you wish to use, and reference it in the Id field.
5. Select Report in the Object Type.
6. Navigate to the Printer Selections administrative section.
   You can see that the previously selected printer is available in the Printer Name field in this section as well.
7. (Optional) You may reference a specific user via their ID if you want them to be the only one who can print reports with this printer. You can also specify the specific Report ID if you want to make it the only report that can be printed.
   If you don’t specify neither the user ID nor the report ID, the printer will be used as the default device for printing all reports.

Procedure in Business Central for Codeunits and Print Templates #

1. Open the PrintNode Setup administrative section in Business Central.
2. Provide the previously created API key in the designated field, and click Test Connection.
   If the connection is successful, you’ll receive a confirmation message.
3. Open the Printer List from the ribbon.
4. Find the printer you wish to use, and reference it in the Id field.
5. Navigate to the Print Template Output Setup administrative section.
6. Specify the previously selected printer in the Output Path field, and specify PrintNode as the Output Type.
7. (Optional) Choose either the Codeunit or the Print Template that you wish to print.
   If you don’t choose either one, all codeunits and print templates will be printed with this printer.

See also #

• Printer troubleshooting
• Printing overview
• Print properties