Would controlling a Mobile/Belt Printer via Bluetooth from a Xamarin solution be easier from Android or WP8?

Question

We are in the process of deciding whether our port of a legacy Compact Framework/Windows CE app (potentially cross-platform, thus using Xamarin in Visual Studio) should be done first for Android or Windows Phone 8 (iOS is on the "back burner").

I imagine the port of the existing (C#) code would be easier if we targeted WP8 (as opposed to Android), nevertheless welcome rebuttals/refutations. Am I right?

Even better would be some sample code of how such manipulation (sending PCL* from the PCL**) is accomplished. Does anybody have any they'd like to share (has anybody done this yet)?

If it is relevant, the device we would probably be writing to is a Zebra QL220, and we would be sending a barcode and related info.

* Printer Control Language
** Portable Class Library

Which is "easier" is pretty subjective. I've never done it personally, but from what I've read online working with Zebra is never easy, regardless of the platform. There are some threads in the Xamarin forums discussing Zebra devices you may want to read. — Jason, Mar 27 '14 at 21:30
I was able to talk (PCL) to the Zebra belt printer from the CE device without too much problem. Tedious and "weird" (very 1950sish feel to it) yes, but not that hard. — B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven, Mar 27 '14 at 21:43

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '14 at 22:27

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Android Bluetooth socket with Xamarin exposes System.IO.Stream for both input and output. As long as you target the stream with the communication protocol you should be able to swap out Android BT socket with a virtual serial port on a computer or any other option that also provides a Stream to write to and read from. You could abstract it even further but I feel Stream is probably the most convenient target.

answered Mar 27 '14 at 22:27

SKall

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So no doubt this same option is available for WP8 from Xamarin, right? – B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven Mar 27 '14 at 22:34
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No, not from Xamarin...BUT you could try Microsoft: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wpapps/Bluetooth-app-to-device-644870ba ;) – SKall Mar 27 '14 at 23:15

Would controlling a Mobile/Belt Printer via Bluetooth from a Xamarin solution be easier from Android or WP8?

1 Answers1