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Installing BarTender and Commander on the Application Server

Contents Section 1 – BarTender Installation with Commander Service .............................................. 1 Section 2 – Configuring the Commander Service ................................................................ 1 Section 3 – Troubleshooting Commander Label Printing Problems .................................. 12 

Section 1 – BarTender Installation with Commander Service 1. Logon to the Application Server computer (the server where x10DATA Application

Platform is installed) with an ID that has administrator privileges. 2. Install the Full BarTender Suite from your software disk or downloaded from the

Seagull Scientific website. This will also install the Commander application and start the service.

Section 2 – Configuring the Commander Service There are two services that need to have the same logon credentials as are specified for the x10DATA Process Server. (refer to the x10DATA Application Platform Installation Guide 1 – Appendix B: Configuring the optional x10DATA Process Server) By using the same logon credentials, this allows BarTender to use the same printers that have been configured and are available to the x10DATA Process Server.

1. Go into the Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and launch the Services applet. You should see a service named “BarTender System Service” and another named “Commander Service”.

2. Verify that each service has a status of “Started” and Startup Type of “Automatic”.

1 Full URL: http://install.x10data.com/Documents/x10DATA_Application_Platform_Installation_Guide.pdf

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3. Right mouse click each service, go into Properties, then click the “Log On” tab.

4. Make sure the account used to run the service is the same as the account associated with the x10DATA Process Server. This account must have the ability to print to all required printers.

The next group of steps will configure BarTender’s Commander service to monitor a folder on the server. This folder is used by the x10DATA Application Server to send print requests to BarTender.

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5. Click Start, All Programs, and select the BarTender folder. Then launch the Commander application.

6. Click File, Save.

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7. Type ‘x10DATA Labels’ and click Save.

8. From the menu, select Task, and then Add…

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9. In the Name field, type ‘x10DATA Labels’, and then click Browse…

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10. Browse to the application data folder that is named ‘x10DATA\labelData’, then click OK.

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11. Your Trigger tab should look like the picture above. Click on the Command(s) tab.

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12. Select the first row and change the Command Type to ‘Commander Script’. Then click OK.

13. From the menu, select Detection, and then Start Detection.

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14. If there are any labels waiting to print, they will print now. If logging is turned on, you will see the status shown in the Logging pane at the bottom of Commander.

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15. Before exiting, set the General Options so that Commander remembers to open and run this Task file. From the menu, click Tools and then select General Options…

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16. On the Startup tab, set the Task List option to ‘Open Last used Task List’, and set the Detection and Window State options to ‘Restore Last State’. When finished, click OK.

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17. Important: Make sure that you exit Commander using the Exit and Leave Service Running option as shown above. When prompted to save changes, select Yes.

Section 3 – Troubleshooting Commander Label Printing Problems When labels fail to print as expected, use the following steps to determine the reason:

1. Try to print the same label using the x10DATA Smart Client for Windows (desktop version) on the same workstation where Commander is running. Instead of sending the label request to Commander for it to process, the x10DATA Smart Client desktop version will “talk” to BarTender directly in order to print the label. If there is a configuration problem with the label, this information can be readily identified. Sometimes, this can be as simple as changing the value of a checkbox.

2. If the label prints from the desktop Smart Client without any errors, then there is

something wrong with how Commander is configured to work with BarTender; proceed to the next step.

3. Launch BarTender on the workstation where Commander is running.

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4. From the menu, click Administer and then select Log Setup…

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5. Mark the checkbox for Log Messages and then click Setup...

6. In the Log File Folder field, select a location for the log file that is easy to find. The default location is My Documents for the user that is logged in. After you have chosen a Log File Folder, click Select…

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7. In the upper right-hand corner, there are three category toggle buttons that will automatically select (or de-select) all of the messages for that category. Click the Red-X button to select all of the messages that are errors, then click OK.

8. When you have returned to the Text File Log Message Setup dialog box, click OK.

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9. Complete the Log Setup process by clicking OK.

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10. At this point, BarTender will begin to log all errors to the file specified. Exit from BarTender.

The process for setting up Commander to log messages is the same:

11. Launch Commander.

12. From the menu click Administer, and then select Log Setup…

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13. Mark the checkbox for Log Messages and then click Setup…

14. Choose a location for the log file and then click Select…

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15. Click the Red-X to select all of the messages for the error category, then click OK.

16. Close the Text File Log Message Setup dialog box by clicking OK.

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17. Complete the Log Setup process by clicking OK.

18. Close Commander remembering to leave it running as a service.

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19. Try printing the label from the handheld device using x10DATA Smart Client for Windows Mobile. Then examine the log files for BarTender and Commander to determine the exact error that is preventing the label from printing.

If there is still insufficient information to determine the label printing problem, then there is one more method that can be tried. Sometimes, there can be differences between the way a process runs when it is interactive vs. running as a service. Instead of running Commander as a service, we can run it interactively from the currently logged in user. We can then tell BarTender to “become visible” when Commander invokes it. To use this troubleshooting methodology, follow these steps:

1. Lauch Commander.

2. From the menu, click Detection and then select Stop Detection.

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3. Once the detection task has stopped, click Administer and then select Service Administration…

4. When the Commander Service Administration dialog box opens, choose Run As: Application and then click OK.

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5. You should see ‘Running Commander as Application’ in the status line at the bottom.

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6. From the menu, click Detection and then select BarTender Command Handler Setup…

7. For the Visible Windows, choose All (Main Window and Interactive Dialogs) and then click OK.

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8. From the menu, click Detection and then select Start Detection.

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9. When the detection task starts, BarTender is launched and is visible in the foreground.

NOTE: If you close the BarTender window, you must stop detection and then start detection in order to have BarTender displayed again.

10. Try printing the label from the handheld device using x10DATA Smart Client for

Windows Mobile. Watch the interaction between Commander and BarTender to determine the cause that is preventing the label from printing.

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11. When you are finished with troubleshooting, close BarTender and stop the detection task.

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12. To return Commander to running as a service, click Administer and then select Service Administration…

13. In the Commander Service Administration dialog box, select Run As: Service and then click OK.

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14. Verify that you are now running Commander as a service by noting the text in the status bar. When exiting Commander, you may be prompted to save any changes you made. Remember to leave the service running as you exit.