Question

PHP web application writing a string to com1 on visitors PC

Asked by: techsrx

I have a PHP web application that works sort of like a Point-of-Sale. I need to write a string to COM4 on the users computer where we have a LD9000 LED Display pole. I can write strings to the LED Display pole via cmd.exe but I am not really sure how to do this via PHP on a linux hosted web application.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Asked On
2009-10-19 at 10:09:13ID24824266
Topics

PHP Scripting Language

,

Miscellaneous Hardware

,

Peripherals

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: gr8gonzoPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:36:39ID: 25607237

PHP can only access the COM ports of the server that is running the application (via the /dev/ttyS# pipe, like /dev/ttyS0 for COM0, /dev/ttyS1 for COM1, etc). If you want to access the COM ports of the VISITOR's computer, then you'll need them to have some sort of browser plug-in or ActiveX control installed that can do that. Or maybe a Java applet (not sure if Java applets can access COM ports).

 

by: techsrxPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:43:21ID: 25607294

I thought so, what about using something like the code below. I have tried it but get a "Automation server can't create object" in IE

<script Language="JScript"> 
function runcmd() { 
           File="cmd.exe"; 
           WSH=new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell"); 
           WSH.run(File); 
} 
</script>
 
 
 
Next you can create a RUN link in html to run the application. This is the way to.
 
CODE
<a href="#" onClick="runcmd(); return false;">Run CMD.exe</A>

                                              
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by: techsrxPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:45:19ID: 25607310

oops I guess I would need to have IIS hosted web application right?

 

by: gr8gonzoPosted on 2009-10-19 at 13:51:12ID: 25608898

Hmmm, I don't think that would require a certain server.  ActiveXObjects should be entirely client-side, although they probably only work in Internet Explorer. Firefox and ActiveX objects don't play well.

 

by: techsrxPosted on 2009-10-19 at 14:07:35ID: 25609063

Hey gr8gonzo,

Thanks for another response. I had already awarded you the points for your answer.

I actually did get something working as follows. I have to drop the security level to write this file but our users have very limited access to the Internet anyways.

Then we just pipe the file to the com port Works good so far.

function WriteFile() 
{
   var fso  = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"); 
   var fh = fso.CreateTextFile("c:\\file.txt", true); 
   fh.WriteLine("Total $<?php echo $_POST['amount'];?>"); 
   fh.Close(); 
}

                                              
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by: gr8gonzoPosted on 2009-10-19 at 14:17:04ID: 25609139

Yes, I know, but it didn't seem like you had the question fully answered yet (although I still appreciate the points). It does sound like you have a solution now, though.

One other thing to consider - at one point I was writing some web apps that had to communicate to a security system via remote serial ports, and I found a company called Eltima that did some ethernet-to-serial programs. It was several years ago so I can't remember which product I used, but basically the program listened on a network port and then passed data onto that same computer's serial port and back. Thus, I could interact with the remote serial port by simply knowing the IP address and opening a network socket to it. Not sure if that's an option for you, but it worked pretty well.

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