Having issues with my label printing through Bartender and they are being less than helpful. I already was not happy with the way they lock things down (replacing a printer is an entire process) and at this point, I had an SSRS report from a browser attempt to print to a label printer and so Bartender has had all my label printers locked since Friday. At this point, I’m highly considering switching to a different solution. Is there any real reason for me to stick wtih Bartender and if not, are there any other solutions that work better?
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We had similar issues during implementation…draconian approach to license/lockdown. Fortunately we’ve been stable since go-live. We’ve got IP print servers in-between each of our Zebras and the app server…so would hope we could do a hot swap of printers if something gets squirrely.
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We worked around this issue by buying more licenses 
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Is Bartender simply an easy to use interface and no real reason I shouldn’t use SSRS reports to print out labels to a label printer?
Same we purchased a spare 3 licenses just so if something breaks, we don’t get burned by the 7 day hold it places on the license.
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SSRS reports can have issues with print-ability on zebra printers, and SSRS doesn’t do barcodes all that well. You can get one type of barcode (dbar39 or whatever it is). If you want things like QR codes or anything else, you’ll have a problem getting them on an SSRS report.
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We currently print barcodes using SSRS on our job travelers.
Is there a different label printer (rather than Zebra) that plays nice with SSRS?
I have a 4x6 and 4x1 ssrs labels that work, but its not very complicated (no QR code)
I have used the idautomation SSRS Barcode Generator to create QR barcodes in SSRS. It is a paid program - but uses local standard fonts to create the Barcodes so no server side special fonts are required.
As far as the 4x6 goes - I have found that if you want to print landscape - it is easier to preview as PDF first and then print from Adobe (or your favorite PDF program).
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Finally got some help through the Bartender chat (my case is still open…)
The problem appears to be in that our printers were set as IP printers but were also being shared through Windows. Somehow (not sure about this part) Bartender sent the report to the Windows shared version which caused it to lock out the IP version.
Unshared all the printers and had Bartender reset the license so I could refresh it and they all appear to be working again.
I have been able to print directly from SSRS in the browser to the label printer without using Epicor and label appears to be near identical, including the bar code so going to keep messing with it but am starting to think that Bartender might be not only another expense but an actual hindrance that we are paying for.
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Sounds like hogwash and poppycock to me…but what do I know. Bartender’s been reliable for us over the past year-plus…but YMMV
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Didn’t sound right to me, but that’s what Bartender support told me. I don’t get how it could have done that since the printers are hardcoded into the reports but…
So, Bartenders licensing is my printer for a certain amount of time whenever it’s used. So if you have the printer installed 2 different ways (IP and windows shared) and the printer is selected by a name that could match either of those, it’s possible that the system printed 2 different ways and the licensing thinks that the same physical printer is 2 different printers because it got there 2 different ways, thus doubling the number of licenses you were using.
I’m not 100% sure that this is what happens, but I’ve seen some issues like that when a printer is installed multiple places/ways in that the licensing seems inflated.
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If I had $1 for every time I was misinformed by a support tech, I’d have enough to buy a Maserati. No specific shade here - I’m an equal opportunity hater.
I updated a driver once and it took a license we needed; We purchased more licenses and I contacted Bartender, they did a one-time purge of our printer list.
It’s a fairly old post of mine, but if you are just after straightforward barcode or QR codes with text, then coding the labels in the printer language (ZPL for Zebra Printers in our case) is a good solution and doesn’t tie you into any licensing costs.
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I too have great doubt with most support techs. I will say they pointed me to a document on it ( Sharing TCP/IP(Network) Printers Using Windows Causes Printer Duplication on the BarTender Licensing System – BarTender Support Portal) so this does appear to be a normal issue that happens with Bartender and sharing.
Once done, it is a fairly simple fix, but it does require support to clear your license so you can refresh it. I have had very quick and efficient support with Bartender in the past, but this issue occurred midday Friday and took until midday Tuesday to be resolved, and that only because I continually reached out to them, not due to a response to my original case. This left us down for an extended period with no resolution.
It’s not that Bartender has been notoriously bad (they have not), but I do not like the idea of a third party preventing me from printing our shipping and receiving labels if there is no actual benefit. Yes, Bartender makes the design simple, but we don’t design that many labels so if I have to pull out my last few hairs to create the initial label template but then don’t have to worry about things breaking beyond my control to fix, that seems like a fairly good trade. I’m just not certain if I’m missing some key reason that I should continue to use Bartender.
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If they had time to put together a support document, they should invest more time to really address the problem permanently. 
To me, downtime caused by faulty business applications is simply unacceptable. I know that’s an overly idealistic statement but it’s certainly something all vendors should aspire to achieve…either by QC before release or quick support when it happens. Hardware is a gray area…components fail from time to time…redundancy’s always a plus.
If you’re looking for Bartender alternatives, you came to the right place…I’m sure someone here can make suggestions. Or just search Bartender in these forums and there’s probably a few threads on it…
Yep, same here.
When I contacted Seagull about that a few years ago, they showed me how to gatekeep.
You set the default for new printers (in BT) to be blocked. Then allow only the ones you want to consume a license.
Hopefully they showed you how to do this, @TDray
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Sounds like a simple solution…so why not do it out of the box? 