Testing WMS labels in Dynamics 365 SCM: Virtual ZPL printer, Local file and SCM External service

As you might know the existing  Chrome ZPL Printer extension is not supported any more. Within this blog post I would like to provide other ways of printing labels in Supply Chain management.

Virtual ZPL Printer

An Ethernet based virtual Zebra Label Printer that can be used to test applications that produce bar code labels. This application uses the Labelary service found at http://labelary.com.

The idea is pretty much the same as it was before with Chrome extension. 

You need to perform the following to make it work:

• Set up local printer with some dedicated port 
• Install document routing agent and register the printer
• Activate the printer in Supply Chain management  (for 1-3 steps see MSDyn365FO: Setup Zpl Printer to print license plate labels – AX tutorials: tips and tricks (wordpress.com)
• Download Virtual ZPL printer: porrey/Virtual-ZPL-Printer: An ethernet based virtual Zebra Label Printer that can be used to test applications that produce bar code labels. (github.com)
• Change the Virtual ZPL printer setting to point out to the port created earlier and select Start. 

Local file

You need to perform the following to make it work:

• Create or update any existing printers. To update the printer properties, select Print Properties.
• Select the Ports tab and select Add Port.
• Select Local port and select New Port
• For the port name, enter a file name: C:\Labels\Zebra.TXT
• Run the installation program for the Zebra Printer Drivers (ZD220/ZD230 Desktop Printer Support | Zebra) and select a printer you would like to use, for instance ZDesigner ZD220-203dpi ZPL printer). Select the port you have just created and Finish the installation.

Now when Zebra.TXT is updated with printed label, you can open txt file, copy the values and paste it into Labelary Online ZPL Viewer

SCM External services

If you want to get around the pain of setting up DRA for label printing, with new feature available since 10.0.33 you can use External services to test your label printing.

You need to perform the following to make it work:

• Set up external printers and point it to a service on RequestBin.com — A modern request bin to collect, inspect and debug HTTP requests and webhooks
• Set up External Service Definition and Operation:

• Set up External service instance - make sure you put something into the authentication secret, doesn't matter what:

• Set up Label printers:

• Set up Label layouts. For the simplicity of the demonstration, I am going to use custom label layouts feature to print location labels. 

 Let's print the label from the locations: 

And the results (custom label of location 10000 to Printer2) :

 

It is super convenient to set up and use it. 

That's it!