Silent printing not working in combination with deviceName (in v5.0.7 +)

[aldalaimi]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.
  • webContents.print() doesn't work under Windows when 'deviceName' is provided #17260 Not relevant: addresses the same issue, but for a version before the pull request that supposedly fixed silent printing. is already closed.
  • webContents.print() not print as per the default printer settings when putting device name  #17077 Not relevant: addresses the same issue, but for an older version before pull request fix: silent printing mode #19038 that should fix silent printing.
  • 'silent: true' for printing not working in version 5. #18123 Not relevant: doesn't address the same issue. Is already closed
  • Please, make printing work with Electron ! #17523 A list of issues related to printing.

Issue Details

• Electron Version:
  • 5.0.7 and 6.0.0-beta.15
• Operating System:
  • MacOS Mojave v10.14.4
• Last Known Working Electron version:
  • 3.1.11

Expected Behaviors

According to the pull request #19038 which was merged in v.5.0.7, silent printing should work.

#	Code	Expected Behavior
1	webContents.print()	Opens the print preview
2	webContents.print({ silent: true })	Prints silently to default printer
3	webContents.print({ silent: true, printBackground: true })	Prints silently with background to default printer
4	webContents.print({ silent: true, deviceName: 'Canon_MF633C_635C' })	Prints silently to my Canon printer
5	webContents.print({ silent: true, deviceName: printBackground: true, deviceName: 'Canon_MF633C_635C' })	Prints silently with background to my Canon printer

Original documentation of WebContents.print() can be found here.

Actual Behaviors

#	Actual Behavior
1	✅ As expected
2	✅ As expected
3	✅ As expected
4	❌ Nothing will happen, callback is never called
5	❌ Nothing will happen, callback is never called

Unfortunately when providing a deviceName, nothing is send to the printer and the callback will never be called (see image of terminal logs below).

To Reproduce

1. Clone this fork: https://github.com/ibra038/electron-quick-start
2. Run yarn install and yarn start
3. Follow the steps on your screen

Additional Information

For other developers that need to print silently to a predefined printer, the last known version I found to work is v3.1.11.

[misbeliever]

yeah, struggling with this issue from v3.1.11

[sarathjasrin]

This issue is not fixed yet. V6.0.0

[codebytere]

@sarathjasrin yes, i'm aware - if it had been fixed, this issue would be closed. I plan to work it on it very soon.

[codebytere]

Hey folks, got a PR up targeting master that should ensure it's fixed in v7. I won't be able to port it in its current state back to v6 and v5 owing to some intermediary changes Chromium made but i'll do my best and should hopefully be able to get it fixed in those lines too.

[gozzoo]

Thanks @codebytere, that's very good news. Unfortunately the release of v7 is 3 months away. Lets keep our fingers crossed that we can get some fixes in any of the stable releases sooner because v3 is already getting old in the tooth.

[gozzoo]

Has this been backported to any of the stable releases yet, like v5 or v6?

[cstsortan]

Any news on fixes for cases 4 and 5 being shipped before v7?

[gozzoo]

It's trange that this issue has been closed but the fix is not avalable in any stable release.

[sarathjasrin]

@gozzoo It will available from V7. she mentioned above.

Hey folks, got a PR up targeting master that should ensure it's fixed in v7. I won't be able to port it in its current state back to v6 and v5 owing to some intermediary changes Chromium made but i'll do my best and should hopefully be able to get it fixed in those lines too.

[gozzoo]

@sarathjasrin well, but v7 has not been released.

My point is that this issue has been closed, but we can not consider it fixed yet, because the fix is not available in any stable release. It's good to know that a fix exists and it will be included in the future version, but v7 is not production ready yet. And when v7 eventually gets releaed it will come with its own set of issues (as the history of electron has shown), and it will take some time before it gets wide adoption. I don't expect to be able to use v7 before the start of next year, possible much latter.

Some people are still struggling to upgrade to v6, which was announced as stable few months ago. (see vscode - and they didn't even try v5)

That's why I think that it's very important for this fix to be backported to some of the stable releases, at least v6. Most projects that use printing (as mentioned in some comments above) are still stuck with v3.

Not many (if any) of the big adopters of electron (slack, vscode,, skype, WhatsApp, atom, ...) use printing in their products and there is no strong push to make printing work properly. Obviously It doesn't get as much love as some other more demanded features. As a result printing has been a chronic problem of electron for quite some time.

I hope you see now why I'm a little bit sceptical about such promise: don't worry, it's fixed, you'll get it in the next version, case closed.

[sarathjasrin]

@gozzoo I can understand. I'm also struggled with this issue ended up creating console application for printing in C#.