Meteor Cordova Print plugin - meteor

I am developing a Point of sale (POS) for my store. And I am developing a Meteor app that will connect to the POS receipt printer. But as you know you cant simply use window.print().
I read but didnt understand the Meteor documentation about this, and I have several questions about it. (https://guide.meteor.com/mobile.html#using-plugins)
I have installed the katzer/cordova-plugin-printer (https://github.com/katzer/cordova-plugin-printer). And know here comes the questions.
1.- Once installed, I create a file outside the server and client folder and insert a statement such as
if (Meteor.isCordova) {
console.log("Printed only in mobile Cordova apps");
}
and then do I simply add the following line?
if (Meteor.isCordova) {
document.addEventListener('deviceready', function () {
// cordova.plugins.printer is now available
}, false);
}
2.- If this is correct, Do I create a Meteor Method in the server or in Meteor.isCordova? to call the following example.
var page = '<h1>Hello Document</h1>';
cordova.plugins.printer.print(page, 'Document.html');
3.- Should I use server side rendering to create the
var page = '<h1>Hello Document</h1>';
part.
Thank you

To answer your points:
Meteor.startup is run when the device or browser is ready (it's equivalent to what you are doing).
Create a method in the client code - Put the check in the button click method. Something like the code block at the end
Server side rendering won't apply as you are printing from the browser
if (Meteor.isCordova) {
Meteor.call("myPrintMethod",other-info);
} else {
alert("Sorry, I can only print from the device"
}

Related

Xamarin Forms Maps Geocoder Not Working on UWP Device

My app uses Xamarin.Forms.Maps to display a map and also for geocoding. The map is displayed on a separate page when the user navigates to it from the main page. I use the geocoder to reverse geocode the current location so that I have the address. This is done from various places other than the map page.
When I run the app on a device (even in debug mode) the geocoder works right away in iOS and Android, but does not work in UWP. After I navigate to the map page and display the map, then go back to a different page to use the geocoder it starts working.
I saw a thread about the map not working with release build so I added the following code:
var laRendererAssemblies = new[] { typeof(Xamarin.Forms.Maps.UWP.MapRenderer).GetTypeInfo().Assembly };
Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(e, laRendererAssemblies);
//Xamarin.Forms.Forms.Init(e);
Xamarin.FormsMaps.Init("MyBingMapsKey");
This has not helped the issue with the Xamarin.Forms.Maps.Geocoder. I also tried creating an instance of Xamarin.Forms.Maps.Map in my main page, but that did not help either. Is there a way to prime the map component so that the Geocoder will work on a device? (My test device is ARM, but it happens when I run on Local
Machine (Win 10) too)
Following is a snippet of the call to the Geocoder (which works fine once the user has navigated to the Map page and back - and it works fine in iOS and Android - and as such I don't believe it is a problem with the code, but here it is):
public static async Task<Plugin.Geolocator.Abstractions.Position> Geocode(string address)
{
try
{
var loGeocoder = new Xamarin.Forms.Maps.Geocoder();
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Get Lat/Lon");
var lcolPositions = await loGeocoder.GetPositionsForAddressAsync(address);
if (lcolPositions != null)
After doing some research and ensuring that your geodecode class being static wouldn't mess with the async/await pattern in the UWP build. I've come across a few references to this particular problem with the built in Forms.Map geodecoder elsewhere, not just for UWP it has also been noted for android‡.
I took some time to have a look at one of our current cross-platform applications that we have in the app stores, and according to our internal documentation we switched out both the xamarin.forms map, and the geodecoder for custom ones.
The plugin that we use for our cross-platform application is the 'GelocatorPlugin' created by james montemagno, and can be found here.
It can be added to your project as a Nuget package if you prefer, and the implementation of it is very similar to the default one, so there's very little code to change. The primary benefit is that the UWP element of the geodecode plugin has been modified to take into account windows advanced tracking scenarios (details found here).
It should be a lot more stable than the one your using, once installed you simply use it like so:
Reverse Geocoding
Based on a location that is passed in, thi swill grab a list of
addresses.
UWP requires a Bing Map Key, which you can acquire by reading this
piece of documentation.
try
{
var addresses = await locator.GetAddressesForPositionAsync (position, string mapKey = null);
var address = addresses.FirstOrDefault();
if(address == null)
Console.WriteLine ("No address found for position.");
else
Console.WriteLine ("Addresss: {0} {1} {2}", address.Thoroughfare, address.Locality, address.Country);
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Unable to get address: " + ex);
}
‡ Links to similar problems - Link 1, Link 2
resolved after added following lines in APP.xaml.cs (UWP project)
Xamarin.FormsMaps.Init("bingmapkey");
Windows.Services.Maps.MapService.ServiceToken = "bingmapkey";

Meteor: send message to user at hot code push

How can I let the user know when they are getting a hot code push?
At the moment the screen will go blank during the push, and the user will feel it's rather weird. I want to reassure them the app is updating.
Is there a hook or something which I can use?
Here's the shortest solution I've found so far that doesn't require external packages:
var ALERT_DELAY = 3000;
var needToShowAlert = true;
Reload._onMigrate(function (retry) {
if (needToShowAlert) {
console.log('going to reload in 3 seconds...');
needToShowAlert = false;
_.delay(retry, ALERT_DELAY);
return [false];
} else {
return [true];
}
});
You can just copy that into the client code of your app and change two things:
Replace the console.log with an alert modal or something informing the user that the screen is about to reload.
Replace ALERT_DELAY with some number of milliseconds that you think are appropriate for the user to read the modal from (1).
Other notes
I'd recommend watching this video on Evented Mind, which explains what's going on in a little more detail.
You can also read the comments in the reload source for further enlightenment.
I can image more complex reload logic, especially around deciding when to allow a reload. Also see this pacakge for one possible implementation.
You could send something on Meteor.startup() in your client-side code. I personally use Bert to toast messages.

Ember-Pouch not syncing?

I like to fix the cross brower sync in https://github.com/broerse/ember-cli-blog. If I swap out the adapter for a Firebase adapter everything works as expected. (See https://github.com/broerse/ember-cli-blog-fire) It can be some CouchDB setup error on my side but there are no errors in the console. Is there some simple thing I keep overlooking?
Modified the ember-pouch readme to fix this, but to answer here: what you need to do is add
afterModel: function (recordArray) {
// This tells PouchDB to listen for live changes and
// notify Ember Data when a change comes in.
new PouchDB('mydb').changes({
since: 'now',
live: true
}).on('change', function () {
recordArray.update();
});
}

Google Maps from Firefox addon (without SDK)

I need to add a map in my adddon and I know how to do what I need in a "common webpage", like I did here: http://jsfiddle.net/hCymP/6/
The problem is I really don't know how to to the same in a Firefox Addon. I tryed importing the scripts with LoadSubScript and also tryed adding a chrome html with the next line:
<script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3.exp&sensor=false"></script>
But nothing works. The best solution I found was to add part of the code in this file (the code of the script src) in my function, to import this file with loadSubScript, and all my function is executed but an empty div is returned.
Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/Services.jsm");
window.google = {};
window.google.maps = {};
window.google.maps.modules = {};
var modules = window.google.maps.modules;
var loadScriptTime = (new window.Date).getTime();
window.google.maps.__gjsload__ = function(name, text) { modules[name] = text;};
window.google.maps.Load = function(apiLoad) {
delete window.google.maps.Load;
apiLoad([0.009999999776482582,[[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/vt?lyrs=m#227000000\u0026src=api\u0026hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/vt?lyrs=m#227000000\u0026src=api\u0026hl=en-US\u0026"],null,null,null,null,"m#227000000"],[["https://khms0.googleapis.com/kh?v=134\u0026hl=en-US\u0026","https://khms1.googleapis.com/kh?v=134\u0026hl=en-US\u0026"],null,null,null,1,"134"],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/vt?lyrs=h#227000000\u0026src=api\u0026hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/vt?lyrs=h#227000000\u0026src=api\u0026hl=en-US\u0026"],null,null,null,null,"h#227000000"],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/vt?lyrs=t#131,r#227000000\u0026src=api\u0026hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/vt?lyrs=t#131,r#227000000\u0026src=api\u0026hl=en-US\u0026"],null,null,null,null,"t#131,r#227000000"],null,null,[["https://cbks0.googleapis.com/cbk?","https://cbks1.googleapis.com/cbk?"]],[["https://khms0.googleapis.com/kh?v=80\u0026hl=en-US\u0026","https://khms1.googleapis.com/kh?v=80\u0026hl=en-US\u0026"],null,null,null,null,"80"],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/mapslt?hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/mapslt?hl=en-US\u0026"]],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/mapslt/ft?hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/mapslt/ft?hl=en-US\u0026"]],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/vt?hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/vt?hl=en-US\u0026"]],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/mapslt/loom?hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/mapslt/loom?hl=en-US\u0026"]],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/mapslt?hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/mapslt?hl=en-US\u0026"]],[["https://mts0.googleapis.com/mapslt/ft?hl=en-US\u0026","https://mts1.googleapis.com/mapslt/ft?hl=en-US\u0026"]]],["en-US","US",null,0,null,null,"https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/","https://csi.gstatic.com","https://maps.googleapis.com","https://maps.googleapis.com"],["https://maps.gstatic.com/intl/en_us/mapfiles/api-3/13/11","3.13.11"],[3047554353],1.0,null,null,null,null,1,"",null,null,1,"https://khms.googleapis.com/mz?v=134\u0026",null,"https://earthbuilder.googleapis.com","https://earthbuilder.googleapis.com",null,"https://mts.googleapis.com/vt/icon"], loadScriptTime);
};
//I can't use document.write but use loadSubScript insthead
Services.scriptloader.loadSubScript("chrome://googleMaps/content/Google-Maps-V3.js", window, "utf8"); //chrome://MoWA/content/Google-Maps-V3.js", window, "utf8");
var mapContainer = window.content.document.createElement('canvas');
mapContainer.setAttribute('id', "map");
mapContainer.setAttribute('style',"width: 500px; height: 300px");
mapContainer.style.backgroundColor = "red";
var mapOptions = {
center: new window.google.maps.LatLng(latitude, longitude),
zoom: 5,
mapTypeId: window.google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
}
var map = new window.google.maps.Map(mapContainer,mapOptions);
return mapContainer;
Can you help me? I'm developing a "Firefox for Android" addon and that's why I need to do things like *window.content.*document.createElement because document is not declared, only window and I think thats may be the problem... But I can't declare everything if I don't know what Google Maps uses.
Added: I also read that Google Maps API Team has specific code that disallows you from copying the main script locally. In particular, that code "expires" every so many hours. I'm combined part of this script: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3.exp&sensor=false because I can't execute this directly (Error: write called on an object that does not implement interface HTMLDocument). So I don't have any alternative!
Use an iframe (type=content if in XUL) to display web content. There you can include whatever scripts you like. The content in the iframe will not have any special privileges, or at least should not. If you need to communicate with the privileged add-on part of your code, you can use e.g. regular HTML events (createEvent, addEventListener and friends) or the postMessage web API to pass messages.
Do not try to load remote code directly into other pages, or worse, into the browser, as this is a compatibility and security nightmare.
Because loading remote code and/or code not properly reviewed for running in a privileged context, the platform will refuse to load such scripts from remote sources (http, etc.) via loadSubScript, etc.
Should be noted, that if you'd later like to host your add-on on addons.mozilla.org and still do include remote scripts in privileged code, your add-on will be rejected until you fix it.
Also, mozilla might blocklist your add-on even if you host elsewhere if it is discovered that there are known security vulnerabilities in your add-on, per the Add-on Guidelines.

Run Javascript on the body of a Gmail message

I want to display LaTeX math in the gmail messages that I receive, so that for example $\mathbb P^2$ would show as a nice formula. Now, there are several Javascripts available (for example, this one, or MathJax which would do the job, I just need to call them at the right time to manipulate the gmail message.
I know that this is possible to do in "basic HTML" and "print" views. Is it possible to do in the standard Gmail view? I tried to insert a call to the javascript right before the "canvas_frame" iframe, but that did not work.
My suspicion is that manipulating a Gmail message by any Javascript would be a major security flaw (think of all the malicious links one could insert) and that Google does everything to prevent this. And so the answer to my question is probably 'no'. Am I right in this?
Of course, it would be very easy for Google to implement viewing of LaTeX and MathML math simply by using MathJax on their servers. I made the corresponding Gmail Lab request, but no answer, and no interest from Google apparently.
So, again: is this possible to do without Google's cooperation, on the client side?
I think one of the better ways to do this might be to embed images using the Google Charts API.
<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=x=\frac{-b%20\pm%20\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}">
To Learn more: https://developers.google.com/chart/image/ [note, the API has been officially deprecated, but will work until April 2015]
If you really must use LaTeX and some js library, I think one way you could accomplish this is by injecting a script tag into the iframe.
I hope this is a good starting point.
Example:
// ==UserScript==
// #name Test Gmail Alterations
// #version 1
// #author Justen
// #description Test Alter Email
// #include https://mail.google.com/mail/*
// #include http://mail.google.com/mail/*
// #license GPL version 3 or any later version; http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
// ==/UserScript==
(function GmailIframeInject() {
GM_log('Starting GMail iFrame Injection');
var GmailCode = function() {
// Your code here;
// The ':pd' (div id) changes, so you might have to do some extra work
var mail = document.getElementById(':pd');
mail.innerHTML = '<h1>Hello, World!</h1>';
};
var iframe = document.getElementById('canvas_frame');
var doc = null;
if( iframe ) {
GM_log('Got iFrame');
doc = iframe.contentDocument;
} else {
GM_log('ERROR: Could not get iframe with id canvas_frame');
return
}
if( doc ) {
GM_log('Injecting GmailCode');
var code = "(" + GmailCode + ")();"
doc.body.appendChild(doc.createElement('script')).innerHTML=code;
} else {
GM_log('ERROR: Could not get iframe content document');
return;
}
})();
Well, there are already greasemonkey scripts that do things to GMail as far as i know (like this one). Is this a possible security hole? Of course, anything you'd do with executable code has that risk. Google seems to move a glacial speeds on things they're not interested in. They really do seem to function based on internal championing of ideas, so best way forward is to go find sympathetic googlers, if you want them to include something into GMail. Otherwise stick to Greasemonkey, at least you'll have an easy install path for other people who'd like to see the same functionality.

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