BizPrint glossary
This page explains, in plain language, the terms you will see in BizPrint and in these docs. It is for anyone setting up or using BizPrint, from store staff to developers. Terms are listed in alphabetical order.
Application
Section titled “Application”The connection between BizPrint and the place your orders come from, such as your WooCommerce store, your Shopify store, or your own app. You create an application in the BizPrint dashboard under Applications. Each application has its own Public Key and Secret Key, which you enter in the BizPrint plugin, the Shopify app, or your own code so it can send print jobs.
Auto Order Printer
Section titled “Auto Order Printer”The BizPrint app for Shopify. It prints your Shopify orders through BizPrint.
Automatic printing
Section titled “Automatic printing”Printing an order without anyone clicking Print. In the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce, automatic printing sends an order to your printer locations when the order reaches an order status you choose, once it no longer needs payment.
BizPrint Android app
Section titled “BizPrint Android app”The BizPrint app for Android phones, tablets and point of sale devices. It turns the device into a station that prints formatted pages (HTML), PDF documents and plain text. It prints to receipt printers, label printers and full-page office printers over Wi-Fi or your network, by Bluetooth or by USB, and to the built-in printer of a Sunmi device. Both output formats, HTML and Plain Text, work with it.
BizPrint dashboard
Section titled “BizPrint dashboard”The BizPrint website where you manage your account and plan, your stations, your applications, and your print jobs. You sign in with your BizSwoop account.
BizPrint desktop app
Section titled “BizPrint desktop app”The BizPrint app for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. It turns the computer into a station that prints to the printers installed on that computer. It runs in the background and appears in the system tray or menu bar.
BizPrint MCP server
Section titled “BizPrint MCP server”A program that runs on your own computer and lets an AI assistant, such as Claude Desktop, see your BizPrint printers and send print jobs to them. It uses the keys of an application.
BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce
Section titled “BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce”The WordPress plugin that connects your WooCommerce store to BizPrint. In WordPress, its settings appear as Print Manager under the WooCommerce menu. It prints orders automatically or when you click Print, using the printer locations and templates you set up.
BizSwoop account
Section titled “BizSwoop account”The account, from BizSwoop (the company that makes BizPrint), that you use to sign in to the BizPrint dashboard and the BizPrint desktop app.
Development Mode
Section titled “Development Mode”A setting in the BizPrint dashboard for testing. While it is on, printouts from the BizPrint desktop app are marked so you can tell they are tests: web page printouts start every word with a % sign, and PDF printouts carry a “Development Mode” watermark. Turn it off before you print real orders.
Output format
Section titled “Output format”How the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce sends an order to the printer: HTML (a formatted page, with your logo and layout) or Plain Text (text only). Both work with the BizPrint desktop app and the BizPrint Android app. You choose it for each printer location.
Print job
Section titled “Print job”One request to print one document, such as an order receipt, on one printer. Every print job appears in the BizPrint dashboard, with its status.
Print job status
Section titled “Print job status”Where a print job is in the printing process. Some statuses are reported by the station, and BizPrint sets others when a station does not confirm a job in time. You can see it in the BizPrint dashboard. A status is not proof of what is on paper. Before you print something again, do all of these checks:
- Look at the paper at the printer for the printout.
- Check the job’s status in the BizPrint dashboard.
- Wait for the station to finish anything it is still printing.
- Check Print Job Queue on the Support tab of Print Manager, if the order came from WooCommerce.
- Wait for any pending or processing jobs in that queue to finish.
Never create another job while the first one is pending, connecting-to-printer or processing.
The statuses are:
- pending: waiting for the station. A job becomes pending before it is sent, or when the station did not confirm it in time and archiving is turned off. Pending jobs are sent again when the station reconnects.
- connecting-to-printer: sent to the station, which has not confirmed it yet.
- processing: the station reported that it started printing it.
- done: the station reported that it printed it.
- failed: BizPrint could not confirm that the job printed, for example because the station reported a problem with the printer.
- archived: the station did not confirm the job in time, usually because it was offline. Archived jobs are not sent again automatically. Before you print an archived job again, do all the checks in this entry.
Print Job Queue
Section titled “Print Job Queue”A list on the Support tab of Print Manager, in the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce. If a print request could not reach BizPrint, the plugin may keep it in the Print Job Queue and try again later. The Print Job Queue only fills when Background Print Processing or Queue Failed Jobs is turned on. Both are off by default. Check it before you print an order again, together with the paper at the printer, the job’s status in the dashboard and the station, so you do not print it twice.
Printer
Section titled “Printer”A printer connected to a station. The BizPrint desktop app reports every printer installed on the computer. In the BizPrint Android app, you add each printer yourself. You do not add printers in the BizPrint dashboard: they appear there under their station.
Printer command set
Section titled “Printer command set”The language a receipt or label printer understands: ESC/POS or StarPRNT for receipt printers, and ZPL or TSPL for label printers. In the BizPrint Android app, this is the Printer language setting of each printer. The app usually finds it by itself when you add the printer. If not, your printer’s manual says which one it uses, sometimes under the name emulation.
Printer location
Section titled “Printer location”A set of print settings in the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce: which printers to use, which template, the paper size, the output format, and whether to print orders automatically. You can have several, for example one for the front counter and one for the kitchen. They are listed on the Printers tab of Print Manager.
Public Key and Secret Key
Section titled “Public Key and Secret Key”A pair of keys that lets a station or an application connect to your BizPrint account. You copy them from the BizPrint dashboard. The Public Key identifies the station or application. The Secret Key proves it is yours: treat it like a password and never send it by email or chat.
Station
Section titled “Station”A computer or Android device running a BizPrint app, which receives print jobs and prints them on its printers. You create stations in the BizPrint dashboard under Stations, then connect the BizPrint desktop app or the BizPrint Android app to one.
Status trigger
Section titled “Status trigger”A rule from the Status Triggers add-on for the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce that prints an order when it changes from one order status you choose to another.
Template
Section titled “Template”The layout of a printout in the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce, such as Customer Receipt, Order Receipt, Packing Slip, or Shipping Label. You pick a template for each printer location.
Webhook
Section titled “Webhook”A web address on your store or server that BizPrint calls to tell it about print jobs, for example when a job’s status changes. You set it on an application in the BizPrint dashboard.