FieldLens Desktop

Public build and release mirror for FieldLens Print.

The private Admin/fieldlens repository remains the source of truth. This repository contains only the desktop client needed to build public Windows and Linux installers.

Releases

A push to main builds:

• fieldlens-print-windows-x64-setup.exe
• fieldlens-print-linux-x64.deb
• signed updater artifacts when the persistent Tauri signing key is available
• downloads/latest.json for the signed Tauri updater
• downloads/release.json as the stable installer/version feed

The workflow publishes them to the Gitea release matching the version in package.json. The desktop app uses the signed Tauri updater where supported and falls back to release.json for installer-based upgrades such as Debian packages.

Local build

npm install
npm run build
npm run bundle:deb

Windows cross-build:

cargo install --locked cargo-xwin
npm run bundle:windows

Linux install script

Download and run the checked installer:

curl -fsSL https://fieldlens.arrowstack.dev/downloads/install.sh | sh

The script supports x86_64/amd64 Debian/Ubuntu-style systems, downloads the public .deb, verifies its SHA-256, then installs it with the system package manager.

Printer queue setup

FieldLens Print can create an OS printer queue that appears in normal application print dialogs.

1. Open FieldLens Print.
2. Choose the installed physical printer under Forward to installed printer.
3. For network printers, FieldLens detects the RAW/TCP endpoint when the OS exposes it. Otherwise enter the printer address manually as host:9100.
4. Click Create / repair FieldLens Print and approve the Windows UAC / Linux CUPS elevation prompt.
5. Start RAW capture.
6. In the source application, print to FieldLens Print.

Windows creates the virtual queue with the selected destination printer's existing driver and points it at 127.0.0.1:9100, so the captured stream is already in the destination printer's language before FieldLens inspects and forwards it.

Linux creates a CUPS queue named FieldLens-Print using the selected physical printer's capabilities and device URI. A FieldLens CUPS PDF pre-filter copies the original submitted PDF into /var/spool/fieldlens-print before the physical printer driver renders it, then passes the PDF onward unchanged through the normal CUPS filter chain. FieldLens Print watches that spool for capture/decoding while CUPS continues printing normally.

On Linux the same repair action also installs FieldLens Test Capture. It uses the same PPD and FieldLens pre-filter, but its rendered output is sent to a local discard sink at 127.0.0.1:9101. Selecting that queue from a browser exercises original-document capture, spool ingestion, decoding, and the normal printer render/filter chain without sending anything to physical hardware.

USB/shared queues may not expose a RAW/TCP address. In that case the installed-printer selector still supplies the driver for the virtual Windows queue, while the physical destination address must be entered manually.