Create!form 6.0 - Passing Parms to a printer

Cathy Wilbur

Well Known Member
Using CreateForm Software 6.0 version, does anyone know in Director how I pass additional printer parms to a printer? We are using EasySpooler and we have some specific parms used with the printer in EasySpooler. Does anyone know how to properly set up the JTT (Job Ticket Template) so that I can pass my two custom printer parms when sending my output to the printer? We need to send a Status parm which will have a value of held/release and a FormId parm which will have a value of stock/Blue/ARStmnt.

Has anyone done this before? Please advise.
 
Cathy,

What you need to use is a Merge Configuration. In Cform Designer or Director select Tools > Merge Configurations. You can add a new configuration by clicking the 'New' button to add a row. Under the Printer branch you should be able to specify the Header/Trailer files you need included. Header/Trailer files reside in the folder <installdir>/Create!form\SystemResource\Device. They are just simple text files you can create & edit with Notepad.

I think anything you put in the JTT file is only available and used by the Cform software but if you define a Header file to be included when the project is processed the contents of that file get put at the front of the job stream sent to the printer.

Let me know if you need me to clarify.


Karen.
 
How would I go about passing these two parms in the merge configuration using the header record? Secondly how does the printer go about picking up this header record information. Please advise.

You said.
=================
Header/Trailer files reside in the folder <installdir>/Create!form\SystemResource\Device. They are just simple text files you can create & edit with Notepad.

Could use some hints on how to properly set this up. How do I define the header so that the proper printer picks it up and so I pass the parms properly.

According to our systems programming team we cannot use this solution because: We are spooling via LPR and LPR won't allow you to pass the needed parms on Windows. We are going to the EasySpooler software not directly to the printer. Reason we LPR the output to the EasySpooler software is that we want operations to have control of the output going to the printer so they can manage what prints when so the proper forms get placed in the printer as the output is released.
 
I think there are several different ways to get what you need. I just took another look at the Merge Configuration options and there is an option (under the Output branch) specific to the Job Ticket when the job is sent to the printer.

I did a quick test with what I'm working with here, when I configure the job telling it to keep the Job Ticket the data from my job ticket is the first thing in the data stream that gets sent to the printer. This is what you need right?

I have more questions for you before I can advise how best to do this in your environment.
1) Are the two parms in the PDF file somewhere already? If not, where are they?

2) Are the parms static in nature or do will they dynamically change as different jobs run?


In Cform6 the Merge Configuration can be defined either at the printer level (in the properties of the Cform6 Server printer) or in the Director project in a Form Merge node.


Karen.
 
The parms are static, DO NOT change. Each different director project will have its own static parms.

But I am not actually going directly to the printer, we are actually going to an EasySpooler print queue which is done use an LPR command on the printer defn and the tech guys said that this command CANNOT take any parms.

So I was going to have them define another queue for me and set it up so everything comes in on hold. Then I was going to put the FormId as part of the file name that comes in to be printed. Not the best solution but what else can I do.
 
Cathy,

Based on the information provided, I don't understand your configuration. Your signature line tells me that you are OW with a UNIX Enterprise Server. At what point does the print job get handled by the Cform6 Server (before or after EasySpooler)?

Perhaps there is someone else with a better understanding of what needs to be configured to get this working for you.


Karen.
 
We do not use Create!Form 6.0 for OneWorld we use Create!Form 6.0 for our applications outside OneWorld. We want to take output that comes from a host of Unix applications outside of OneWorld and send the output to Createform. Once the output has been processed in CreateForm we want to send it to our Easyspooler print queue. Right now we have to define a print queue for each different form. What I want to do is send ALL output to the same EasySpooler queue and pass Easyspooler 2 additional parms (hold parm, and a form parm). Easyspooler is like management software to manage printer output. Our Operators use the Easyspooler software to move output around to different queues depending on the type of form being printed. Nothing goes directly to the printer. All output goes to Easyspooler software and from the Easyspooler software it gets sent to a specific printer. If you open the output and look at it in Easyspooler then you can see that the output is already merged with the form.

We have this working right now because we have just one output queue. We went live with our first project outside OW, printing Payroll statements. The queue I set up is our BluePaper queue (all payroll statements print on blue paper). Reason we need these special queues is for the operators to intervene and load the appropriate paper/form then they can move the output to the queue with that paper/form loaded. But you do not want to define a queue for each different form type. Would be nicer to send all output on hold to a generic queue and specify the form to be used. For now I am going to have our technical group define a new queue for me and define this queue so everything comes in on hold. Will have to put they form to be used as part of the form name.

I want to know how to send parms to the Easyspooler queue. We defined this EasySpooler queue as an LPR queue so whenever output gets sent to this queue it generates an "LPR" command. Do not think we can force parms thru to LPR command using the printer merge procedure in createform. I might be wrong but was wondering if anyone has tried this before?
 
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