SYSPRO Ribbon bar > Setup > Print Setup

Print Setup

You use this program to configure printers for use within SYSPRO. This caters primarily for existing clients who are using earlier versions of the software.

SYSPRO caters for the printing of documents using the Windows Print Manager - the standard way of printing from within a Windows environment (see SYSPRO Printing), printing using MSWord (see Microsoft Word Printing) and printing using Crystal Reporting Services (see SYSPRO Reporting Services).

Toolbar and menu

When you select the Print Setup option from the SYSPRO Desktop (SYSPRO Ribbon bar->Setup), a listview displays the printer names and types currently configured.

Field Description
Select Select this to set the currently highlighted printer as the default printer for printing within SYSPRO.

If you enabled the Request Print Dialog option from the SYSPRO Desktop (SYSPRO Ribbon bar->Setup), then you can use the Print Dialog Box (non-Windows) program to select a different printer to use before printing your document(s).

Add Add a new printer.
Change Maintain the printer currently highlighted in the listview.
Delete Delete the printer currently highlighted in the listview.

If you selected the option: Confirm Deletions, then you are prompted to confirm the deletion of the selected printer.

Options  
Confirm Deletions Select this to be prompted to confirm the deletion of the selected printer. If you do not select this option, then the selected printer is deleted immediately.

Printer Maintenance

Field Description
Printer

Indicate the name of the printer to add or maintain.

Add from Library

Select this to copy a printer from a pre-defined library supplied with SYSPRO. This library is in the form of a text file and comprises a list of commonly used printers. The file is named: IMPPRT.IMP and resides in your SYSPRO Program directory.

Using the printer library enables you to assign a printer for immediate use by SYSPRO operators as default options and attributes are already defined for the printer.

Save

Save the information entered or changed.

Setup

Field Description
Printer type

Disk file

Select this if you want SYSPRO to output all reports to a disk file. This enables you to store the print file for printing at a later stage.

Default disk file

Indicate the name of default disk file that must be created.

You can override this just prior to creating the disk file by selecting the Ask file name at report time option.

In a Client/Server environment, the disk file can be stored on either the client or the server.

Printer/Device

Select this if you want SYSPRO to output all reports to a specific printer device.

Print device

Indicate the print device.

On a Windows platform, the device could be PRN, defaulting to the first parallel port. Most networks provide a method of capturing the output sent to a device and can redirect this to a particular printer or print queue.

However, they usually require a timeout to be defined. The timeout indicates that if any information is not sent to the port after the timeout has elapsed then the report will be treated as if it has completed. For long reports with only occasional printing, this can cause the spooler to determine that two or more reports have been printed.

On a Unix Client/Server platform, the default device is /dev/lp, but can be changed to be any parallel printer.

Usually, this will not work for serial printers as they require stty settings to define the baud rate, stop bits, parity etc. This type of printer is rarely used under Unix because two or more users cannot print to the same printer at the same time.

Spooler (temporary file)

Select this if you want SYSPRO to create a unique temporary file. Upon completion, the report issues an operating system command to print the temporary file.

You use this type of printer when printing under Networks where a potential problem with timeouts exists. Timeout problems are avoided by sending the entire report only after it has been generated.

A default command is inserted at the Operating System command to print file field. Some operating system commands that are used to print files will copy the file to another area (spooled) before they are printed, while others simply print the original file. In instances where the original file is printed directly, it is important that SYSPRO does not delete the file while it is being printed.

Operating System command to print file (%1 is the file name)

Indicate the operating system command that must be issued to print the file.

On a Unix Client/Server platform, the suggested command (lp) to print the temporary file is:

lp -s -c %1

where:

%1 indicates the unique temporary file name. -s indicates that the lp command must not display a message -c indicates that the lp command must copy the file to its spooled area. In this case, you must select the Delete temporary file after printing option.

Unix spooler

Select this if the report program must send its output directly to a spooler's standard input.

SYSPRO reports do not create a temporary file; the spooler creates a spooled file which is printed only once the report has completed.

To enable this style of printing, SYSPRO maintains a cobcap file in the standard NetExpress run-time system directory. This file determines that when a file is opened, the output from the NetExpress report must be sent to the standard input of an operating system command (usually a spooler such as lp).

'cobcab' command line

Indicate the cobcab command line that must be issued to print the file.

The format of the command is similar to the actual command that you would enter at the Unix command line, except that colons (:) must be used to separate parameters. For example: If the command required was:

/usr/bin/lp -s -dprinter1

then the cobcap command line would be:

/usr/bin/lp:-s:-dprinter1:

The standard COBOL run-time system directory is assumed to be /usr/lib/cobol. If the system variable COBDIR is defined, then SYSPRO uses the directory defined by this variable to locate and store the cobcap file. After changing any entries for the cobcap file you must exit SYSPRO, because entries in the cobcap file are read once only into memory when SYSPRO is first loaded.

Ask file name at report time

Specify the name of the file (including the full path) that must be created at the time of printing a report using a printer configured as a Disk file printer type. In effect, this allows you to override the default report file name just before the disk file is to be created by the report program.

Delete temporary file after printing

Select this to delete the temporary file once printing is complete for printers configured as a Spooler (temporary file) printer type.

Paper

Configure the paper size and margins on which information will be printed.

Attributes

Assign escape sequences to an attribute that enables you to change the appearance of text in reports printed by SYSPRO.

Paper

You use the Paper function to configure the paper size and margins on which information will be printed.

Field Description
Printable lines per page

You use this field to indicate the number of lines on the page that can be used for printing information.

Left margin (characters)

You use this field to indicate the number of characters to skip from the left edge of the page before printing commences on each line.

Top of page margin (line)

You use this field to indicate the number of lines to skip at the top of each page before printing commences.

Close

Select this to return to the previous screen.

Attributes

The use of attributes enables you to selectively change the appearance of text in reports printed by SYSPRO. This is achieved by assigning escape sequences to an attribute (refer to the documentation that was provided when you purchased your particular printer).

[Note]

If, within SYSPRO, you activated Windows printing then you won't be able to use Stationery Format fields that are designated as (with attribute).

Field Description
Attributes

This window indicates a list of attributes that have been defined.

Set Default

You use this function to set the default report attribute.

Attribute type

Report

Select this to define up to five report attributes that you want to assign to the printer for use at report level. These can be used to determine the overall attribute for the report (e.g. the default font).

Field

Select up to ten field attributes that you want to assign to the printer for use at field level.

These are used within stationery definitions that allow certain fields to be printed with an attribute. The attribute is applied only to the field defined with that attribute.

For example: The Stock Take Ticket Format program allows you to print the STOCK CODE with an print attribute of 6. This print attribute would then refer to the 6th attribute defined within the Attribute function.

Default report attribute

This indicates the default attribute to use for reports.

Add

Ad an attribute.

Change

Maintain an existing attribute.

Delete

Delete an attribute.

Close

Exit from the attribute function.

Attribute Maintenance
Field Description
Description

Indicate up to 30 characters to be the description for the attribute.

Start attribute

Enter a string of characters to be sent to the printer before the report is printed (30 characters for report type attributes and 60 characters for field type attributes).

End attribute

Enter a string of characters to be sent to the printer once printing of the report is complete (30 characters for report type attributes and 60 characters for field type attributes).

The code entered here is aimed at disabling the start attribute sent before printing.

Entry mode

ASCII

Select this to indicate that the entered print codes represent ASCII characters. To enter a control character, use a ^ followed by the control character required.

[Note]

The Esc character is simulated by the ^[ characters.

Hexadecimal

Indicate that the entered print codes represent hexadecimal characters.

OK

Accept your selections and to return to the previous screen.

Cancel

Ignore your selections and to return to the previous screen.

Head of Form

Field Description
Report head of form options

HOF at beginning of report

Select this to perform a form feed before printing each standard SYSPRO report.

HOF at end of report

Select this to perform a form feed at the end of printing each SYSPRO report.

Stationery head of form options

HOF between each document

Select this to perform a form feed between each document when printing multiple pre-printed stationery documents within SYSPRO.

HOF at end of document

Select this to perform a form feed at the end of each pre-printed stationery document printed within SYSPRO.

Client/Server

Field Description
Client/Server printing

Print to Client

Select this to enable printing to occur at the client workstation. This is particularly useful in a wide area networking scenario where the physical distance between the client and server workstations makes printing to the server impractical.

Print to Server

Select this to enable printing to the server.

[Note]

you can only select this option when your printer is defined as a Unix spooler printer type.

Setting the paper size and margins

This task applies only to non-Windows printers.

  1. Select Printer Setup from the SYSPRO File menu.

  2. Highlight a printer to maintain and select Change.

  3. From the Setup tab, select Paper.

  4. Indicate the page dimensions required for the printing of your reports.

  5. Select OK to save the page dimensions you entered.