Direct Print Changes for OI 10.2

Accessible from both OpenInsight and AREV64, DirectPrint output mostly bypasses Windows printer drivers to write directly to a print queue. The AREV PRINTER ON, PRINTER OFF, and PDISK commands use DirectPrint.

Newer Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 11, do not support the 9.x version of DirectPrint. For example, in OI 9.x’s AREV32 running on Windows 11, a list statement with a (P option produces no output, while using the PDisk command may produce only a blank file. OpenInsight 10.2 has been updated to work with Windows 11 and Windows Server 2019. Some configuration may be required, depending on the printer you wish to print to, however.

The CFG_DIRECTPRINT configuration record can be placed in the SYSENV table. It can be defined globally, or per-application (by appending “*<appid>” to the configuration name), or per-user (by appending “**<userid>” to the configuration name), or per-application/per-user (by appending “*<appid>*<userid>” to the configuration name).

You can use the OIConsole to enter the details into this configuration record, or you can update it manually via the Record Editor.

OIConsole configuration editor

The CFG_DIRECTPRINT record controls advanced functionality for the Direct Print printing engine. Field 1 can be set to 1 if you wish to have any spaces converted to underscores (“_”) when output is generated to a file rather than a printer. Field 2 can contain an @VM delimited list of printer names, while field 3 contains an associated @VM delimited list of the “data type” the associated printer supports. The data type is normally RAW, XPS_PASS, or TEXT, and is determined by the printer itself. For printers that are not defined in this record, DirectPrint will try to automatically determine the data type to use.

Note that if your DirectPrint printer does not generate output, you may need to explicitly set, or change, the “data type” associated with it.

Example CFG_DIRECTPRINT