NOS Independent Print Commands (AREV Specific)
At 05 FEB 1999 03:30:39PM Craig Mundell wrote:
I would like to find out if anyone knows of a way to make print commands that aren't specific to one particular operating system. We currently use CAPTURE and NET USE for the Novell and NT systems, but we would like a way to easily go from one to the other without constantly having to rewrite all of the commands.
At 05 FEB 1999 09:24PM Matt Sorrell wrote:
Craig,
Let me preface this with the statement that I don't know of a generic capture command. But, if your app is frequently ported between OS's, then perhaps one approach would be to place a flag in either an .ini file or in a data table somwhere that would be specific to that workstation. Then, anytime you need to print, you access the .ini location and determine which command you need to use. For the greatest extensibility, I would place the actual command needed to capture the printer in the .ini location.
This way all you have to do is modify your .ini, and not recompile code. Of course, it is always a good idea to code in a default value in case the .ini gets blown away for some reason.
Matt Sorrell
msorrell@movgal.com
"The views, opinions, and judgements expressed in this message are solely those of the author. The message contents have not been reviewed or approved by Movie Gallery."
At 06 FEB 1999 01:17AM Curt Putnam wrote:
It may be that the only generic solution is to print to disk and then either TYPE to PRN or Copy to LPT1. Alternatively, put that last command in a file that gets read for every report.
Check out RawPrint at www.perilous.com
At 06 FEB 1999 03:04AM Steve Smith wrote:
How come you don't mind having to install different AREV network drivers on different LANs, and each printer on each site is different, yet you object to configure the print spooling command?
If I was trying to do this automatically, I'd use a routine from
my website to get the Novell version. If this returned zero, I'd use an NT command, else I'd use a Novell capture command. You'd need to determine the queue names - there are routines for this as well under Novell.
Another tack is to call your application from a batch file, and have the spooling command set there ahead of AREV. Then your application only has to use the PRN device and can ignore the LAN it's on.
Steve
At 06 FEB 1999 01:57PM Jocelyn Amon wrote:
A have Arev software that I have developed that can be (relatively) easily be modified to handle different networks. At the momemnt it works great with Novell. The NT equivalents need to be 'plugged in'.
At the moment it caters for different paper size, fonts, printers, servers and output (to file, display or print).
It solves a lot of the headaches associated with Arev and printing e.g. extra page output, wrong formats associated with output etc.
Please contact me if further interested.
finsol@ts.co.nz