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Configure Print Server

The Print Server Administration Form is a helpful graphical assistance when in comes to administrating IFS
Print Servers on Windows NT/2000/XP. The Print Server Administration Form is located under the Installation
section in the IFS Solution Manager. Its always recommended to read the Print Server documentation before
entering this administration form. The documentation includes a description of all parameters used by the Print
Server Administration form.

Contents

Print Server Administration Functionality

Create a New Print Server Instance

Delete a Print Server Instance

Edit the Parameters for a Print Server Instance

Start Print Server Instance

Run/Stop Print Server instance as NT-service

IFS Print Server technical details

Print Server Administration Functionality

The Print Server Administration can be used for:

Creating and Deleting Print Server instances

Editing the parameters for each Print Server instance

Starting Print Server instances

Starting and Stopping Print Server instances as a NT-Service.

The Print Server Administration form

By default, the Print Server is not included in the Foundation1 Base Server Runtime and must therefore be
installed first. Run the Setup.exe provided with the Foundation1 Base Server installation and select Server
Environment as Type of Installation and IFS Print Server as Components.

The options in Setup.exe

By completing the installation wizard (Setup.exe), the following files are installed in the Foundation1 Base
Server runtime directory:

File
Description
PrintSrv.exe

The Print Server application

ifssrv.exe

The application that registers a NT-service. This application can be used separately to install or
remove a NT-service.
Run ifssrv.exe -? for more information.

PrintServer.ifm

The parameter file that contain all information about the print server instance. (This file is only a
template, used to create other parameter files)

Create a new Print Server Instance

Once the Print Server installation is fulfilled, the Print Server Administration form can create a new instance of a
Print Server. Click the RMB option New. Following dialog will appear:

The form for creating new Print Servers

Instance ID: The unique name identifying the IFS Print Server instance. (Once the field is entered, default text
will automatically appear in the remaining fields.)
Name: The full name/description of the Print Server instance.
Parameter Filename: The path to the parameter file.
Credentials: The Print Server must have a valid user that it uses to connect to a database. In Foundation1
there is a predefined user called IFSPRINT that can be used for running the Print Server. This user is granted
the role FND_PRINTSERVER that includes the needed privileges to run the Print Server. Read more about the
predefined users in Foundation1.
Please note that the IFSPRINT account is default locked and must be unlocked before used. Read more about
how to unlock user accounts.
By pressing the OK button, following files will be created in the runtime directory:

File
Description
IFSPrintServerMAIN.ifm

The parameter file containing default attributes for the Print Server MAIN

IFS Print Server Main

A shortcut used to start the Print Server instance named MAIN. The shortcut itself simply
start a PrintServer.exe and uses the above stated .ifm file as parameter like:

(shortcut)

"<FNDBAS Root>\PrintSrv.exe" "<FNDBAS

Root>\IFSPrintServerMAIN.ifm"

The Print Server Administration form will read all .ifm files and shortcuts that belong to the Print Server from the
runtime directory and list them.

Delete a Print Server Instance

To delete a Print Server, simply select it press the RMB option Remove. The .ifm file and the shortcut will both
be removed from the runtime directory.

Edit the Parameters for a Print Server Instance

Select a Print Server from the list and press RMB option Properties (or simply double click on the Print
Server instance). This will bring up the properties dialog where all possible Print Server parameters are listed
and can be edited.
The following tabs are described below:

General, Connection, Archive, Printers, Search Paths, Service

Properties - General

Default print language: The default print language (global default, this may be overridden by the print job or by
the report). Reports that dont have a specific print language will use the global language as default.
Check queue: Number of seconds between the check of the print queue. If a print job has been queued during
that time, it will be fetched and executed.
Log Filename: The full path to the log file where all information output from the Print Server will be written.
Max Items: Determines how many log entries that should be kept in the History field on the screen. All entries
older than this value will be lost.
Hide error message: When checked, will not show any error dialogs. All errors will only be written to the
history log file.
Include debug information: When checked, writes extended information in the History log file (for debug
purposes only).

Properties - Connection

Credentials: The Print Server must have a valid user that it uses to connect to a database. In Foundation1
there is a predefined user called IFSPRINT that can be used for running the Print Server. This user is granted
the role FND_PRINTSERVER that includes the needed privileges to run the Print Server. Read more about the
predefined users in Foundation1.
Please note that the IFSPRINT account is default locked and must be unlocked before used. Read more about
how to unlock user accounts.
Notification: The Foundation1 user which should be treated as an Administrator and receive all the
notifications messages (e.g. a mail when a Print Server starts).

Properties - Archive

Archiving: Checked if the Print Server should store the executed reports as PDF files for archiving.
Archive Directory: The print destination points at the physical report archive that will hold the PDF files.
Multi Language Support: This option should be enabled in order to convert characters that are not in the
western-European and US character sets (ex: eastern- European and far eastern characters). The conversion
in this case is however less efficient and files tend to be much larger in size.

Properties - Printers

Printers: Specify the printers that the print server should be able to use. Assign one or several physical printers
with logical printers.

Properties - Search Paths

QRP-Location: Path to QRP to tell the PrintServer where QRP-files should initially be searched for. Normal
path's are still used if the QRP-file is not located in the specified directory.
Layout Location: Specify the root for Crystal Reports Layout files, used by the Crystal Reports Print Server
Plug-in. The Print Server will search for the Crystal Layout Files in this path, appended with the documents
language code. For example if the layout root is set to d:\layouts - The Print Server will look for Danish layout
files in d:\layouts\da, Swedish layout files in d:\layouts\se and English (and PROG) layout files in d:\layouts\en.
If a layout file is not found for a specific language, the <en> directory will be checked also.

Properties - Service

Service: The Name of the System Service (Information Only)

Display Name: The full System Service name (can be viewed in the Control Panel)
Log Service Output: Enable if the System Service should write information to a log file.
Log Filename: The full path to the System Service Output log file.
Command Line: Command line is the line that starts the print server program Printsrv.exe from the NT-service.
Restart Delay: Startup frequency during e.g. temporary problems with the database or network.
Check Interval: The number of second to wait between checking the ProgressIndicator field in the Windows
Registry. The Print Server sub-process will be restarted if this field has not been modified during Check
Interval second.
Restart Threshold: If the Print Server sub-process aborts abnormally, it will automatically restart but only if it
happens after the first Restart Threshold second of execution.
Note! When running the IFS Print Server as a NT/2000/XP-server, make sure to change the user from system
to some other NT-user on the server with the physical printers stated in the parameter file installed. As default,
Windows NT/2000/XP will use the system account to run the NT-service and this will result in, that no physical
printers will be available for the Print Server. In the services window in Windows NT/2000/XP, use the startup
option for the Print Server service to change the user. More information about this option is available in the
general Print Server section below.
Make sure that the user you logged on NT with is granted into the Administrators group on the NT computer.
This makes sure that the user can fully administrate the NT computer.

Print Server Connections and Report Archiving

Use the Print Server Connections and Report Archiving section found towards the bottom of the Print Server
Administration Form to set up the Print Server Connections and the default option to archive reports.
Print Server Connections: Enables the Print Server connection on current database. By unchecking it, no
Print Servers at all will be able to connect to current database.
Report Archiving: This server parameter controls if all reports should be archived or if some other default
behavior should be used.

Start Print Server instance

A Print Server instance can be started by one of the following:
1. The RMB option Start
2. Double-click the shortcut IFS Print Server Main
3. Entering the full path to the Print Server and its .ifm file from the command prompt (as done in the
shortcut file).

Run/Stop Print Server instance as NT-service

To start the Print Server as a NT-service, select it and press the RMB option Install as system service. This
will actually NOT start the Print Server, only initialize the NT-Service. All further administration regarding the NTService must be made in the Control Panel (Starting/Stopping/Scheduling etc).
To stop the Print Server as a NT-service, select it and press the RMB option Remove as system service.
This will delete the NT-service from the service list (found in Control Panel). NOTE! Make sure the NT-service is
not active (running) when deleting it.