Device Management

You can print LN reports on different types of devices, for example output files and printers.

LN Device Management provides functionality to perform these actions:

  • Manage and monitor output devices attached to the LN infrastructure, such as network printers or file-oriented devices.
  • Manage the Infor printer queues and device settings.

This online manual topic describes the purpose and features of Device Management, and gives an overview of the corresponding procedures and sessions.

This topic includes:

  • An overview of device management
  • The device management procedures
  • The device management sessions
Overview

One of LN ’s most important tasks is to generate output. Raw data is fed into LN and processed into reports, sales invoices, paychecks, and so on. Before you can print the data that is processed by LN, you must first make sure that the printers in your company are supported by your operating system.

Before LN carries out a print job, the print job is stored in a temporary file in the ${BSE_TMP} directory. The print jobs are automatically removed by the printer daemon when the print jobs are printed. The number of hours between handling a print request and deleting the temporary file is called delete delay time.

A record is created for each print request in the printer queue table (ttaad320). The print request records are not automatically removed when the report is printed. Therefore, you must use LN ’s device management to purge the printer queue table.

Supported devices and logical printers

If some physical printers in your company are located in close proximity, you can group them in one logical printer. LN ’s printer daemon checks the paper types of the printers in the logical printer and then directs the output to the first printer in the logical printer with the paper type that is required for the print job.

Device management supports a whole range of device types. In LN an output device can be:

  • A printer. A physical printer in a UNIX environment. The print job is sent to a temporary file on the server and queued to the selected printer.
  • A logical printer. A group of physical printers. LN sends the output data to a printer in this group.
  • A screen. The output data is presented in a display browser on your monitor.
  • An append file. An attachment file in which LN stores the output of a process. If the file does not exist, the file is automatically created.
  • A rewrite file. An attachment file in which LN stores recurring data. If the file does not exist, the file is automatically created. Existing files are overwritten.
  • Direct (UNIX only). A device type, which you can use, if you do not want the print job to be handled by the printer daemon. In the Device Queue field in the Device Data (ttaad3100s000) details session, you must enter the UNIX command to direct the print job to the desired printer.
  • Windows printer A physical printer that is supported by Microsoft Windows. The print job is sent by the client to a temporary file on the server. LN ’s print tool, BWPrint, is started and directs the print job to the selected printer.

In the Authorization Management System (AMS) you can define a device preference list in a template. You can link this template to a group of users with the same role in your company. For more information, see To define templates for AMS and to Creating an LN user.

Paper types and associated fonts

With device management you can define the paper types, fonts, and dimensions of the sheets of paper on which you can print reports. LN can generate different types of output, each of which must be printed on a specific paper type. The paper that is loaded in the physical printers must be suitable for the particular output.

A paper type indicates the characteristics of the paper on which the output can be printed. You can define specific paper types for every type of output. For example, if you want to print paychecks, you must define the characteristics of the preprinted checks that must be loaded in the printer.

Default report settings

The report defaults define the default paper type and font for a report. These values are displayed in the device selection window, which appears when you start the Select Device (ttstpsplopen ) session.

Device queue data

Every print request, except the request of printer type Direct, is added to the device queue.

LN uses the status of the print job in the device queue to:

  • Restart the print job.
  • Preserve the print job.
  • Display the print job.

The printer queue data tells you who made the print request, the contents of the request, and the time it was started up. It also shows to which device the print job is directed, and the status of the print request.

Procedures

The Device Management module contains:

Related topics