> Setting Up the Printer

Associate specific printers with users and user groups as well as work order functions by defining devices and setting printer properties.

Before printing a Datastream 7i report, choose the device type (usually the default, i.e., Printer) and specify a name and description.

  For Microsoft Windows users

 In Windows 95, the contents of Destination must match the label displayed next to the printer icon on the Windows 95 Printers dialog (choose Settings | Printers from the Windows 95 Start menu to view the list of printers defined in Windows 95).

  

  For UNIX users

 All printer queues referenced from Datastream 7i must be known to Oracle. This is the case if they are defined in the file UIPRINT.TXT. Refer to the Developer 6i documentation to learn how to find this file on the system. The file contains examples for specifying the printer.

Follow these steps to set up the printer.

  1. Open the Devices form (BMDEVS).

  2. Click the Record view tab. Datastream 7i displays the Record view page.

  3. Code—Enter a device code to link the device to an individual user.

  4. Organization—Click to select the organization to which the printer belongs if you use multi-organization security.

  5. Device—Click to select the device to set up.

  6. Destination—Enter a unique destination identifying the full printer name.

Enter a destination only if the device name does not match this name. You might need to define a full printer name if you want to define network printers in a Microsoft Windows environment (particularly Windows 3.11). Examples of full printer names are HP LaserJet 4/4M, LPT1 or NEC Pinwriter P7, //printserver/NECP7.

Note that in the Windows 95 environment, you can define a network printer with a simpler name, which can then be specified as the destination without any punctuation marks. In Windows NT, you must type the complete network path of the printer.

If you want to specify two printers pointing to the same print queue on a Unix system, e.g., one for character mode printing and the other for PostScript output, you can define one printer with the same name as the queue. The other printer would have another name and queue name specified as the destination.

  1. Driver—Enter a printer driver only when you print from a Unix system to character mode printers (i.e., printers that do not support PostScript or HP PCL). Your Oracle*Reports installation includes a number of predefined drivers for a wide range of printers. Refer to the Developer 6i installation manual.

  2. Mode—Click to select an output mode.

If you set the mode to Default, it equals that of the platform on which your Datastream 7i application runs, i.e., Bitmap when it runs on any Windows system (Microsoft Windows, X-Windows, MacOS, etc.), but Character when it runs on a character mode terminal (Unix or VMS). On Unix systems, you can force the printer to print in one of these modes by specifically choosing the mode.

  1. Orientation—Click to select paper orientation.

  2. Category (check box)—Select to use the printer specification as a category for easier definition of a number of similar printers.

  3. Category—Click to select a category for a printer. Datastream 7i copies the Driver and Mode from the category.

  4. Special—Select if you have defined the printer for a specific task, e.g., label printing. This printer will not appear in regular lists within Datastream 7i, other than when assigning the printer to a particular function.

  5. Choose File | Save from the menu bar. Datastream 7i saves the information to the database.