Customizing the CA Ideal Environment › Managing and Administering Print Services › Network Printer Definition Considerations

Network Printer Definition Considerations

When defining network printers, you can specify additional characteristics and hardware overrides. These characteristics include:

• Formfeed control
• Header and trailer pages
• Print line width

An output printed at a network printer can be logically viewed as five separate components, four of which are optional.

1. Initial Formfeed
2. Header Section
   1. Header Text
   2. Header Formfeed
3. Output
4. Trailer Section
   1. Trailer Formfeed
   2. Trailer Text
5. Final Formfeed

   <<Formfeed>>
   

   Initial Formfeed generated if FF=YES or FF=HEADER

Header Section printed if HEADER = YES

**************************************************************
*
*
*   Start of output listing on printer PR17,  Date 06/27/04 at  12:06:11  
*
*   User name    $IDEAL           User ID       $ID
*
*   Output name          WORDNUHS       Output number 0192
*
*   Output destination   NETWORK PR17   Originating terminal 0008
*
*   Output description   LIST STATEMENT OUTPUT
*
*
**************************************************************

Output * (always printed)

<<Formfeed>>
                      (BEGINNING OF OUTPUT
                                .
                                .
                                .
                          (END OF OUTPUT)

Trailer Section printed if TRAILER=YES

<<Formfeed>>
***************************************************************
*   End of output listing on printer PR17,  Date 06/27/04 at  12:006:13
*
**************************************************************

<<Formfeed>>

Final Formfeed generated if FF=YES or FF=TRAILER

The following is a detailed explanation of some of the options used when defining or modifying network printer definitions. The commands that use these options are DEFINE OUTPUT DESTINATION NETWORK and ALTER OUTPUT DESTINATION. For more information about these commands, see the Command Reference Guide.

    {YES    }
FF  {NO     }
    {HEADER }
    {TRAILER}

Controls the PSS generated formfeeds at the beginning and end of an output routed to a network printer.

FF

• YES-A formfeed is issued at the start and end of the print by PSS. This option results in blank pages between PSS outputs printed consecutively. Use this option when non-PSS outputs printed to the same printer do not generate consistent formfeed control.
• NO-No formfeeds are issued at the start or end of the print by PSS. This option prints outputs on the same page between PSS outputs printed consecutively. Use this option when the printer does not have a fixed page size, such as rolled paper.
• HEADER-A formfeed is issued at the beginning of each new print. This insures that each PSS print starts at the beginning of a new page. Use this option to provide compatibility with the workings of non-PSS output that can also print to the same printer.
• TRAILER-A formfeed is issued at the completion of each print. This option places the printer at the top of a blank page after each PSS print is complete. Use this option to remove the printed output from the printer when it is complete without having to wait for the next printout to start or manually intervening with the printer.

The values HEADER and TRAILER associated with the FF parameter are independent from the HEADER and TRAILER parameters.

PERTASK nnn

Determines how many outputs can process during one print transaction for a specified printer. If the network printer is dedicated to a single CICS region, define this option as 0 to allow the minimum initialization and termination overhead. Set a number greater than 0 to reduce the amount of time PSS can monopolize a printer after a printer is disabled because of physical attributes associated with the printer or the termination of the region.

WIDTH

If greater than 0, the value determines the default width of the printer. If 0, the site option Default network printer width on SET OUT SITE is used. If the Default network printer width is also defined as 0, the TCT definition for the network printer determines the printer width.