Does this scenario sound familiar? A user is printing
reports but they come out of the wrong printer. Where do you change the
printout to print on the right printer? Is it in the program? In the
user profile? In the printer file?
There are many places where a spooled file can be directed to a printer:
printer file, job description, user profile, device description, system
value, and then there are those nice printer overrides that can be very
convenient, but could just as easily add to the confusion. Welcome to
the wonderful world of spooling!
If the final destination of a report has to be changed, the first thing
you have to know is the name of the report (the 'FILE' name how it
appears in your spooled files) this is usually the name of the printer
file used to create the report.
You could specify the out queue right
there, but this would mean that this report would always be sent to that
queue -- for every user. This could be just fine for some spooled files
(i.e. invoices to be send out can be printed on the invoice printer
that is filled with special paper.)
You can also use job descriptions to
send the spooled files to the correct out queue (i.e. all prints
requested in the test environment could be send to a test queue that
has no printer attached. Most reports would have to be printed on
different printers based on the user who requested the printout (i.e.
department printers.) Another option is to print based on the workstation
(i.e. prints requested by any user working on the computer at the
loading dock.)
We have four areas that we steer the spooled file to: PRTF, JOBD,
USRPRF, and DEVD. If that is not enough for you, these four areas all have two
values that can control your spooling: out queue name and printer
device.
Sounds complicated but it's not really that bad. Look at the graphical
flow of the spooled file here.
Simply follow the arrows and you will end up on some out queue or printer.
The red values are the defaults when creating the various objects.
Note:
If all objects have been created with default values for the out queue and the
printer, you will end up in the printer specified in the system value
QPRTDEV.
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