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1992-03-07
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QView: Multiple print queue monitor program v1.4
Copyright (c) 1992 All rights reserved
by: Stephen Herzog
herzogs@ucs.orst.edu
herzogs@prism.cs.orst.edu
ABSTRACT:
QView is a small Novell utility that will display up to 21
print queues and monitor for duplicate print jobs. QView
can be configured to display only some queues, or it can
seek all queues available. When QView is given queue
operator rights, it can be configured to delete duplicate
print jobs. QView will also notify the user when a file is
deleted and if desired, notify a consultant or other
designated user as specified in the QView.ini file.
QView can also keep a log file of all printing activity.
QView was written to be used on a low end IBM computer.
However it will work on any speed machine. The display is
in ASCII characters, so all monitor types are compatible
with QView.
The most productive use of this program is to place a
dedicated machine next to a printer bay and allow QView to
run constantly. Users will be able to see at glance where
their jobs are in the print queue.
I originally wrote this program to be placed next to 12
printers to ward off a few hundred questions from students
who had "lost" their printouts and were printing duplicate
copies while waiting for the print jobs to be spooled by the
servers, something that can take a while on a busy network.
One of QView's major advantages is that it will also monitor
the print queue for duplicate jobs. When a user prints, and
it does not pop out of the printer immediately they
sometimes print again, without waiting. Only the oldest
non-active job will be deleted. This helps to ensure that
if the user makes a change, or switches printers that it
would not delete the updated print job. When a user prints
a duplicate job to another queue, the first one they sent
will be deleted and thus, the most recent copy is left. One
thing to note is that active and loading jobs are not
tampered with. The "duplicate" status only occurs when the
job owner, banner, station, and file size are all the same
between two jobs in any queues at the same time.
Another major advantage of QView is the oversize job delete
function. When configured, QView will delete all print jobs
over a specified range. Again, QView will not delete active
or loading jobs.
WHAT'S NEW:
Since the First release,(v1.1b) I have added a few features, and
fixed a few problems.
* An option to delete oversized jobs has been added.
Use with care. Jobsize does not reflect number of pages.
A graphics print job can be up to 1/2 meg per page,
when a page of text may only be 1k in size. PostScript
is also much larger than ASCII text.
* Originally, QView would display only the banner name
from the print job owner. Some applications do not
send a banner name, so the line on the screen was left
blank. QView now substitutes the username if the banner
name is blank.
* The first release of QView had a compatibility problem
NW 3.11. This has been fixed. The symptoms were
random lockups of the workstation running QView.
Since the second release,(v1.2) I have fixed the following problem.
* Qview exited if there was more than 21 jobs waiting in
any of the print queues that Qview was monitoring. Qview
will only monitor the first 21 jobs in a queue. If more
than 21 jobs are in a queue, the ones over 21 will not be
watched for duplicates.
Since the last release,(v1.3) I have added the following.
* Qview now exits with a dos errorlevel equal to that of the
current hour. e.g. if QView exits at 5pm it will have a
dos errorlevel of 17. This can be used for machines that use
the cycleing feature. set QView's run time to 30 minutes, and
check for an errorlevel of 4 and then your batch file can do
a special process at 4am.
* QView can be configured to show the job owner name or the banner
name. This is useful for some windows applications.
* Jobs that have been in the queue too long can be removed. You
may specify an age (minutes) that a job will be removed.
* QView now has a Log File option. This is useful for monitoring
all the printing activity of your printers. The log file will
record the job owner, banner, size, date, time, queue, server, and
job number for every job, and it will add an additional line for
jobs that are deleted by QView with a reason for deletion. If
your QView exits, it will re-log all the jobs that are currently
in the queue. You should look at the file very carefully before
you start charging people for printing. The file also has some
nul (ASCII 0) characters in it. Some word processors will
choke on this. Use a search and replace to remove these.
PLEASE NOTE: This does not count pages, only file size in bytes.
Future improvements:
* I have a future version that will allow Macintosh workstations
to print to a HPIIIsi PostScript printer. This works very well,
and is very fast. This should work with any PostScript printer,
however I have not had the opportunity to try it on anything but
the HP. Our setup includes Novell 2.15c and ver 2.0 of the
Dayna Appletalk Print Gateway. The Print Queue is created with
the MacSetup Program, and then the HPIIIsi is allowed to service
the queue. Qview monitors for APPLETALK jobs, and prepends the
Macintosh MD dictionary to the beginning of the print job.
IBM jobs are not tampered with. The HPs also continue to
do language switching. This would allow the machines to print
banner pages as well.
This release(v1.4) does not have this option. If enough people
want this option, I will add it in, and release a new version.
THE SYMBOLS:
When QView is running it has several status symbols next to
the displayed user name (banner name). These are listed below.
(spinning slash) Active. Sending document to printer.
(expanding = ) Loading and the file size is changing.
R Ready and waiting for printer.
L Loading, but file size is unchanged.
H Holding (by operator or user)
The displayed user name is the banner name for the print job.
Macintosh machines will show the name from the chooser window
in the banner name. All macintosh print jobs have a username of
APPLETALK however, the banner name will reflect the individual
workstation that sent the job. If the banner name field is empty,
the print job owner name is substituted.
The print job size will be displayed to the right of the
job owner if there is room.
Once QView is running you may press ESC to quit. No other
keystrokes will have any affect.
SETUP:
QView can be configured using a file named QVIEW.INI An
example file is shown below. Save this with an ascii file
in the search path. If you want only the default values,
delete the sample qview.ini file provided.
* Note: Commands must be in the order shown below, or
completely omitted.
Clobber
Chastise
Notify CONSULTANT
MaxJobs 10
LogFile f:\lab\meter\printing.log
Jobsize 2000000
Age 30
Owner
runtime 5
speed 7
Display queues
kerrlab3 1apple1queue
kerrlab3 2apple2queue
kerrlab3 3apple3queue
kerrlab3 4apple4queue
kerrlab2 5apple5queue
kerrlab2 6apple6queue
kerrlab2 7apple7queue
kerrlab2 printq_0
kerrlab1 printq_2
kerrlab1 printq_3
Kerrlab3 printq_8
kerrlab3 printq_9
All of the commands are defined below. As noted, this software
is a bit picky about this file, so the file must be entered
without any typing errors. No extra spaces at the end of
the line, or in the middle, and the commands must be left in
the order you see. You may omit commands, just do not
rearrange the order.
CLOBBER Delete all found duplicate jobs. Omit this line
to prevent this deleting. Default is off
CHASTISE Send a warning to users telling them that they
shouldn't print multiple print jobs. (Only if
notify is on) Default is off
NOTIFY Send a message to a user stating a duplicate or
oversize has been found. Useful for lab
monitors (consultants)
MAXJOBS After x jobs are in the queue, send a message to
a user (CONSULTANT) specified by NOTIFY about the
queue status. Also, it turns the queue window red.
Default is 15
LOGFILE Keep a log file of all printing activity. This file is
opened only for writing, so you can copy it from a network
drive, but QView will not write to it when it is open.
JOBSIZE Delete all print jobs over x size (in bytes)
if CLOBBER is on. If CLOBBER is off, just notify
the user about the oversize job. Default is
off.
AGE After a job is x minutes old it will be removed if
CLOBBER is on.
OWNER Force Qview to display the job's owner login name
and not the banner.
RUNTIME Run for x minutes before exiting. This is useful
for dedicated machines. Ours is set to exit every
5 minutes and delete temp files from a directory.
Have a cycling batch file to call qview, and your
other program alternately. Default is 100
minutes before exiting
SPEED Controls how fast the QView queries the servers.
Speed varies form 1 to 10. 10 being fastest.
Increased speed increases accuracy, but degrades
performance of the servers. Default is 10
(fastest)
DISPLAY QUEUES Display the following list of print queues.
format is SERVERNAME QUEUENAME as shown above.
If no queues are specified, or the DISPLAY QUEUES
line is omitted, QView will seek all available
print queues.
This is the third release of this program. Hopefully, I have
removed all the problems now. If you register your copy,
I will be sure to notify you as improvements are made
and bugs are fixed. Registered users are also entitled to free
upgrades. (Such as Macintosh Printing to HPIIIsi printers)
As noted, I would like to hear any input anyone has on this
program. You may reach me at the following Email or USmail
addresses. (see end of file)
Please Note:
I currently a student at Oregon State University.
The University is in no way related to this program,
so please refer all questions to me, and not the University.
They have been gracious enough to allow me to distribute
this program through their internet access in exchange for
a site registration for the program.
ShareWare ***
I am asking a $25 (US Dollars) fee for this software to
compensate for my time and resources I used to write this
program. About 150 hours were invested in this project. I
have several other projects that are on the back burner now,
but if this venture proves to be worth my effort, I will be
inclined to release the other programs I am working on as
well. After all, think of how many user's questions this
will answer at the glance of a monitor.
NagWare ***
In the 6 months that this program has been out, I have received over
200 suggestions, requests, complaints, and questions, but I have only
had 2 people register this software. With this in mind I have added
a gentle reminder to register this software. Once registered, I will
send you a personalized patch to make this go away. The reminder will
not affect the functionality of this program.
FTP sites are not to publish this patch with this software.
Send all questions, comments, or registration fees to:
Stephen Herzog
3930 Witham Hill Dr. Apt 147-P
Corvallis, OR 97330 USA
(503) - 758 - 0955
herzogs@ucs.orst.edu
herzogs@prism.cs.orst.edu