AS400 TCPIP & IPDS Printing

What is an output queue as400

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:48:48 +0000

iSeries output queues are a valuable network management technique that can be used to get OS/400 spool file information to where it belongs.

There are two types of output queues. Those associated with a device description (printer) and remote outq’s.

Remote outq’s have no device associated with them by default. An AS400 Remote outq redirects the spool file via the TCP/IP LPR/LPD protocol to a remote system.

There are various ways to create or configure an AS400 remote outque to print to a WAN/LAN or network printer.

Creating and outq using the AS400 host table, retaining the static IP address.
Not using the host table but creating with a static or hard code IP address
Using the host name from your DNS server and the remote address or IP address is only in one place for better management.

The Brooks Remote Print Manager supports the iSeries remote outq’s extensively with complete support of all SCS formatting instructions and EBCDIC to ASCII character conversion.

For more information, please read our page on how to set up an AS400 outq.

What file type does the AS400 support

admin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:50:49 +0000

What file type does the AS400 support? Spool files native the iSeries are SCS, AFPDS, IPDS, LINE, and USERASCII. SCS are the standard text documents and there is a constant battle trying to receive SCS documents on the Windows side of the network.

Preserving the SCS formatting coming off the iSeries is a concern for many IT managers utilizing the AS400. Most print servers, especially hardware print servers, do not keep SCS codes if the No Line Formatting option is selected for 3270 print sessions. Once this happens, the print job will not render as desired, completely ignoring the SCS formatting instructions. RPM print server allows you to preserve all SCS formatting instructions, while at the same time bringing your spool file into the Windows world.

AFPDS & IPDS contain graphics, AFP Fonts, Barcodes, and text are also native to the iSeries printing arena. All can be modified and moved into the Windows world for manipulation or distribution.

LINE is FCB data and USERASCII is PC ASCII text data.

Affordable AS400 to Windows Printing

The Brooks Remote Print Manager can receive the SCS data and convert the EBCDIC characters to ASCII characters and convert “ALL” the SCS formatting instructions to the appropriate PC printer commands.

The Brooks ExcelliPrint can receive the AFPDS & IPDS data and convert to PC formats as PDF, PCL, EMF, GDI, TIFF, & GIF. These formats can be archived and sent to a Windows printer. You can get away from buying and maintaining expensive IPDS capable printers with ExcelliPrint software.

AS400 Finishing Functions

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:32:06 +0000

Using RPM Remote Print Manager you can apply the many Windows printer finishing functions to new and legacy reports! Various finishing functions as Duplexing, Stapling, Sorting, Water Marks, Orientation, and tray selection can greatly improve the quality and presentation time of your reports. RPM allows your AS/400 print jobs to come out the way YOU want them to!

The RPM Remote Print Manager “Text Queue” can apply any and all the finishing functions that the print driver supports to the report.

Text printing allows RPM to adapt text to any Windows printer using the print driver. The ability to handle many text formats intelligently, while providing a simple interface, has been a key reason for administrators and other IT professionals to make the switch from their existing print server to RPM.

Flexible Finishing Functions for AS400 Spool Files

Select the printer and the setup
Margins, both soft margins set by the user and printer margins
Control the font
Wrap or truncate lines
Show bold & overstrike
Suppress banner pages
Suppress blank pages

Printer

RPM lets you print to any Windows printer available to the PC; text printing goes one step farther by using the printer settings you select.

For instance, open a queue and select the printer, then the orientation (Landscape vs. Portrait) and the paper size (e.g. Letter vs. A4). Save these settings and RPM will use them whenever a print job is submitted to this queue.

Margins

RPM provides the tools to set page margins, using metric and US units, points and picas. RPM also retrieves the actual printer margins and adjusts as needed.

For instance, certain HP printers have a 0.667 inch margin. Given the default text margin of 0.5 inches, RPM automatically adjusts the printed margins, font scaling, line placement and wrapping as needed.

Blank Pages

By default, RPM will not print any page that contains only white space (non-printing characters). This has proved to be a significant cost savings to many of our users.

Banner Page

The LPD specification states that a banner page prints by default and that the print client must suppress it. However, this is not practical in many situations, so RPM supports an option to suppress the banner, whether requested by the print client or not.

Lines

RPM can wrap or truncate lines, using either the margins or the line length.

Bold & Overstrike

RPM recognizes the backspace character (Ctrl+H or 0×08) as a command to overprint. RPM also recognizes line segments, which end in line feed or form feed, using carriage return as a command to return to the left margin. This format is used by many legacy systems such as mainframes and AS/400s.

Fonts

RPM allows the user to select any font supported by the designated printer. However, if the user specifies a non-ASCII code page then RPM will limit the choice of fonts, if that code page uses a special character set.

RPM also gives you fine control over the font size. You can:

Select the font and size using the Windows font dialog
Specify the lines per inch or the lines per page (within the top and bottom margins)
Specify the characters per inch or line length (between the left and right margins)

This makes it very easy to print if you know the number of lines or columns. Just tell RPM how many lines and/or columns to use, and let it do the rest!

iSeries Printer for Windows

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:26:01 +0000

RPM Remote Print Manager® is software designed to run on a Windows® PC. RPM receives iSeries spool files and will print the file to the locally attached Windows printer. This allows you to get away from purchasing expensive “AS400″ printers or other types of specialized iSeries printers, curbing your mainframe printing costs.

RPM can accecpt print jobs from an iSeries and print the file to ANY printer that can be seen in the Windows print manager. This way you do not have to purchase extra hardware, add maintenance fee’s, or deploy extra upkeep and upgrades. RPM installs in seconds and and you can be receiving and printing your iSeries print jobs in minutes… right on your PC attached printer!

Overlays and Watermarks

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:21:06 +0000

Now you can easily apply a graphical overlay (or Watermark) to an IPDS file and print it to your locally attached printer (or write to disk). ExcelliPrint IPDS Printing Software Premium allows you to get rid of your pre-generated forms and use a non-IPDS printer for all your graphical overlay, watermark, or form generation.

IPDS Watermark: merge form and graphic

iSeries™ or zSeries® generates a file (AFPDS, IPDS, SCS) and the PSF 400 converts the file to IPDS
The file is sent via TCP/IP to a Windows PC with ExcelliPrint installed
ExcelliPrint merges the IPDS file with the Watermark or graphical overlay
ExcelliPrint creates a PDF file
You can send this PDF file to your locally attached printer, network printer, or write to disk

Recent related printing overlay searches: printer overlays, as400 tif afp, as400 overlays, iseries forms overlay

AS400 Dynamic IP Printing

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:12:21 +0000

We have documented how to set up a CL program in the AS/400 so one can print to a queue with a Dynamic IP address. Current RPM Remote Print Manager user’s have provided us with this CL Program. We are providing it for your consideration. Our clients have provided us with this CL Program. We are providing it for your consideration. As you can see, this program does the following:

Prompts the user for the name of the OUTQ (printer) they want to use
Automatically obtains their IP Address.
Notifies the user that the OUTQ’s IP address is being updated.
Updates the OUTQ they provided with their IP address.
Prompts them to update another OUTQ.

This CL program may be used and modified for your needs. It is possible to modify the program to eliminate user interaction and perform the OUTQ update automatically. This program can be placed in the user’s profile to run at the time of login.

*/ SHORT FORM DYNAMIC IP ADDRESS /*
*/ DIALUP CONNECTION /*

*/ LPD: OBTAIN IP ADDRESS OF USER AND MODIFY TCP/IP DEVICE /*
*/ QUEUE TO USE NEW ADDRESS (FIREWALL PRINTING) /*
*/ OS/400 V3.7 /*
*/ /*
PGM

	DCL	VAR(&RECEIVER) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(892)
	DCL	VAR(&DEVICE) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)
	DCL	VAR(&USER) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)
	DCL	VAR(&PRTQ) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)
	DCL	VAR(&CHANGE) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(3)
	DCL	VAR(&ERROR) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(4) +
		VALUE(X’00000000′)
	DCL	VAR(&RCVRLN) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(4)
	DCL	VAR(&FORMAT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(8) +
		VALUE(’DEVD0600′)
	DCL	VAR(&IPADDR) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(15)
	DCL	VAR(&DONEXT) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(1)
	DCL	VAR(&YESNO) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(1)
	DCL	VAR(&PRINTER) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(10)

*/ OBTAIN DEVICE NAME AND USERID /*
	RTVJOBA	JOB(&DEVICE) CURUSER(&USER)
	CHGVAR	VAR(&CHANGE) VALUE(%SST(&USER 1 3))

*/ NAME PRINT QUEUE TO CHANGE /*
	SNDUSRMSG	MSG(’Enter the name of the printer to +
		change!’) MSGTYPE(INQ) TOMSGQ() +
		MSGRPY(&PRINTER)
	CHGVAR	VAR(&PRTQ) VALUE(&PRINTER)

*/ OBTAIN IP ADDRESS /*
	CHGVAR	VAR(%BIN(&RCVRLN)) VALUE(892)
	CALL	PGM(QDCRDEVD) PARM(&RECEIVER &RCVRLN &FORMAT +
		&DEVICE &ERROR)
	CHGVAR	VAR(&IPADDR) VALUE(%SST(&RECEIVER 878 15))

*/ MODIFY OUTQ WITH CURRENT IP ADDRESS /*
	SNDMSG	MSG(’IP address is being updated, it will +
		take about 15 seconds, please wait: +
		<<>>’) TOUSR(*REQUESTER) +
		MSGTYPE(*INFO)
	ENDWTR	WTR(&PRTQ) OPTION(*IMMED)
	MONMSG	MSGID(CPF3313) /* SUPPRESS WRITER NOT STARTED MSG */
	GOTO	CMDLBL(CHGOUTQ)

TRYAGAIN:
	CHGVAR	VAR(&DONEXT) VALUE(’a')
	SNDUSRMSG	MSG(’Enter the name of the printer to +
		change!’) MSGTYPE(INQ) TOMSGQ() +
		MSGRPY(&PRINTER)
	CHGVAR	VAR(&PRTQ) VALUE(&PRINTER)
	SNDMSG	MSG(’IP address is being updated, it will +
		take about 15 seconds, please wait: +
		<<>>’) TOUSR(*REQUESTER) +
		MSGTYPE(*INFO)
	ENDWTR	WTR(&PRTQ) OPTION(*IMMED)
	MONMSG	MSGID(CPF3313) /* SUPPRESS WRITER NOT STARTED MSG */

CHGOUTQ:
	DLYJOB	DLY(15) /* WAIT 15 SECONDS */
	CHGOUTQ	OUTQ(QUSRSYS/&PRTQ) AUTOSTRWTR(1) +
		INTNETADR(&IPADDR)
	MONMSG	MSGID(CPF3319) EXEC(SNDMSG MSG(’UNABLE TO +
		MODIFY IP ADDRESS, WRITER IS CURRENTLY IN +
		USE. (CPF3319)’) TOUSR(&USER))
	MONMSG	MSGID(CPF3357) EXEC(SNDUSRMSG MSG(’Printer +
		not found!, <
		C-Cancel(end program)>>’) VALUES(R C) +
		TOMSGQ(*) MSGRPY(&DONEXT))
	IF	COND(&DONEXT *EQ ‘C’) THEN(GOTO CMDLBL(ENDPGM))
	IF	COND(&DONEXT *EQ ‘R’) THEN(GOTO +
		CMDLBL(TRYAGAIN))

ADDPRT:
	SNDUSRMSG	MSG(’Update another printer address? +
		Yes/No(Y/N)’) VALUES(Y N) MSGTYPE(*INQ) +
		TOMSGQ(*) MSGRPY(&YESNO)
	IF	COND(&YESNO *EQ ‘N’) THEN(GOTO CMDLBL(ENDPGM))
	IF	COND(&YESNO *EQ ‘Y’) THEN(GOTO +
		CMDLBL(TRYAGAIN))

ENDPGM:
	ENDPGM

Character Output Reduction

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:09:00 +0000

RPM AS400 printing software loads on a Windows platform and accepts spool files from the AS400. Below you will find the requirement to print AS400 spool files that were configured to print on 14 7/8 x 11 7/8 green bar paper on standard cut sheet 8.5 x 11 paper size with Landscape orientation. The RPM Text queue can accommodate this option. The configuration is as follows:

RPM Text Queue settings and end result

RPM text queue settings:

Set the printer orientation to Landscape.
Set the font to Courier New 12
Margins to .5 on all options
Set the “Use lines per inch” to 8.8
Set the “Use characters per inch to 13.2″
Set the “Use CR to overwrite line”
Set the “Remove Control characters’
Set the “Never print banner page”
Set the “Suppress blank pages”

Will give you the following outup:

Print 66 lines per page
Print 132 characters per line
Capture and BOLD printing that uses the CR function
Remove all control characters that have a character with an ASCII value less than the space character, excluding carriage return, line feed, and form feed.
Not print a RPM banner page
Suppress any blank pages

AS400 Printing Tips

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:04:30 +0000

The AS/400 has many printing restrictions. Such restrictions may affect the way your print jobs come out on a network or PC attached printer.

When printing from the AS/400 through RPM AS400 Print Manager (Print Server) or ExcelliPrint IPDS Printing Software, many new AS/400 (iSeries® System i5) printing features are opened.

Formatting Text and Spool Files | Page Range Printing | Connectivity - Dynamic IP Printing | AS400 Printing Speed | AS400 Data Capture

Format AS400 printed text / finishing functions

When printing to the PC network printer from the AS/400 using the Hot Print Transform, the font is too compressed.

An RPM text type queue can be configured to scale the font.
This will fill the page correctly for any paper size, including custom paper sizes.
The text type queue will remove any embedded PCL formatting commands and any characters below the decimal 31, which are not printable.

To place characters on a pre-printed form in the exact position, such as on a medical form. The data is in excess of 60 lines per page and the excess print on the top of the next page.

An RPM text type queue can be configured to use a True Type font to scale the font appropriately for CPI (characters per inch) and LPI (lines per inch).
Several fixed width fonts have been tried without success. Custom paper sizes and margins can be configured as well.

The report is 198 characters per line. The printer is truncating everything past 132 characters.

Wrapping the lines is not the solution. The data must fit on a cut sheet paper size (8.5×11).
An RPM text type queue can be configured to scale the font to fit the paper size.
This will be placed between the configurable margins and the configurable page orientation (printable area).
The data can be printed in portrait or landscape.

Purchased a new copier that supports hole punch, watermarks, stapling, duplexing, overlay and various other page finishing functions. How can these finishing functions be applied to the spool file?

The AS/400’s printer emulation does not support many of these functions.
MFC device supports various finishing functions that can be used.
An RPM text type queue can be configured to apply these print driver finishing functions to the spool file.
Individual RPM queues can be configured to apply different finishing options for specific jobs.
The default Windows print driver settings are not affected, therefore the Windows print jobs will not be affected.

AS400 page range printing to Windows

The AS/400 remote OUTQ does not support page range printing as standard OUTQ’s.

The remote OUTQ uses the LPR/LPD protocol which is a “file” printing protocol not a “page” printing protocol.
Use an RPM text type queue configured appropriately for the formatting.
Hold the RPM queue, send the print request, set the page range set for the job, and unhold the job.
IBM supports a work around also, the program is called “TSPRWPR “and details can be found on the IBM web site.

iSeries connectivity and AS400 network printing

How to set up a CL program in the AS/400 so one can print to a queue with a Dynamic IP address.

Our current clients have provided us with this CL Program. We are providing it for your consideration. This program does the following:

Prompts the user for the name of the OUTQ (printer) they want to use
Automatically obtains their IP Address.
Notifies the user that the OUTQ’s IP address is being updated.
Updates the OUTQ they provided with their IP address.
Prompts them to update another OUTQ.

This CL program may be used and modified for your needs.

AS400 printing speed to a network or local printer

When printing to the PC networked printer, the job takes a long time to print and the AS/400 processor take a fair hit on larger jobs (100 pages or more).

The AS/400 is converting the spool file to PC printer language using the appropriate Host Print Transform settings.
The Host Print Transform is very resource intensive and the resulting data is much larger than the original spool file. In fact, the connection can be lost to the printer on larger spool files while the Host Print Transform is be completed, which may start the process over.
RPM supports an SCS to ASCII conversion.
RPM will convert the EBCDIC characters to ASCII characters and the SCS formatting instructions to appropriate PC formatting instructions.
This will preserve the SCS formatting instructions including italic characters, bolding, and underlines.
The data can then be formatted to the specific Windows printer. This can be done by using the Windows printer driver to apply any available finishing functions.
In bench tests, RPM accomplishes the transform in a tenth of the time. The larger the spool file, the better the results. Less bandwidth is used to transfer the spool file, also.

The spool file does not complete printing job/complete multiple pages.

This is generally a protocol issue. RPM supports the LPR/LPD protocol.
The LPR/LPD protocol is a “file” printing protocol vs. a “page” printing protocol.
The integrity is much better than that of other protocols available. If the file is not transferred, the file is sent again.
Other protocols verify if a page has printed, this does “not” mean there is any data on the page.

AS400 print to file and archiving spool files

To capture the AS/400 spool file to PC folder. You will only need the text, not the embedded PC printer commands from the Host Print Transform. You will also need to call a Windows forms generator to apply a form to send to a printer.

RPM supports a filter type queue that can receive the incoming spool file, remove the printer commands, and write the messaged data to any PC folder that the system can access.
RPM supports various file naming conventions which includes any information passed in the control file that was sent from the AS/400.
The user name, host, banner, class, job, title, source, RPM queue name, date, time, and job sequence number are available.

To apply a form created by a Windows forms application to the spool file and then send job to PC printer.

The RPM filter queue supports a “Command Line Interface” to start additional software (forms, applications, etc.).
RPM receives the spool file, starts the application, and passes the spool file to the current application.
The application then applies the form and sends the job to the printer.
Many requirements can be met with an RPM filter queue.

To capture spool file and save as PDF file with an applicable file name for future reference and emailing.

If the data is pure text or text with embedded pcl, an RPM text type queue with various virtual PDF printers will render the data to PDF file.
OctoPDF, Adobe PDF, PDFCreator have been used successfully to obtain data. OctoPDF and PDFCreator offer various file naming conventions.
An RPM filter type queue can also be used to write the incoming data that will be submitted to a “watch” folder, for third party application rendering as Report to Web, etc…

Printing A4 Paper Size

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:58:56 +0000

If you have not changed the page size of the PRTF, it is still 132 x 66. The Host Print Transform looks at this value and translates it into the escape sequence requesting that the paper at the printer be 13.2″x 11.” Paper. This can be printed to your PC-attached printer when using RPM Remote Print Manager.

i.e to change the entry for letter:..PAGSIZEPAGWTH=12240PAGLEN=15840 (these are the size of the pagein 1/1440ths of an inch)
Data=’1B266C303241′XChange this toData=’1B266C323641′X

It is not possible with some printers so they are not including in the transform - normally you would default to PPRSRC1 parameter; but, if you are using RMTOUTQ there is no DEVD. It must send something so it requests LETTER rather than A4. To fix you can change the PRTF so that it has a PAGESIZE that reflects A4 or you can edit the transform.

We suggest you look at the Redbook AS400 Printing IV if you have it, otherwise the basic principle is to RTVWSCST *TRANSFORM *HP4 . Then use SEU to edit this file and either create another PAGESIZE tag for 13.2″ x 11″ or change the one for letter.

What you are doing is sending the escape sequence for A4 rather than letter sized paper. Save this and then CRTWSCST. Add this into the RMTOUTQ under WSCST.

Enhanced AS400 Printing

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:52:44 +0000

RPM Remote Print Manager is designed to ease the iSeries / zSeries (System i5) network printing frustrations of IT Managers and Administrators. RPM offers many hard to find and low-cost AS/400 printing solutions.

RPM is a software solution, thus lowering your overhead not having to buy expensive hardware, include upkeep and maintenance. Now you do not have to track down the expensive large AS400 network printers to retrieve your print job, you can easily print the job straight to your desktop printer!

Print Queue Setup

Supports three print queue types: text, raw, and filter. Unlimited print queue definitions accommodate routing and special printing needs. Customize data before printing. Transmit raw or formatted text to a Windows printer including AFPDS data streams using the AS/400 Host Print Transform.

Remote Administrator

Remote Print Administration is available in RPM Elite only. RPM’s web browser interface was designed to provide administrators the ability to remotely manage software configuration and job processing. Edit, create, add, and delete print queues from one PC.

Finishing Functions

RPM can handle all the finishing functions your printing device supports. Now you can punch holes, print duplex and staple pages even if it is not supported by the host system.

Extensive Customization

Translate EBCDIC data to ASCII text, and convert SCS to ASCII for all queue types. In text mode, RPM preserves SCS formatting instructions (i.e. font changes and character positioning).

Simple Page Formatting

Easily configure text output to any paper size. Users can select any font supported by the printer and the print driver. A variety of host data formats enable end-users to print without modifications to the host system.

File Name Options

Duplicate file name handling is verified to ensure that files are never overwritten. Filenames can be customized using job data such as date/time, RPM queue name, and any control file information such as user, host, or title.

Internationalization

Supports single and double byte characters for international processing. RPM allows users to utilize any language supported on their system including Asian languages.