Create Printer Profiles, Deploy Printers, and View the Log in the Lasernet Printer Service Application

After you install the Lasernet Printer Service application on the print server, you can start it. In the Windows Start menu, click Lasernet Printer Service 11 > Lasernet Printer Service 11.

After the application starts and you connect to the Lasernet Config Server, use the application to create printer profiles, deploy printers, and view the printer service log.

Note

After you complete these tasks in the Lasernet Printer Service application, the final part of the process is to modify the Lasernet workflow and form settings in Lasernet Developer, so that Lasernet workflows print via the Lasernet Printer Service.

Connect

To connect to the Lasernet Config server, enter the Server name, click Connect, then enter credentials.

Printer Service Window

The left side of the window lists the printer services configured in the Lasernet Config web app. The label below each printer icon is colored to describe the status of each Lasernet printer service’s Windows services:

The main area of the Printer Service window lists all the Windows printers that are available on this print server.

For each printer, the main area also lists Lasernet printer profiles, which store printer settings. Each Default profile represents the default settings for the Windows printer. You can add additional printer profiles, which describe custom printer settings.

On the left side, click the printer service that you want to deploy (assign) printers to.

Note for Cloud print servers

Separate printer servers should have individual service bus queues. They should not share the same details.

Tip

To select all printers, right-click on a printer name and then select Check All. This is a quick way to select all printers so that you can later deploy (assign) them all to the selected printer service.

Printer Profiles

For each printer, select the checkbox of the printer profile that you want Lasernet jobs to use.

Printer profiles are saved printer driver settings that are different from the Windows defaults. The exception to this is the Default printer profile for each printer, which represents the default settings for the Windows printer. If a print job does not specify a profile, Lasernet Printer Service uses the printer’s default profile.

You can add additional printer profiles, which describe custom printer settings. For each custom printer profile, the main area displays common device mode settings, such as Paper Size, Orientation, and Paper Source.

To add a printer profile for a printer, click the printer and then click Add in the toolbar. For more information about adding printer profiles, see Add a Printer Profile.

To edit a printer profile, click it and then click Edit in the toolbar. Alternatively, double-click the profile.

To rename a printer profile, click it and then click Rename in the toolbar.

To delete the selected printer profile, click it and then click Remove in the toolbar.

Add a Printer Profile

In the Printer Properties window that appears when you add a printer profile, you can specify printer settings.

General Tab

Enables you to name the profile and view the printer to which it is associated.

Profile name: Type a unique name to identify the profile.

Printer: The printer that the profile is for.

Device Settings Tab

Use the Device Settings tab to define standard properties for the printer, such as Paper size, Paper source, number of Copies, Color mode, and Duplex mode.

Additional Settings

To access printer-driver-specific settings, click Additional Settings at the bottom of the window..

These settings will be saved by Lasernet in a device mode context and can later be activated from Lasernet workflow.

Click OK to close the additional settings window.

Note

The dialog shown and settings available vary depending on the printer hardware being configured.

Save the Printer Profile

When you have finished specifying printer settings in the Printer Properties window, click Ok to save the printer profile.

Deploy Printers

To make the selected printers available (via the selected printer services) to the workflows that Lasernet environments are running, you must deploy the printers to the Config Server.

Note

The Deploy button is enabled only if you have selected at least one printer.

1. In the Printer Services panel of the Lasernet Printer Service 11 window (on the left side), select the printer service that you want to deploy printers to.

2. In the main area of the Lasernet Printer Service 11 window, select the checkbox for each printer that you want to deploy to that printer service.

   Important

   Ensure that the appropriate printer profile for that printer is selected in the main area.

3. In the toolbar, click Deploy.

4. In the Deploy window, ensure that the correct printer services are selected. The Printers column describes how many printers will be deployed to that printer service.

5. Click OK. The Lasernet Printer Service application will create and appropriately configure Windows services to receive and handle print jobs.

Automatic Windows Service Installation

After you deploy printers, Lasernet creates a Windows service for each printer service that you deployed a printer for.

These services are named Lasernet Printer Service 11 (<Printer Service name>). Appropriately substitute <Printer Service name>. For example, Lasernet Printer Service 11 (UK Laser Printers). The services are listed in the Windows Services window.

These services receive prints from Lasernet and print to the specified printer, using settings from the relevant printer profile.

Each of these services listens on:

https://<host name>:<printer service port number>/lnprintservice/api/<print server name>

Appropriately substitute <host name>, <print service port number>, and <print server name>.

Uninstall Printer Services

Deselect all printers in the Printer Service window list that are assigned to a particular printer service.

Click Deploy in the toolbar. The printer count for that printer service will be 0. Next, click OK.

This will remove the selected printers and profiles from the Lasernet configuration and uninstall their Windows services from this print server.

Elements of the Printer List in the Printer Service Window

In the toolbar of the Lasernet Printer Service 11 window:

• Type a term in the Filter box to filter results by printer name.

• Click the Checked button to list only selected printers. Selected printers have a checkmark in their checkbox.

Log

You can view the log for each printer service:

• Click a printer service icon in the left panel, then click Log (at the lower-left of the window).

• Click Fetch newest in the main area toolbar to retrieve the latest log entries for processed print jobs.

• Scroll up to get older log messages, scroll down for new messages.

In the toolbar, you can:

• Type a term in the Text to search for box to search the log. Text strings are not case-sensitive.

• Click Find Previous to display the previous string found by the search.

• Click Find Next to display the next string found by the search.

• Click Find All to display the Find All window, where you can define more specific search criteria.

  

• Click Download Logs to download the log files as a ZIP file.

• Click Open Logs to view saved log files.

• Click Fetch Oldest to scroll to the oldest log entries available on the server. Alternatively, scroll up to fetch older entries.

• Click Fetch Newest to scroll to the most recent log entries available on the server. Alternatively, scroll down to fetch newer entries.

• Click Clear Log to remove log entries from the window.

Next Steps

The final part of the process is to modify the Lasernet workflow and form settings in Lasernet Developer, so that Lasernet workflows print via the Lasernet Printer Service.