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Driverless Windows Printing

Introduction

Traditionally, after adding queues/printers to PLOSSYS Output Engine, you have to distribute the respective drivers via APW to the clients to enable printing. As of PLOSSYS Output Engine 7.3.0, you can print driverless from Windows clients by connecting queues to Windows clients via IPP. The files are transferred to the output system as PDF files and processed with the sent print attributes. For this, the ipp-checkin reads the printer configuration and returns IPP attributes to the Windows client print dialogue.

Hint - limited capabilities!

The following capabilities are currently supported:

  • stapling
  • punching
  • tray selection
  • color selection
  • simplex/duplex

For a wider range of capabilities use easyPRIMA and APW to deliver printer configurations and drivers.

Requirements

  • Windows 11 clients or newer
  • PLOSSYS Output Engine as of version 7.3.0

Configure Queues

Commonly, you configure queues in easyPRIMA and export them to PLOSSYS Output Engine. You can also manage queues with PLOSSYS CLI.

The following printer capabilities have to be configured on the queue:

  • staple
  • punch
  • available trays

For color mode and duplex, Windows offers the choice by default in the printing dialogue.

inputTrayCount

In easyPRIMA 1.12.0, no Output Engine queue parameter for the number of available trays is pre-configured. You have to configure the parameter inputTrayCount yourself.

  1. Open easyPRIMA and select Manage Queue Parameters.

  2. Click to add a new parameter.

  3. Enter the following values:

    • Name: inputTrayCount
    • Tab: PLOSSYS
    • Relevant for: PLOSSYS Output Engine
    • Data Type: integer
    • Default: 1
    • Display Type: option menu
    • Options: 1|10|11|12|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9

    custom parameter inputTrayCount in easyPRIMA

  4. Select Apply to save the parameter.

  5. The new parameter is visible in the edit queue dialogue as INPUTTRAYCOUNT.

Add Queue as Printer in Windows

  1. On the Windows client, manually add a printer and select the option Add a printer using an IP address or hostname.

    • Device type: IPP Device
    • Hostname or IP address: ipp:/<URL>/ipp/<printername>

    Whereas the following values have to be used:

    • <URL>: URL or IP address of the Output Engine server; if the queue has its own port, the port has to be included
    • <printername>: name of the queue as shown in PLOSSYS Administrator

    Add printer on Windows 11

    Hint - misconfiguration

    Printer problems may be caused by a wrong configuration. Available queues and their names can be seen in PLOSSYS Administrator.

  2. When printing, the printer capabilities are accessible via Additional settings in the print dialogue, for example the options for stapling and punching. If multiple trays are configured for a printer the target tray can be selected in the print dialogue.

Advanced Configuration

DEFAULT_PRINTER_PAUSED_STATE

In PLOSSYS Output Engine, a pickup queue is permanently in paused state because print jobs are waiting to be picked up at a printer. By default, a paused printer is reported to Windows as stopped. This results in error messages when sending jobs to an IPP pickup queue. To prevent that error message you can adjust the mapping of the paused printer state.

Hint - global setting

If all your queues are pickup queues, use the environment key DEFAULT_PRINTER_PAUSED_STATE to change the mapping globally.

Hint - easyPRIMA support

As of easyPRIMA 1.12.0, the parameter printerPausedState is not supported yet. To set the parameter for a single queue, you have to edit the printer configuration file instead.

This is how you map the printer status for a single queue:

  1. On the Output Engine server, export the queue configuration to a YAML file.

    plossys printer export <printer_config_file>.yml <printer_name>

  2. Edit the YAML file and add the following lines to the configuration:

    ipp:
    printerPausedState: 'idle'

    The result should look like this:

    Example - mapping the pause printer state for a pickup queue

    - printer: pickup
  connection: 'socket://printer1:9100'
  finisher:
    - STAPLE
  inputTrayCount: 2
  ipp:
    printerPausedState: 'idle'

  3. Save the file and validate it:

    plossys printer validate <printer_config_file>.yml

  4. Re-import the changed configuration file:

    plossys printer import <printer_config_file>.yml

  5. As result, the paused pickup queue is reported to Windows as idle. No faulty error messages should occur when sending jobs to the queue.

REMOVE_WINDOWS_DOMAIN_FROM_USERNAME

If jobs contain the username including the Windows domain, set REMOVE_WINDOWS_DOMAIN_FROM_USERNAME for the ipp-checkin service to true to remove the domain name from the value.

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