Client Printing

About this task

Client printing is disabled by default. Administrators enable client-side printing through the Client Access tab on the Webspace Admin Console's Host Options dialog.  

By default, Webspace automatically detects the client's default printer information after the user logs in the Webspace Server. This includes the default printer's port and printer driver. If the printer driver is not installed on the Webspace Server, Webspace will attempt to locate the driver and automatically install it.

Client printers are temporarily installed on the Webspace Server for the duration of the client's session. Printer drivers are installed permanently. Administrators can view the list of printers and drivers in the Printers folder on the Webspace Server.

Important: The Print Spooler Service must be running on the Webspace Server in order to configure client printers.
Note: If a printer is physically connected to the Webspace Server, and you want to allow printing from the web sessions to this printer, no additional configuration changes need to be made on the Webspace Server or Web Session.
Important: If the printer on the Webspace Server is a network printer, and you want to allow printing on the web sessions to this printer, you must add the network printer to the GE Web Server. As the administrator, you can set up network printers for use by Webspace sessions. You must first create a port on the Webspace Server that connects directly to the server and then install the printer locally. This provides direct access to the printer. If you want to allow network printing from the Webspace Server within the web sessions, refer to the Network Printing and Setting up a Network Printer sections.

Accessing Printer Drivers

Procedure

Access a printer drivers using one the following sources:
Source Description
Universal Printer Driver Enables the use of the Universal Printer Driver that can print to any client printer. When only the Universal Printer Driver is enabled, only the Universal Printer Driver will be used as a printer driver. No native drivers will be used. This is the default setting. The Universal Printer Driver uses a standard printing properties dialog box and may not offer some of the more advanced printing options other drivers do. The Universal Printer Driver can be used when the native driver is not available. When neither the Universal Printer Driver or Windows Printer Drivers is enabled, no printers will be configured, and client printing is disabled.
Note: A printer named Preview PDF is configured in each session when the Universal Printer Driver is enabled. Documents printed to this printer are automatically converted to a .pdf file and displayed on the client computer. Users can save, print, or email the document at their discretion. A PDF reader, such as Adobe® Reader, is required on the client computer in order to use the Universal Printer Driver's PDF conversion feature.
Windows Printer Driver Enables printers to be configured using already installed native drivers. When only the Windows Printer Drivers option is enabled, only native printer drivers that are installed on the Webspace Server will be used. If a printer's native driver is not installed, that printer will not be configured. To allow Webspace to automatically install native printer drivers that ship with Microsoft Windows click the Automatically install drivers. The Windows Printer Driver option is preferred when configuring proxy printers, if they are available and if settings allow them to be used. Native drivers are selected in the following order:
  1. Printers Applet:  A user's manual selection of a printer driver in the Printers window takes precedence over all other driver selection methods. The Printers Applet is accessible via the Program Window which is the first window of the Windows Desktop Client.
  2. Mapped Printer Drivers:  MappedPrinterDrivers.xml contains a list of driver names that can be used for each driver. This file is generated by the Application Publishing Service, but can also be manually edited by administrators. For most Webspace deployments, administrators will not need to edit this file. It is used to specify which driver to use when a host's driver name does not identically match the client's, or when the administrator wants to override native drivers and force clients to use a different printer driver or the Universal Printer Driver. The MappedPrinterDrivers.xml file is usually found in the C:\ProgramData\Proficy or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Proficy folder.
  3. Client driver name: The driver with the exact name of the driver that is installed on the client is used to configure the proxy printer.
Important: If the Windows Printer Drivers option is disabled in the Webspace Admin Console, this hierarchy is not applied.
When both the Universal Printer Driver and the Windows Printer Drivers are enabled, and a printer's native driver is installed on the Webspace Server, the printer's native driver will be used to configure the printer. If it is not installed on the Webspace Server, the printer is configured to use the Universal Printer Driver. When Windows Printer Drivers and Automatically install drivers are enabled, only native printer drivers that are installed on the Webspace Server or those that are included with Windows will be used. If a printer's native driver is not installed and it is not included with Windows, that printer will not be configured. When neither the Windows Printer Drivers or Universal Printer Driver is enabled, no printers will be configured, and client printing is disabled.

Designating Access to Printer Drivers

Procedure

  1. In the Webspace Admin Console, select the desired server from the list of All Servers.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Host Options. The Host Options dialog box appears.
  3. Click the Client Access tab.  
  4. Select the check box next to the desired printer source: Universal Printer Driver or Windows Printer Driver.
    Note: The Universal Printer Driver uses a standard printing properties dialog and may not offer some of the more advanced printing options other drivers do.
  5. If you select the Windows Printer Driver and you want to allow for automatic installs of native drivers that ship with Windows, also select the Automatically Install Drivers check box.
  6. Click OK.

Disabling Client Printing

Procedure

  1. In the Webspace Admin Console, select the desired server from the list of All Servers.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Host Options. The Host Options dialog box appears.
  3. Click the Client Access tab.  
  4. Clear the check boxes next to both the Universal Printer Driver and Windows Printer Driver fields.
  5. Click OK.
    Note: Client printers are temporarily installed on the Webspace Server for the duration of the client's session. Printer drivers are installed permanently. Administrators can view the list of printers and drivers in the Printers folder on the Webspace Server. If you start two or more web sessions, at the same time, with different user accounts from the same client system, client printers will only be available to the first session.