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Printer Queue Output problem - PDF is sent, but nothing prints

#1

Hey all,

Having an issue with a PDF that I’m sending to Printer Queue Output. I’ve got a PDF that’s successfully being created with the four OL Connect steps (Execute Data Mapping/Create Print Content/Create Job/Create Output), I then send this PDF to a folder. I then capture the folder contents and attempt to send it to Printer Queue Output. When I open the printer queue on the server, I can see the job get sent to the printer queue when I step through in debug but nothing ends up printing.

Anyone have any ideas? I’m thinking there’s a possibility that the Document I’ve selected in the Printer Queue Output task has something to do with the problem - it’s using a Planet Press Design document that was created in the older version of Planet Press Suite Design, while the PDF that I’m sending is being created from an OL Connect Template/DataMapper configuration. But, I’ve also tried selecting no document for this step (passthrough), but still, nothing prints. I’ve included a picture of what my workflow looks like.

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Any help or ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!

#2

Since you are printing using a PP7 form, it is safe to say that you are printing in Postscript. On most printer, there is an option to turn on Postscript Error. Turn that on and you will get your Postscript error. then it will be easier to figure out what the issue is.

Have you tried printing the form and the PDF from the PP7 design tool?

#3

I turned on the postscript error in the driver, but oddly, no error page printed when I sent the job.

What I did find today is if I remove the document in the Printer Queue Output task, and just do passthrough, the PDF does get printed (I swear I tried that yesterday, and it didn’t work, strange) - albeit from the wrong tray.

Am I correct in my assumption that it’s only PP7 design documents that can be used as the document selection of the Printer Queue Output task (and not OL Connect templates)? If that’s the case, are there any known issues or problems with using them to merge with a data file generated from OL Connect templates?

#4

Not that am aware of.

You say you turned on the Postscript error in your driver. You printer queue output is a Windows queue or the IP address of your Lexmark printer?

Have you tried turning the PS Error on the printer panel directly?

#5

The printer queue output is a Windows queue, that was installed by IP:

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I just tried after turning on the PS error setting on the printer panel directly, unfortunately though, still nothing printed.

#6

Try setting up your Printer Queue Output as a LPR Output. Setup the IP address of your printer and the queue name defined on it. If you don’t know, use Print that usually works.

#7

I tried setting up the Printer Output Queue as an LPR, copied in the design documents to the queue (.ptk files), but unfortunately, it didn’t work. No errors either, here’s a screencap of my setup, I tried data type of Binary data and PostScript:

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What determines what the queue name should be? For my test here, I ended up just using ‘Print’ as you suggested.

#8

Hi,

Make sure your LPR service is started, and see if you have errors in the LPR logs. The best place to validate the service status and errors would be via the Service Console and click on the LPR service. If all of that showed a successful job but you still have nothing on the printer, you could check on the printer itself if the PS error messages are turned ON. These are usually OFF by default. If you have PS errors in the job and you don’T print them out, it does what you described. The job just disappears without any trace.
thanks.

#9

Thanks for the heads up, didn’t think to check that. I will give this a try tomorrow and report back.

Question I have though - are the document selections in the Printer Output Queue task restricted to design documents that were built in PP7?

#10

Printer output queue only works for PP7 documents, yes.

#11

Ah, okay.

So I started the LPR client service - and what I found was that the print job went through and printed successfully when I did passthrough (no document selection), but when I had the document selected, it wouldn’t print at all - no PS errors printed either. I tried this on two completely different printers (Lexmark/HP) and got the same result with both of them.

I think primarily, what we used the document selection for in the Printer Queue Output was for handling options - ie what tray should this go to, how should it be flipped for duplexing, etc. Is there an alternative for this instead of using a document selection? Print Preset configurations perhaps?

It’s got me thinking, if Printer Queue Output only works with PP7 documents, and we end up phasing out or getting rid of our old PlanetPress machine, we wouldn’t have the ability to make changes to the design document if need be, so an alternative that allows changes with the new software would seem to me like a more prudent option, no?

#12

One time comes to mind since you have turned on PS error on the printer and nothing comes out. Maybe, in your PP7 form, no condition are met to allow printing of any section. That would be a logical explanation.

Why don’t you set up your printer preferences in an Output Preset in Connect? After your Create Job, you can have 2 different Output Preset (one in each branch). One that save the PDF to file and another which would actually print to the printer.

No need to rely on PP7 form anymore.

#13

That’s an interesting thought, let me explore that possibility and I’ll get back.

As for the output presets - So what you’re saying is that I could use one output preset (Create Output) to save it to a PDF, and then branch off and use other Create Output tasks to send the files to different printers? (In our our primary workflow, we print to 6 different printers)

#14

That is what I mean :wink: