Technical Notes

HP and VT Host-Initiated Printing in Reflection for the Web 8.5 or Higher
Technical Note 1842
Last Reviewed 20-Apr-2007
Applies To
Reflection for the Web 2008 (All Editions)
Reflection for the Web version 8.5 through 9.6
Summary

This technical note describes support for HP and VT host-initiated printing in Reflection for the Web version 8.5 or higher and provides details on how to troubleshoot host-initiated print jobs.

Host-Initiated Printing

Many HP or VT host applications can print to printers that are not attached to the host. This type of host-initiated printing may be called slave printing, log bottom printing, record mode printing, pass through printing, auto-print, or controller printing.

Usually, host-initiated printing involves a selection from a host menu. To send a print job, the host transmits escape sequences to the terminal or terminal emulator, which signal that the print job should be forwarded to a printer. Reflection for the Web supports host-initiated printing and will forward the print job to the printer specified in the end-user’s default printer.

Troubleshooting Strange Characters, Incorrect Formatting, or No Printout

Some host applications send printer control codes (such as PCL commands), which are intended to tell the printer how to format the print job. The printer driver on the client computer may attempt to interpret or print these commands, resulting in strange characters printing, incorrect formatting, or no printing at all. If your host-initiated print job has one of these problems using your Reflection session's default print settings, follow the instructions in the sections below to correct the print job.

Correcting Control Codes

This section details how to configure Reflection to send the print job directly to the printer. Normally, Reflection should bypass the client computer’s printer driver when necessary to preserve host formatting.

Note the following Java version differences:

• When using Java 1.4, host initiated print jobs are sent directly to the client machine's default printer.
• When using Java 1.1 or 1.2 with host initiated printing, a Save As dialog box is displayed during printing, enabling the user to send the printer to a LTP port or a print file.

Follow these steps to configure Reflection to send the host initiated print job directly the printer.

1. In Reflection, click File > Print Setup. (If the Reflection menu is not available, access Print Setup from the shortcut menu in the terminal window. In Windows and UNIX: right-click with the mouse. In Macintosh: press the Option key and click with the mouse.)
2. Select Send output to printer.
3. Select a printer option. Depending on your VM (virtual machine) version, the following options are available:

• Ask user. Opens the browser's print dialog for each print job (available in Java versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.4).
• Default. Automatically sends print jobs to the local computer's default printer (available in Java versions 1.2 and 1.4).
• A named printer. Automatically sends print jobs to that printer (available in Java version 1.4).

4. Click OK, and then try running the print job.

If you are still having trouble, try the following:

• From Print Setup, click Text formatting and select Bypass text formatting. You may need to send the print job to a file to make this option available.
• Choose Send output to file, print the job, and send the file to the printer. See the Print Setup help for details on sending print output to a file.

Saving the Print Settings

When configuring a terminal session for your end users, you can either save the Reflection print settings in a custom session that you deploy to your users, or you can configure the session to allow the users to configure and save their own settings.

Configuring the Settings for Users

The Reflection print settings configured in the steps above can be saved while configuring a terminal session using the Session Manager in the Administrative WebStation. To save these settings in a custom session, follow the steps below:

1. On the Administrative WebStation Home page, click Session Manager.
2. Select the session to configure.
3. On the next screen, click Launch.
4. In the terminal session, configure the session’s print settings appropriately.
5. Save the session by clicking File > Exit > Save/Exit.

Enabling Users to Configure Settings

If end users prefer to configure their own print settings, you can configure a session that allows end users to save their settings in a local preferences file.

Note: To access all of the Administration user preference rule options, you must use a Java 2 VM while configuring the feature.

To allow end users to save their printing preferences, follow the steps below:

1. On the Administrative WebStation Home page, click Session Manager.
2. Select the session.
3. Click Launch.
4. In the terminal session, click Administration > Set User Preference Rules.
5. In the Set User Preference Rules dialog box, select Printer, and then click OK.
6. Save the session by clicking File > Save and Exit > Save/Exit.

Contacting Technical Support

If you are unable to solve the problem using the procedures listed above, contact Attachmate Technical Support; see http://support.attachmate.com/contact/.

When you contact technical support, be sure to have a trace file of your printing problem ready.

Capturing a Trace File

To capture a trace file of your printing problem, follow these steps:

1. Launch a Reflection for the Web session that has Advanced or Administrator menu level rights.
2. Connect to the host from which you were attempting to print.
3. Click Help > Trace > Start Trace.
4. In the Save Trace Events dialog box, enter a memorable name and location for the trace file, using an .evt file extension.
5. Reproduce the problem.
6. Click Help > Trace > Stop Trace.

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