Printing is always a topic that generates questions for the BASIS Technical Support department. Recent releases of BBj® have added additional flexibility and features to the printing methods, giving rise to a completely new set of support questions. In this issue, we address common questions regarding some of the new printing capabilities offered by BBj:

Q: I'm running BBj as a thin client. Can I print to my local printer and to the remote server's printer?

A: Yes.
BBj has added a new printer mode that allows you to select a local printer or a remote server printer. All printing is assumed to be server-side unless the new "CLIENT" mode is specified. Here is a sample using this new mode:

OPEN(1,mode="CLIENT")"P1"

Here is a sample of an alias line using this new mode:

ALIAS P1 SYSPRINT "Local Printer" cr,client,setup

Q: Does this also work in mixed environments, for example, if the client is on a Windows workstation, and the remote server is a UNIX machine?

A: Yes.

Keep in mind that the alias line may vary, depending on whether it refers to a server-side printer or a client-side printer. Therefore, you may need to define different alias lines for your printers in the config.bbx file - one for each operating system:

ALIAS P1 SYSPRINT "local printer" cr,setup,client
ALIAS L1 ">lp -dofficelj -s 2>/dev/null" "Office HP Laser Jet II" cr,cp=.

Q. Are there any other new printing modes available in BBj?

A: Yes.

Depending on the version of the JRE and platform, there may be additional modes. In particular, when you use the1.4 JRE and a SYSPRINT device on Windows, there are a few new modes available. As an example, the "PAPER" mode allows you to select various paper sizes. Here is sample of selecting " NA_LEGAL" which is North American legal 8.5" x 14".

Define the following alias line in the config.bbx file:

ALIAS P1 SYSPRINT "Window's Printer" cr,setup

Code sample:

OPEN(1,mode="PAPER=NA_LEGAL")P1"

See the online documentation for additional information and modes that may be available.