The notes below are general guidelines describing Print Wizard Service Edition. These notes are to help you decide how to best utilize Print Wizard Service Edition in your own environment.
Definitions
- Print Wizard SE, PWSE and Print Wizard (for this document only) refers to the suite of programs shipped as part of Print Wizard Service Edition
- Print Wizard Engine refers to the main Print Wizard executable (“printwiz.exe”) which is used internally by nearly every other program in the Print Wizard Service Edition to do the actual printing.
- Print Wizard User Interface refers to the main Print Wizard setup executable (“pwui.exe”) which is used to set up services, user profiles and to do local printing through the Print Wizard Engine.
- Print Server refers to any PC running Windows which will be acting as a reception point for print files, regardless of how those files are retrieved.
- Terminal Server refers to any Windows terminal services or Citrix or other setup whereby a single server is granting access and controlling Windows from a central location.
- Print Wizard Services refers to services setup through the Print Wizard user interface and ran by the local user.
- Windows Services for Print Wizard refers to a typical Windows NT, 2000, 2003 or XP Window’s service running a pre-defined Print Wizard service. In this case a user does NOT have to be logged in for the service to work.
These notes do not cover how to run Print Wizard, only what may be required for use. For more information on how to use Print Wizard, refer to the Print Wizard documentation on various features and the Print Wizard manual.
Files necessary for Print Wizard to run
Print Wizard interacts with any available Windows network printer as well as those that are directly connected through a serial or parallel connection. Print Wizard includes several files that are necessary for various functionality to take place. An additional file may be required in a network environment where you want to share a multi-user license. This is the serial license file discussed at the end of this document.
What Service Are You Running?
The most common use of Print Wizard SE on a Print Server is to run some type of print service, whereby the PWSE programs WAIT for a print job to appear before processing it.
To do this, there are two different types of services, Print Wizard Services and Windows Services for Print Wizard.
- Print Wizard Services are run under individual logins and inherit the user’s permissions that start the program.
- Windows Services for Print Wizard are run under the system user, usually LOCAL SYSTEM, and run with whatever permissions that user is granted. This includes inheriting whatever default printer may (or may not) be assigned to the LOCAL SYSTEM user.
In order to really understand what is needed and what minimum requirements are, as discussed through out the rest of this paper, you need to know what type of services you are working with.
Executable files
Print Wizard SE includes several files that are used when doing various services, as well as used during the processing of files. Here are a list of the program with a brief description:
|
Printwiz.exe |
This is the Print Wizard engine used by all programs in the PWSE suite. This file must be present at all times. |
|
Pwui.exe |
The Print Wizard User Interface allows you to set up services, print profiles, print queues for the LPD protocol and start and stop services. |
|
Pwdespool.exe |
The Print Wizard “despool” service This program watches a specified directory on the local drive, the network drive or on a mapped storage or shared drive, for the appearance of a files matching the service settings. This program inherits the settings of the user which starts it, including mapped network drives and permissions. |
|
Pwftpdespool.exe |
The Print Wizard “ftpdespool” service
This program watches a remote directory and wildcard setting in the services settings file, for the appearance of a print job to download and process. |
|
Pwlisten.exe |
The Print Wizard “listen” service This program watches a specified network port for print jobs coming in. This program inherits the settings of the user which starts it. |
|
Pwlpd.exe |
The Print Wizard “lpd” service This program watches a specified network port for print jobs coming in using the LPD/LPR protocol common to most Windows, UNIX and Linux systems. This program inherits the settings of the user which starts it. |
|
Pwservices.exe |
When running a Windows Service for Print Wizard, this program is registered with Windows and runs against the selected service entries. For each Windows Service for Print Wizard you install and start, a copy of pwservices.exe will run. This program inherits the permissions and settings for the LOCAL SYSTEM user on Windows. |
|
Mapisend.exe |
MapiSend is a utility program that talks with the MAPI drivers for Windows and Outlook, and provides the MAPI interface for faxing and emailing through Outlook Profiles. |
Default files
Print Wizard SE also has many default files supporting the various services. Below is a list of the additional files that are installed by the Print Wizard Service Edition installation program:
netprint.aix A version of netprint for use on AIX
netprint.linux A version of netprint for use on Linux
netprint.sco505 A version of netprint for SCO Unix version 5
printwiz.pdf User manual for Print Wizard
printwiz.prt A printer description file for FilePro
printwzc.prt A color printer description file for FilePro
pwdll.dll A callable DLL for developers
readme.txt Information and change history on Print Wizard
sampledialog.exe A program demonstrating Print Wizard capabilities
whatsnew.txt A list of what’s new in the latest release of Print Wizard
In addition to these files, there are some user-created files that are important to know about:
printwiz.ini The default settings for the Print Wizard SE setup
printwiz.log Logging and debug information for each job
master.profile An optional print profile that contains default information
that should override the factory settings.
pwservices.ini The services settings file for both Print Wizard Services
and Windows Services for Print Wizard
user init files The user may have set up additional printer init files that
get called at the beginning of each print job
overlay files The user may have a number of overlay files for printing
special forms and image backgrounds
pwui.job When the User Interface fires off a Print Wizard
job, it first saves all parameters as this file and passes
them to printwiz as /profile=<>. So this file contains
current settings for any job started through the user
interface.
.
option is set to true, and this file exists for the extension
of the file to print, and “Smart Printing” is turned on, this
profile is used – that’s a lot of if’s.
Server Access Issues
Default file access
Who needs access to what is the question here. Most often Print Wizard and the various service and support files are not accessed directly, but ran through program calls or from within a script. The exception to this is the User Interface application which is used to set up services and print profiles.
Only those files that are required by the users in question should be granted access. In this case, if you are installing these files on a print server, we recommend marking them as “read-only”. Look over the list of files and determine what each user needs access to.
Default ports
If a specific user is running Print Wizard Services that is using the “listen” or “lpd” protocol, it is necessary to allow specific network (TCP{/IP) port access to that user.
If you are running a Windows Service for Print Wizard, the user LOCAL SYSTEM will also need TCP/IP access to the ports in question.
By default, port 9100 is used for the “listen” protocol and port 515 for the “lpd” protocol.
Likewise, this may be an issue with any PC or personal firewall or with any network firewalls that the print job needs to pass through.
Check with your Windows XP administrator and your network administrator before proceeding.
Shared file access
If you are running Print Wizard in “despool” mode, be sure to allow Print Wizard proper access to the despool directory and to allow the removal of files as they are processed. In order to prevent Print Wizard from looping on a print job, it does need to delete the file and hence must have the proper access to do so.
Print Wizard does create several temporary files along the way. The Windows temporary directory for the user (the user’s work area) must have write permissions.
If you are logging messages or debug information from Print Wizard, you need to make sure the “printwiz.log” file has write permissions by all users. This file is usually located in the Print Wizard default install directory, but can be located elsewhere.
If you are running Print Wizard in “ftpdespool” mode, despooling from a remote location, you have two options.
In order to prevent looping, the Print Wizard login to the FTP server needs to allow file deletion as well (you can test this through a normal FTP client as Print Wizard will behave the same).
OR
If Print Wizard does not have delete access to the FTP server for the despool directory, Print Wizard can index and log each file name, creation date and time for the file into a temporary file named after the service name followed by “.idx”, i.e.
c:\program files\printwiz30\pwftpdespool.idx
The user must have write permissions for this file and the appropriate service settings must be checked (or you risk the possibility of endlessly trying to print the same file).
Cleaning up files
Print Wizard services will remove what temporary files it can. However, depending on your type of service, how it was started, whether it uses a print profile, whether is uses the Print Wizard engine or some custom program or script and whether the user running the Print Wizard service has proper permissions, some files may be left behind.
These files will accumulate in one of two places, the Print Wizard default directory or the Windows temporary directory for the user running the service.
In a normal setup, you will want to keep an eye on these files and setup a scheduled task that does nothing more than remove temporary files created by Print Wizard and its services. Check our web site for more information.
If you are running with logging and debugging turned on, you can quickly fill up a Print Wizard log file. Fortunately we have some limitation on this file. After approximately building a file of 20mb, the data will start dropping off old lines while adding new lines, using a FIFO approach to logging.
You can clear these log files by simply deleting the file or by going through the User Interface menu and View Log (click the “Clear log” button).
Deployment
It is possible to only deploy specific files that a user will use. Be careful to include all files necessary for the features a specific a user may utilize or a specific service may require. Many features may require more than just the executable.
Serial Number and Activation Code
Print Wizard Server Edition license information is normally carried in the Windows registry entry for each Windows installation. However, in the case of a network file or terminal server, we have a mechanism for getting around having to install the license information each time.
First create a blank file in the current Print Wizard directory called "ser.ini" (this file can be created with Notepad). Then bring up Print Wizard and when it asks if you would like to enter a license code, answer ‘Yes’ and fill in the form. If a “ser.ini” file is found, the information will be encoded and written to this file, rather than to the Windows Registry.
When a shortcut then runs the executable program or one of its support programs from that directory, it should see the ser.ini file and not look in the Windows registry. On most Windows systems you should be able to also mark this file as "read-only" to prevent someone from overwriting or removing it.
This license file, "ser.ini", could then be deployed if you are doing a file server install script, saving you from having to enter license information on each machine individually.
Conclusion and More Information
Always check our web site and our Support documentation for additional information. This should help get you started with network installations. If there are any questions, please contact us at rsi@anzio.com.