print 1 report to more than 1 printer

2tje

Does anyone know how to print 1 report to multiple printers without the user having to select a printer each time?
One solution could be to copy the report and setup the Printer Selection per report and direct each report to another printer. But this is not a nice solution.
Is the table Printer Selection used somewhere in a codeunit anyway, or is this Bill's secret code?

Waldo

check out codeunit 1: FindPrinter. That should help you.

kine

Printer selection is used I think in codeunit 1...

Waldo

:-k

kine

:-) We posted it in near same time :-) I don't know you wrote same answer... :whistle:

Waldo

Hehe ...

Didn't see the time ... we were probably working on our answer the same time ... what's the chance ...
:-#

2tje

I found the function.
It returns one record with one printer.
I guess the function is called somewhere internal in every report.
So, how to make it work that more than 1 printers/records are returned?

kine

Not possible without change of all code which is calling this function...

Waldo

Indeed,

this code is returning one printer ... every place that is calling this code ... is expecting one printer, so you should change all places ... .

kine

Waldo, you are still posting in same time as I... :whistle:

Waldo

Indeed ... is this a coincidence?

we should be marrying ... =; [-( [-X

kine

No, it is speed of answering after e-mail notification... :-)

2tje

Kine, Waldo,

Exactly, but where is this function called? Is this a hidden call from the report? I can't find the code that is using this function in Codeunit 1.

ps. if it works out between the both of you, I am willing to be the best man.

kine

Back to the problem...

I looked into NDT and this function is not called anywhere --- it means that it is called internally in fin.exe (same as for example function OnGlobalInsert etc.) --- YOU cannot change the code for calling this... and thus you cannot make what you need in this way...

There must exist another way how to do it...

For standard documents you can define more reports for printing (printing sequence) - if you have 3 copies of the report (it is the 'not nice' solution) and per report setup, it is printed automatically... I think that it is most easy solution... another is to try print same report 3 times and alter the function to select another printer based on some helper table to know if it is 1st, 2nd etc. printing...

kine

Or you can try to find some printer driver which send same document to more printers... something as "printer replicator"....

kine

Try to look at http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-soft ... =ACCELSOFT

2tje

Thanx Kine,

Conclusion: there is no real solution, but there are 3 workarounds:
- copy the report-object and define the objects in the Printer Selection
- call the report with C/AL code multiple times and change the Printer Selection record in between
- use a Windows based solution like the following one I found:

Printerpooling
Print to multiple printers with 1 printjob

http://www.frogmorecs.com/printdistributor.html
Print Distributor allows you to intercept Windows print jobs and forward them to multiple printers or files.
Installed as a printer Port Monitor in Windows NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 Print Distrubutor allows you to create virtual print queues to distribute your output. Send your print jobs to all the destinations or now with our new load balancing option distribute jobs evenly between any number of printers.

ps. Bill: Novell has a standard functionality for this, windows doesn't!

kine

Exactly... there is more of the "Print Distributor drivers" on the net... you can try some as trial...

Waldo

May this is something you can use as well ...

Once, I made some kind of a "report-printing-server".

I was just inserting lines into some kind of parameter/worktable, and the reportserver (some kind of NAS) was reading that table and printing the necessary reports.

The reason why we developed the report server: the user doesn't have to wait until a heavy report is printed ... the reportserver will do it. One print command is just an insert into a table ... . Off course, when developing such a server, you can create the functionality as you like ... printing more than one report as well.

2tje

hmm.
That's an option as well. But a more heavy one I guess.
There has to be made a new table in which fields have to be defined that can contain filters for the report filters. Quit a lot of work.
And using one user license might be more expensive than the printer pooling software.