Setting up a VISTA Printer

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Cache/Linux printing

You can use Pipes in Cache as well to print on Linux/Unix. Here's an operative example.

NAME: SAM'S PHARMACY PRINTER            $I: /usr/bin/lpr -PSAN_FL6 -l
  OPEN PARAMETERS: "QW"                 SUBTYPE: P-HPLJ4SI-P12
  TYPE: TERMINAL

Please note that there is a bug in DEVOK^%ZOSV that prevents it from checking the device properly.

You can also use the method developed but not adopted by the VA in patch XU*8.0*585. After attempting to use this method in production, I would recommend against it, because a. CPRS and BCMA code is not configured to pick up PQ devices and b. %ZISC has issues with PQ devices. I have fixed both of these issues; but the code for this is not in VISTA yet.

Here's a sample device that uses the XU*8.0*585 method:

NAME: PRINTER_NAME                          $I: PRINTER_NAME
  PURGE OLD PRINT QUEUE FILES: YES      LOCATION OF TERMINAL: Cups Device
  SUBTYPE: P-HP-LTR-POR-C17L7-W128-NOFF TYPE: PRINT QUEUE

GT.M/Linux printing

Pipes again; just like Cache.

NAME: PHAR-IP-DM                        $I: PHAR-IP-DM
  LOCATION OF TERMINAL: Inpatient Pharmacy Dot-Matrix
  OPEN PARAMETERS: (shell="/bin/sh":comm="lpr -l -P PHAR-IP-DM 2>/dev/null":WRITEONLY)::"pipe"
  SUBTYPE: P-EPSON-DM-P15-5L
  TYPE: TERMINAL


NAME: PHAR-IP-LS                        $I: PHAR-IP
  LOCATION OF TERMINAL: Inpatient Pharmacy Landscape
  OPEN PARAMETERS: (shell="/bin/sh":comm="lpr -P PHAR-IP -l":WRITEONLY)::"pipe"
  SUBTYPE: P-HPLJ4SI-P13-LS
  TYPE: TERMINAL


NAME: PHAR-IP-POR-P12                   $I: PHAR-IP
  LOCATION OF TERMINAL: Inpatient Pharmacy Portrait (PL)
  OPEN PARAMETERS: (shell="/bin/sh":comm="lpr -P PHAR-IP -l":WRITEONLY)::"pipe"
MNEMONIC: PL
  SUBTYPE: P-HPLJ4SI-P12                TYPE: TERMINAL


NAME: PHAR-IP-POR-P16                   $I: PHAR-IP
  LOCATION OF TERMINAL: Inpatient Pharmacy Portrait (MAR)
  OPEN PARAMETERS: (shell="/bin/sh":comm="lpr -P PHAR-IP -l":WRITEONLY)::"pipe"
MNEMONIC: MAR
  SUBTYPE: P-HPLJ2-P16                  TYPE: TERMINAL

How does this work? The way this works is that $I becomes the IO variable. The open parameters tells VISTA how to open the device.

Vista does this:

S IO=[$I]
S param=[OPEN PARAMETERS]
O IO:param
U IO
Send Open Execute from Subtype
U IO(0)
Interact with user; open another job, etc...
U IO
write write write
Send Close Execute from Subtype
C IO
etc.

No need to do pre-open and post-close executes on the device which dynamically change IOs.

Avoiding the Staircase effect when printing from GT.M/Cache on *Nix

For an explanation of the Staircase effect, see this: http://www.digitalissues.co.uk/html/os/unix/stair.html

Basically, the new line doesn't do a carriage return with it, so our output just flows off the page. So when you print a 10 line document, you may only see one line, as the rest was printed outside of the margin.

If you are sending raw output (lpr with the -l option) from VISTA to any PCL compatible printer (and VISTA by and large uses PCL for formatting plain text output), you need to add this to your open execute:

W $C(27),"&k2G"

This tells the PCL compatible printer to append a CR to each LF or FF.

On the other hand, if you are asking cups to handle the formatting (lpr without the -l option), cups properly formats the line returns through a cups filter, so you don't have to do anything.

Advanced printing topics

Advanced printing topics