Setting Novell-Specific Options

The Novell configuration page provides a form for setting Novell-specific options and defining Novell NSPOOL devices.

Enabling Transaction Tracking

The Novell NetWare operating system provides a transaction tracking function to guarantee that either all or none of the pieces of a single transaction will be written to the disk. If the server should go down part way through a transaction, all updates are backed out until the database is restored to its state prior to the start of the transaction.

The Novell version of Visual PRO/5 can take advantage of this service to ensure that all of the information pertaining to a given record, included both its content and its index entry, are updated on the disk in lock step. In order to provide this protection for a Visual PRO/5 file, the user must enable NOVELL_TTS.

To enable NOVELL_TTS, click the Transaction Tracking check box.

Enabling Locks

The record locking functions provided by MS-DOS permit only one user access to a record at a time, whether reading or writing. Novell NetWare provides different levels of locks so Visual PRO/5 can allow many users to read a record simultaneously while still limiting updates to one at a time. A record can even be read that is currently extracted by the same user on a different channel. Visual PRO/5 uses the configuration flag NOVELL_LOCKS to implement this functionality.

To enable NOVELL_LOCKS, click the Locks check box.

Creating NSPOOL Devices

Row	Description
Alias name	Enter an alias name for the printer. The alias name must begin with an L or a P in order for Visual PRO/5 to recognize the device as a printer. The minimum length of the alias name is 2 characters and the maximum length is 6.
Description	Enter a description for the printer. This text is not used by Visual PRO/5 but may be accessed by an application program via the TSK() function.
Banner	To cause Novell to print a banner before print jobs, check this box.
Banner text	To replace the default banner text of LST:, enter new banner text.
Banner name	To replace the current login name on the banner, enter a name.
Backspace	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the backspace character(s). If the printer does not support any backspace character, click the drop down arrow and select NO BS. If the printer supports ASCII backspace character ($08$), click the drop down arrow and select ASCII BS. To define a string sequence to send to the printer whenever a backspace character is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select BS=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the BS= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
Conditional expr	Enter a conditional expression for the printer, in the form T?, which allows this device to be accessible only by Visual PRO/5 processes with a FID(0)=T?.
Number of copies	Enter the number of copies. (The default is 1.) This value may be overridden within an application by using the MODE= option on the OPEN of the printer.
Compressed Print	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the compressed print settings. If the printer does not support compressed print, click the drop down arrow and select NO CP. To define a string sequence to send to the printer whenever a 'CP' mnemonic is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select CP=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the CP= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
CP columns	Enter the number of columns that the printer can print when in compressed print mode. The maximum is 255.
CP lines	Enter the number of printable lines when the printer is in compressed print mode.
Carriage return	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the carriage return settings. If the printer does not support carriage return, click the drop down arrow and select NO CR. If the printer supports the ASCII carriage return character ($0D$), click the drop down arrow and select ASCII CR. To define a string sequence to send to the printer whenever a carriage return is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select CR=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the CR= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
End of line	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the end of line settings and select one of the following: Default EOL Handling - An attempt to print a line that is longer than the defined width of the printer will generate an ERROR=1 at runtime. To recover from this error, you must reset the print buffer by issuing the command: PRINT (prtr)"". Error - Similar to the EOL handling behavior, but there is no need to reset the print buffer to recover from this error. The next line printed after receiving the ERROR=1 will overprint the line that caused the error Wrap - Causes the text to wrap to the next line. Truncate - Causes the text to be truncated at the defined width of the printer.
Expanded Print on	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the expanded print settings, as follows: If the printer does not support expanded print, click the drop down arrow and select NO EPON. To define a string sequence to send to the printer whenever an 'EP' mnemonic is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select EPON=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the EPON= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
Expanded Print off	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the expanded print settings, as follows: If the printer does not require special code to turn expanded print off, click the drop down arrow and select NO EPOFF. To define a string sequence to send to the printer when it is in 'EP' mode and a new mnemonic ('SP', 'CP') has been sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select EPOFF=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the EPOFF= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
EP columns	Enter the number of columns that an expanded print character will consume. For example, if EP columns is 2, then each character printed in expanded print will count as two characters.
EP lines	Enter the number of lines that an expanded print character will consume. For example, if EP lines is 2, then each line of expanded print will count as two lines.
Execute on OPEN	Enter a command to be executed on the first print to the device. For example, this command might be used to execute an operating system command to load fonts on a device.
Execute on CLOSE	Enter a command to be executed at the close of the device. For example, this command might be used to execute an operating system command to return the device to some known state.
Formfeed	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the formfeed settings, as follows: If the printer does not support formfeed, click the drop down arrow and select NO FF. If the printer supports the ASCII form feed character ($0C$), click the drop down arrow and select ASCII FF. To define a string sequence to send to the printer whenever a formfeed is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select FF=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the FF= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
Form number	If the printer supports a specification of the form number to be used in printing, define the default number here. This value may be overridden within an application by using the MODE= option on the OPEN of the printer.
Keep	To cause a print job to remain in the queue even if the workstation printing it has hung up, click the check box.
Linefeed	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the linefeed settings. If the printer does not support linefeeds, click the drop down arrow and select NO LF. If the printer supports the ASCII linefeed character ($0A$), click the drop down arrow and select ASCII LF. To define a string sequence to send to the printer whenever a 'LF' mnemonic is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select LF=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the LF= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
Local printer	To capture a local LPT port, enter the number of the port here. Valid entries are 1, 2, or 3. The default value is 1.
Lock file	Enter the name of the lock file you want created whenever this printer device is opened by Visual PRO/5. This prevents more than one process from opening the device.
Login	Enter the login name that must be provided if the workstation is not already logged into the server containing the print queue. (Not used if Directory Services is available.)
Password	Enter the password for the login name that must be provided if the workstation is not already logged into the server containing the print queue. (Not used if Directory Services is available.)
Print on OPEN	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the string sequence to send to the printer upon its first OPEN. If it is not necessary to send any initializing string to the printer upon its first OPEN, click the drop down arrow and select NO PTON. To define a string sequence to send to the printer upon its first OPEN, click the drop down arrow and select PTON=. (However, no data is actually sent to the printer until the first PRINT statement, upon which the Print on OPEN string is sent, followed by the 'SP' mnemonic.) Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the PTON= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
Print on CLOSE	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the string sequence to send to the printer upon its CLOSE. If it is not necessary to send any string to the printer upon its CLOSE, click the drop down arrow and select NO PTOFF. To define a string sequence to send to the printer upon its CLOSE, click the drop down arrow and select PTOFF=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the PTOFF= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
Queue name	Enter the name of the queue for spooling. (This is a required parameter.)
Server name	Enter the name of the file server on which the print queue is stored. (Not used if Directory Services is available.)
Standard Print	Click the Options button to display the dialog for defining the string sequence to send to the printer at the first PRINT statement, and whenever a 'SP' mnemonic is sent by Visual PRO/5. To disable sending any string sequence to the printer before the first PRINT statement and anytime the 'SP' mnemonic is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select NO SP. To define a string sequence to send to the printer at the first PRINT statement, and whenever a 'SP' mnemonic is sent by Visual PRO/5, click the drop down arrow and select SP=. Select ASCII, Decimal, or Hex to display the desired characters. You can either select the desired characters by clicking them in the grid, or by entering them into the SP= box. When you have finished selecting all desired characters, click OK.
SP columns	Enter the number of columns that the printer can print when in standard print mode. The maximum is 255.
SP lines	Enter the number of lines per page that the printer can print when in standard print mode. The maximum is 255.
Tabs	To cause the Novell spooler to change tabs into spaces, with tab stops positioned at the requested intervals, enter a numeric value between 0 and 18. The main reason for this capability is that some print server utilities, such as REWIND, require that the file be in text format instead of byte stream format. (The default behavior is to send tab characters to the spooler without change.)
Wait on timeout	Specify the number of seconds for Visual PRO/5 to wait before reporting printer timeouts. The valid range is 0 to 255. Setting the value to 0 disables printer timeouts. The default timeout is 10 seconds.