The Black Ice printer drivers can launch an application before or after printing. If the application is started before the printing by using “Start for Messaging” option, the applications can wait for the messages sent by the printer driver. The application can be launched after printing with command line parameters. Also the Application can be launched after printing and the application can process the Group file.
The generated Group file will contain all of the necessary information about the generated files for post processing. For technical details on the Group file please see “Group Files” section in the RTK.
On the Start Application tab, the user can specify if the driver needs to launch an application when the user prints a document. The application can capture the printed document and parameters passed by the printer driver.
Check the Enable start application check box to enable the driver to launch an application or uncheck it to disable the application launching.
If the specified application is already running, the printer driver does not start it again.
Application
Application - The name of the application to be started. You must specify a valid application name and the full pathname (location of the application .exe) (for example, e:\fax\test.exe). The printer driver can handle long file and directory names. The user must Read & Execute and Write privileges for this directory.
Start Before Printing - Select this option to start an application, this must be used if an application needs to change printer driver settings through the messaging interface, or the application needs a long start-up time. The Start Before Printing option does not wait for an application to start processing messages. When using the Start Before Printing option, the application can still receive the messages. This option is recommended to start an application if an application needs significant time to start up, like some database applications.
Start After Printing - Select this option to start the application after the printer driver finishes printing. This is the best solution when the application must manipulate the files that were created.
Start for Messaging - Select this option to start an application, and the printer driver waits for the application to start processing messages. The Start for Messaging option, by default, waits maximum 10 seconds for the application before continuing the printing process. The time delay to wait for the application can be configured through the .INI file using BLF_STARTFORMESSAGING. For technical details, refer to Print Driver INI files in the API/RTK (Resource Toolkit online manual). As soon as the application starts processing messages, the printer driver continues printing. If selecting the Start for Messaging option, and the application does process the messages, the printing process becomes slower.
This option allows the user to pass one or more parameters. Move the appropriate parameters to the “Passed parameters” list in order to pass the given parameter to the started application.
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Name of the file printed to the printer driver. |
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Name of the output file generated by the printer driver with the full file path. |
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Groupfile Name: |
Name of the generated Group File. |
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Printer Name: |
Name of the printer that started the application. |
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Number of Pages: |
Number of pages in the printed file. |
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Indicates whether the multipage printing is enabled or not. By default, multipage printing is enabled. Multipage printing can be disabled by checking Save each page as a separate file on the File Formats tab. Possible values: 0: Multipage printing is disabled 1: Multipage printing is enabled
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Orientation of the file. |
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User Name: |
The name of the user who initiated the printing. |
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Computer Name: |
The computer name of where the printing was initiated. |
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Timestamp: |
The date and time of when the print job was submitted. The format of the timestamp can be specified in the Control Panel > Region and Language. |
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First Bates Number: |
The bates number on the first page of the printed document. |
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Last Bates Number: |
The bates number on the last page of the printed document. |
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Custom: |
This parameter can be used to pass any custom parameter to the started application. The custom parameter can be any string up to 64 characters. |
NOTE: Certain parameters cannot be used when the start application feature was set to “Start Before Printing” or “Start for Messaging”.
For example: “Number of Pages”, and “Last Bates Number” cannot be used if the start application feature was set to “Start Before Printing” since before the printing, the Printer Driver has no information of how many pages will be printed.
Use the Up and Down arrows to change the order in which the parameters are passed to the application. Black Ice Printer Drivers remember the previous pass parameter settings.
Show Application Window - Determines how the application starts. The available selections are:
· Normal
· Minimized
· Hidden
Disable the Messaging Interface - Checking this option stops the driver from broadcasting messages.