2.1 KiB
Concept for Print Software
This concept will describe the problem, the solution and how the software should work.
Problem
Every year the OU prints an overwhelming amount of paper. It becomes increasingly hard to manage the amount and to ensure that (only) enough is printed.
Solution
Our solution to this problem is a command line tool written in Python. It will live on the server and will make printing the needed amounts a lot easier.
Approach
All the pdf files will be named uniquely and stored in a clearly defined directory structure. Every file will live in its own directory. A unique name could be of the following pattern:
The year is 2015 and the version follows a simple schema: V The identifier is unique and could contain the name of the responsible work group or similar. It must only contain alphanumeric characters (no spaces, dashes or underscores or anything else).
In addition there should be a simple text file named version.txt in each of these directories. Its content should be the most recent version number.
Now comes the real juicy stuff. There will be a configuration file, which defines multiple builds. Each build is roughly structured like this:
- identifiers (the identifiers of all files that are included)
- numbers for each identifier (how many times the file should be printed)
- print options for each file (like collate=true, sides=one-sided)
Alternatively a build can contain other builds (chain build). The corresponding structure:
- build
- number of prints
The final command could look like this: ./oe-print --printer=d116_sw
Internally the software will translate that into several lpr shell calls with the respective options. It will always use the oe user for printing and some standard print options like -o fit-to-page or -o fitplot which are always used for reasons.
To clarify: Every time you press ENTER with a correct command entered, it will result in several lpr calls. Therefore don't overload the print system of the iRZ with dozens of prints but wait until these prints have finished.