[RESOLVED] How can I get the page count of each print job and control the schedule of print jobs

[pengzhang]

I just want to develop a printer management program under windows. I need to get the page count of each print job before they are printed.
Could someone tell me how to do that?

[IT Len]

Your answer depends on the following,

1] Are you printing on a stand alone printer, or a network? [Networked printers under W2K and NT can be scheduled and assigned priority for print jobs, among other things]

2] What OS are you using?

3] Re: #1, What type of printer[s] are you using? Most printers will show you during your "print setup" function what the page count for a specific job is. Task management abilities vary with the printers used.

4] Depending on the answers, there are some third party software apps that'll assist you in tracking printer management and resource usage.

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Quality, in its classic Greek sense-how to live with grace and intelligence, with bravery and mercy.

[pengzhang]

Thanks a lot, IT Len.
Basiclly, I'm using a network printer under Windows NT Server.
What I want to implement is a printer management program. Its function is as follows:
1] Each user on the network can send whatever they want to print to a printer management software under the NT server.
2] The Print management system can see each print job and their page count, and determine manually if scheduling this print job to the printer rather than automatically scheduling it to printers. The reason I need such a program is that I can control the pages each user can print.

Could you give me some advice?
Thanks in advance

[IT Len]

One more question to clarify....Do you want to set up your printer network so that a user who approaches some sort of "page count limit" would be denied access unless manually allowed to do so by admin?

If this is what you're looking for, I'm not sure I've seen anything like that.

Let me know.

In the meantime, I'll check around...and maybe someone else reading this thread will have seen something like that.

In any case, I'll look for you to post again, and see if I understand your question.



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Quality, in its classic Greek sense-how to live with grace and intelligence, with bravery and mercy.

[MacGyver]

Look for a program called PCOUNTER. I don't have a link for it but if you email me I can send it to you.

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[pengzhang]

Thanks again, IT Len.Glad to see your post.

That's what I wanted. I really need a printer managment program to control those user who has reached the maximum print pages.

I had an idea about that, but I'm not sure if I could manage it.

What I thought is to design a VIRTUAL printer driver which is not actually linked to a real printer but is a printer in the view of Windows. Therefore each user can send their job to this printer driver but is not actually printed yet. And the VIRTUAL printer driver would receive all printing page image from all users so that they can caculate the page count from the users. I could design another management program to check out these job tasks to manually control the print job to another real printer driver.

Would you pls check the idea and give some advice for me to see if I could manage it like that?

Thanks in advance.

[IT Len]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by MacGyver:
Look for a program called PCOUNTER.

</font>

My guess is that eventually you could configure a virtual printer under NT if given enough time. The problem is that you would always need human intervention to check the "printer logs" that you'd generate. I know of no way to set defaults for upcoming page number limitation under NT. [Which doesn't mean it's not there...I just don't know!]

But, I would go with MacGyver's suggestion here. PCOUNTER really has all the stuff you seem to want, especially printer quotas per user or group. It also is very handy for billing to individual groups, users and clients, and keeping a history of who does what printing for whom. Here's the link. I really think in your situation it gives you everything you'd want.

They charge on a per server basis, and you can trial it before you make a decision to buy.

http://www.andtechnologies.com/

Good Luck!
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Quality, in its classic Greek sense...How to live with grace and intelligence, with bravery and mercy.



[This message has been edited by IT Len (edited March 13, 2001).]

[pengzhang]

Thanks, IT Len and MacGyver.

I'll check Pccounter out to see if it meets my requirement.