Questions about fpodbc

[Nancy Palmquist]

Bill Vermillion wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 26 10:02 , while impersonating an expert on the internet, 
> Nancy Palmquist sent this to stdout: 
> 
> 
>>Rick Hane wrote:
> 
> 
>>>Last night we installed fpODBC 1.0.13 on our win 2000 pro
>>>network. The install went very well. The configuration of fp
>>>we installed is a 5 user development and a 16 user runtime.
>>>Now for the questions.
> 
> 
>>>1. Printers... Being on a network we have 9 laser printers,
>>>various flavors of HP. Since when using fpodbs users call a
>>>batch file from the server (via a mapped drive) how do I point
>>>a given user to a specific network printer? Yes I can create
>>>them in pmaint but what tells fp that user A is to print to
>>>printer B. NOTE: Each user has a specific and unique batch
>>>file they call. Do I use a set pfprinter command in each users
>>>batch file?
> 
> 
>>Printing in filePro is a complex question. If userA always
>>prints to Printer1, then adding the PFPRINTER variable is the
>>way to go. If UserA likes to print to different printers for
>>different things, add -pq to the menus and let UserA pick the
>>printer for each print job.
> 
> 
> I approached that in an different way.   I set the PFPRINTER
> variable in the autoexec.bat file for each user.  Then I also had a
> menu item that permitted them to change their printer, and
> described the destination printer fully, instead of the often
> quirky naming conventions used for printers.

Autoexec.bat is not executed on new Windows systems later than 98, but 
the idea is the same if you use make a batch file and execute it from an 
icon.
> 
> IOW the choice could be "Laser Printer in Linda's Office",
> "Dot Matrix Printer for Reports", "Big Laser printer with
> letterhead" etc..
> 
> Bill

I have a CALL table that reads the config file and uses the comment 
field to offer printer choices to the user.  Changing the printer on a 
menu would only work in a WINDOWS environment.  On UNIX, changing the 
Printer in a child process would not return it to the parent.  A menu 
session - when finished - would return to the parent or calling session. 
  A querky difference between Windows and Unix systems.

Nancy
-- 
Nancy Palmquist
Virtual Software Systems
PHONE: (412) 835-9417			Web site:  http://www.vss3.com