Re: [LINUX5250] End / Start writer problem -- LINUX5250

Dear Paul,


Sorry about the delay on answering your e-mail. I'm starting, again, the
tests with tn5250 and lp5250d and RPG bus ticket program.
As soon as possible I'll tell you the results !

Thanks for your help !

I can't believe that there people that says that the problem of Open Source
is user support... You guys are the living proof that: 'Opensource rules
!' :-)


[]'s

Luis Otavio
-- Mensagem original --

>Dear Luis,
>
>I was cleaning up some of my older e-mail recently and I read the thread
>about your RPG bus ticket program. I think I know why it was coded to
>require an end and a starting of the writer between the generation of every
>bus ticket and what to change in the configuration of lp5250d to make it
>compatible with the RPG program. Information for your reference is appended
>below.
>
>Context
>-------
>
>The OS/400 print spooling subsystem sends all of the report formatting
>information to a printer with the first job that is printed after the writer
>is started. If the next print job in the queue uses the same exact format
>as
>the previous job, the OS/400 operating system sends just the report text
>with no formatting commands at all because it thinks the target system
>printer is only attached to the IBM Server and therefore has already stored
>the correct format within itself. For each following job, it will only
send
>report formatting commands for a new feature being enabled/disabled as
>compared to the currently active format that it believes is being stored
>at
>the printer. This information pertains to system printers receiving data
>in
>an EBCDIC format and does not pertain to the ASCII format that will be
>delivered to a printer serviced by an OS/400 device description with Host
>Print Transform enabled.
>
>The problem for an RPG application developer, who needs to send a very
>special format to the printer and guarantee that this format will be active
>in the printer when their data is received, is to determine how to best
>prompt the OS/400 spooling system to always send the necessary print
>formatting information with each spool file. The reason you need to send
>this print formatting information ahead of each spool file is that many
>printers receiving IBM AS/400 and iSeries print information are now attached
>to networks where they receive print jobs from many hosts.
>
>One simple way of insuring that the proper printer formatting commands
are
>sent ahead of each spool file is to end and then start the writer between
>the printing of each group of bus tickets.
>
>TN5250E Printers - How Are They Different Than Other IBM Host System
>Printers?
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--
>
>As originally architected, the OS/400 operating system usually controlled
>the starting and stopping of all printers. Over the years, it has been
>enhanced to support certain types of print clients that actually start
and
>end the writers themselves.
>
>The TN5250E protocol is a reverse telnet protocol. This means that the
>client is responsible for initiating a connection with an IBM host server.
>The OS/400 device management process for TN5250E clients is controlled
by
>system value QAUTOVRT. This feature typically needs to be enabled to allow
>the IBM host to build a display or printer device description automatically
>when a request from a TN5250E client to begin a communication is received
>by
>an IBM host server.
>
>In the case of the TN5250E project, the OS/400 printer device description
>will become active on the AS/400 or iSeries host when the lp5250d process
>is
>started. When you start the lp5250d process it passes a set of configuration
>variables, which you have provided, to the target IBM AS/400 or iSeries
>host. The target host receives the query to start a print session on its
>telnet port (usually TCP port 23) and uses the parameters received from
>lp5250d to build an OS/400 printer instance. The device created uses the
>virtual device type (*VRT) and will frequently be applied to the default
>OS/400 system controller for virtual devices. The device will be
>automatically varied on and the writer started as part of the initial
>connection process.
>
>The IBM host also expects the communication to be terminated by the client
>that originally opened the communication. In the case of lp5250d, this
means
>the IBM host expects the printer session to be ended by the stopping of
>lp5250d and not by the ending of the writer on the IBM host side of the
>connection.
>
>Because TCP/IP communications can be effected by network problems, all
>TN5250E client programs include an automatic reconnection timer. If a client
>is running and it loses its connection to an IBM host, it will try to
>reconnect to that host to re-establish the communication in some number
of
>seconds. If you take action to stop the print writer on the IBM host and
>you
>leave lp5250d running, the lp5250d process will believe the OS/400 writer
>ending is a sign of a connection problem and it will activate its
>reconnection timer. In the past, I have found that if you end the writer
>and
>then also execute the WRKCFGSTS command to vary the device off as well,
the
>lp5250d re-connect timer will expire causing the device to be varied on
and
>the writer started just about when your request to vary the device off
has
>finished executing. The result of varying a printing device off and then
>watching it magically vary itself back on and start its print writer with
>no
>operator intervention on the IBM host at all usually confuses people new
>to
>working with TN5250E protocol supported printing devices until someone
tells
>them how they work.
>
>The Solution
>------------
>
>Change the default reconnect timer for the lp5250d process to a value
>greater than the amount of time needed for the RPG program to end and start
>the writer on your host and everything should work fine.
>
>HTH
>
>Best Regards,
>
>/Paul
>--
>Paul Tykodi
>National Product Manager
>Intermate US Inc.
>
>p: 603-431-0606 x115
>f: 603-436-6432
>E-mail: paul@intermate-us.com
>www.intermate.com
>
>>The problem is that the software in RPG (bus ticket) does this operation
>>(END / START writer)  other applications from printing to it, it's really
>>a stupid operation but the vendors of the software said that they can
not
>>change that.
>>
>>Every printing is working fine, the only program that don't work is that
>>one that prints the bus ticket, using that stupid end/start writer
>operation.
>>
>>The same operation is working using client access.
>>
>>Luis Otavio Da Ros Ribas
>>
>>----
>>>
>>>
>>>To try to understand your predicament, I did the following:
>>>
>>>    1) Started up lp5250d on my FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE system.
>>>     2) Logged on to the AS/400
>>>     3) Ended the print writer with: ENDWTR PRT01 *IMMED
>>>     3) Re-started the print writer with: STRPRTWTR PRT01
>>>     4) Sent a report to the printer.
>>>     5) The report printed correctly.
>>>
>>>You say "Aparently AS/400 x lp5250d can't do Start / End Writer
>>> correctly." Why do you say that? From my test, above, it appears
>>> to work correctly. What are you expecting it to do differently?
>>>
>>>Do you have the same problem when you print from FreeBSD directly? Or
>>> only when you use lp5250d?
>>>
>>>What's the reason for stopping & starting the writer in the first place?
>>> I've never heard of someone doing this. Are you trying to prevent other
>>> applications from printing to it?
>>>
>>>In addition to using lp5250d, you could also consider using the normal
>>> FreeBSD lpd to receive spooled files from your AS/400. It doesn't have
>>> as many options as lp5250d does, but it might be one way to avoid using
>>> Windows.
>>>
>>>
>>>On Tue, 20 Aug 2002 loribas@zipmail.com.br wrote:
>>> >
>>> > I am using FreeBSD with a minimal install for use only as terminals
>to
>>> > our AS/400. I have installed TN5250 and it works great, but I'm having
>>> > some problems with the lp5250d server.
>>> >
>>> > We use a system to sell bus tickets that need to have the writer
>(printer)
>>> > "ended" to work. The printing operations works like that: Start writer
>/
>>> > send report / End writer.
>>> > Aparently AS/400 x lp5250d can't do Start / End Writer correctly.
This
>is
>>> > the only report that can not be printed... (Probably because this
>Start/End
>>> > operation)...
>>> >
>>> > Any sugestion ? I just can not get used to the idea of using M$ Windows
>>> > / Client Access again... :-)
>>> >
>>> > Thanks in advance for the help.
>>> >
>>> > Luis Otavio Da Ros Ribas
>>> > IT Manager
>>> > Sulamericana Transportes Ltda
>>> > Curitiba - Parana - Brazil
>>> >
>
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>



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