Re: Determining client PC to print on different i5OS printers -- WEB400

Hi Nathan,

The PCs are locked down via Group Policy and are dedicated use. The computer automatically logs on Windows and runs IE. The front page for the visitor log is the home page, and initiates the log book or allows the visitor to scan their badge's bar code to "sign out" when their visit is complete.

Visitors do not "log in" and aren't asked their location.

Since the whole system is web-based, there is no user ID to associate. I did not see a user name in the HTTP server variables.

I'm leaning toward separate front pages that pass a cookie for the PC's location (lobby or shipping).

Thanks,
Loyd

On Mar 2, 2010, at 16:01, Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Loyd,

If user's IP address is not an option, then all I can think of is prompting the user for input. If not prompting for the printer directly, then maybe cross-referencing from User ID, or perhaps when they select a navigational link. In our portal, a user may select a "work area" which could cross-reference to a "printer", for example.

-Nathan.

----- Original Message ----
From: Loyd Goodbar <loyd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tue, March 2, 2010 2:23:03 PM
Subject: [WEB400] Determining client PC to print on different i5OS printers

Keeping as much programming the same as possible, what are some ways to
denote a location between two PCs running the same web page? What I need is
to know which PC is accessing the web pages so I print labels to the
appropriate printer.

We have a visitor sign in/out lobby kiosk running from a dedicated PC and an
i5/OS-connected label printer (Intermec). The PC connected to our iSeries
via web pages made with RPG and CGIDEV2. During the sign in process, guest
names are written to a file, which is directed to TL Ashford to print the
labels.

We need to implement a second kiosk in our shipping department at the
opposite end of the building. We need to print to a different label printer.
TL Ashford allows us to set the output queue when printing. We will have a
separate PC and label printer in the new area.

Using my PC, I checked the i5 HTTP server variables for clues. (A sample
program is at
http://www.easy400.net/cgidev2p/dspsrc.pgm?cgiinp01=cgidev2&cgiinp02=qrpglesrc&cgiinp03=envvar
.) While
REMOTE_ADDR is populated (IP address), REMOTE_HOST is not. I do not want to
go by IP address since it's dynamically assigned, and not sure how much
effort it would be to get our admins to make it static. I could make
separate start pages such as startlobby.pgm and startship.pgm, set cookies
and read them on subsequent pages.

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks,
Loyd

--
This is the Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries (WEB400) mailing list
To post a message email: WEB400@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/web400
or email: WEB400-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/web400.