"ipmviewer": Spool File Viewer for Infoprint Manager for Windows NT and Windows 2000

• Description
• Support
• Restrictions
• Pre-requisites
• Installation
• Running ipmviewer
• Customization
• Debugging/Service
• Change History

ipmviewer is a tool for viewing the contents of print jobs which are spooled in "Infoprint Manager for Windows NT and Windows 2000" (hereafter referred to as "IPM").

ipmviewer consists of a GUI which displays the current jobs within a server. ipmviewer uses IPM's transforms and transform sequences to transform all or part of a spooled job's data to the AFP datastream, and then uses the "IBM AFP Viewer plug-in" to display the transformed data. This allows an operator or administrator to simply double-click on an IPM job and see the job contents.

[TOP]

[TOP]

• Due to limitations in resolution and resource processing (or lack thereof), ipmviewer is not intended to be used for checking whether a production job is properly formatted before printing (i.e. it is not a "print preview" tool). Rather, it is intended to provide a quick peek into the contents of a print job, for example to check which job it is.
• ipmviewer can only view spool files that were originally sent to the local server (the system on which it is running).

[TOP]

• Infoprint Manager for Windows NT and Windows 2000, V1.1 or greater Install and configure per product documentation
• AFP Viewer Plug-in

[TOP]

IMPORTANT: ipmviewer must be installed in the bin directory under the IPM install path!

1. Load ipmviewer.zip into ipm-install-path\bin directory
2. Unzip the file ("unzip ipmviewer.zip")
3. A version of the IBM AFP Viewer plug-in ships with the ipmviewer package. This installation file (gnsp32dm.exe) contains a snapshot of the IBM AFP Viewer plug-in taken at the time the ipmviewer package was built. If you want a newer version of the IBM AFP Viewer plug-in, go to the IBM AFP Viewer plug-in download site and follow the directions there before proceeding to the next step.
4. Install the IBM AFP Viewer plug-in for your browser: type "gnsp32dm" on the command line and follow the on-screen instructions.
5. Ensure that the IPM server is up and running
6. From a command window, type "setup_ipmviewer"

[TOP]

From a command window, type "ipmviewer [queue-name]", where queue-name is an optional argument containing the name of the queue containing the jobs to list. If no queue is specified, ipmviewer lists all the jobs in the server.

You may also create a shortcut icon to ipm-install-path\bin\ipmviewer.exe on your desktop, and then simply double-click on that icon.

[TOP]

Environment Variables:

ACROBAT_READER

If you will be viewing PDF files and you have Adobe's Acrobat Reader installed, you may want to set this environment variable to the fully-qualified path name of the Acrobat Reader .exe file (e.g. "c:\acrobat\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"). If this variable is not set, PDF files will be treated like other files: converted to AFP and viewed using the AFP Viewer Plug-in.

TRUNC_THRESHOLD

This environment variable contains the size, in bytes above which a print file will be truncated before transforming. Setting this value lower will increase performance but reduce the portion of the job that will be visible when viewed. This can be:

      not set: defaults to truncate at 300000 bytes
      0:       does no truncate before transform
      nnnnnnn: truncates at nnnnnnn bytes

DEBUG_VIEW

This environment variable is used for debugging problems with ipmviewer. Setting it to "Y" will cause ipmviewer to write out various bits of debug information while running.

[TOP]

If you are having a problem with ipmviewer and need help debugging, it is advised that you do the following before contacting anyone:

1. Make sure you have the latest level of ipmviewer installed.
2. Stop the IPM server
   1. Start the IPM Management Console
   2. Go to File->Stop Server (or use the toolbar button)
3. Turn on server tracing:
   1. Start the IPM Management Console
   2. Go to Debug->Control Server Tracing...
   3. Check "Enable tracing" and "Wrap trace log"
   4. Set "Maximum size" to 5000
   5. For "Trace groups", select "Communications"
   6. Click "OK"
4. Start the IPM server
   1. Start the IPM Management Console
   2. Go to File->Start Server (or use the toolbar button)
5. Start ipmviewer
6. Click Help->Run in Diagnostic Mode? (make sure it is checked)
7. Perform the failing ipmviewer operation
8. Write down the file name in any message saying "Diagnostic information stored in file:"
9. Capture IPM server information
   1. Start the IPM Management Console
   2. Go to Debug->Capture Service Information...
   3. Write down the file name in the field "Store service information in file:"
   4. Click "OK"
10. Send to the person helping you debug the problem:
    1. A problem description
    2. The diagnostic information file from ipmviewer
    3. The IPM service information file from "Capture Service Information"

Changing AFP Line Data Transform Options

If you are attempting to view AFP line data files and it is not showing them properly, you may have to change the transform options in the other-transform-options attribute of the line2afp transform object. For example, if you have record-format line data you will need to change:

[TOP]

• March 6, 2000 - V1.1 - Original version
• March 27, 2000 - V1.2 - Added PDF support
• March 9, 2001 - V1.3 - Fix to Netscape AFP display problem
• August 3, 2001 - V1.4 - Add support for AFP line data; Improved diagnostics

[TOP]