Working at a company, I've been set to develop a print service solution which will be used from multiple platforms. The service should be available at least from Windows (native print dialog), OSX, IOS and Android. I need to be able to see which user is printing, how many pages etc.
I'm looking for a system like CUPS for Windows or Linux, which allows me add/connect to this payment system. The payment system confirms the user have enough points to be able to print the given document. The system should be as transparent as possible for the user and he/she should be able to print like a normal network printer.
The payment system is an existing product, so my system should only handle printing and user authentication.
My first thought was to develop a simple listener that would be running on the server and the clients could connect to, add files to the print queue and print if they had enough points. How ever I could not find any tutorial or similar projects for this approach. Therefore I'm looking into adjusting an already existing product for my needs.
I have made a drawing of how I think the system should look like
I found a solution using CUPS with Tea4Cups. Tea4Cups provides pre/post-hooks where the user can define some scripts/commands to run before and after the document is sent to the printer.
More information about this here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/208268/run-command-before-and-after-printing-with-cups
Run a script when user press print, and not start spooling before script ends (linux, cups)
Related
I'm a novice with AS/400. I have a bit of coding experience and know that there's always an access to the backend if you're clever enough. But developers in my organisation said that it's hard to communicate with the server and make it run things remotely.
So I'm wondering if you anyone's got any ideas how I can schedule a simple task. I login to the "Personal Communication", which is the client app. Then I go to a certain menu, ie I543, enter a parameter "1". And Press "ENTER" to run a report which have a file output.
I know there is that "Macro" function within Personal Communication. But that relies on send keys which does not work on a locked screen, nor do I want to activate it manually, which really defies the point of automation.
I was hoping I can schedule a simple call command somehow to activate some kind of procedure. Just need to know if possible and where to start looking? Thanks.
Last millennium's AS/400 and today's IBM i both have a basic job scheduler built in.
From a command line WRKJOBSCDE.
You need to find out what happens when you select menu I543 option 1. Assuming it's a simple CALL MYRPT or SBMJOB CMD(CALL MYRPT) then adding a scheduled job to run the report is easy.
However, you probably don't have the authority to do so. Nor should your developers necessarily be able to do so. Your system administrator is the right person. In a small shop, that might be the guy doing development. In a large one, it's another person or team.
But your developers should have at least pointed you toward the admin and the job scheduler.
I've looked for this around the internet without getting any good answer so far, so here's the issue:
I have a perl web application used by a small group of people (accessed by their web browser on windows computers, around 100 users) , on an intranet (this application is on a RedHat Apache server) , this application gets the user's inputs and uses WWW::Mechanize to send everything to another page on (a different server, which shouldn't be used directly), process a form and return the result (I know it may not sound optimal, but it was done according to what was required), the issue here is that I need the users to be able to send a file (most likely it will be an image of ~500kB, either through WWW::Mechanize along with the other form data that gets submitted, or by an email with an attachment, either option is equally acceptable), and I know the file can be sent/attached if it's already on the server, my question is simple:
Is it possible to send a file from the client computer (running the perl web application on the browser) without uploading it to the server (that will send it) first?
P.S. This is not one of those "give me the code" questions, I'm not asking for any specific code, I just want to know if this is something that could be done (and if it is to have an idea how), or if I absolutely have to upload the file to the server running the perl application first (I already have a script for that). If this is not possible it's ok, I just want to be sure if I need to upload to the server first before sending the file.
Assuming I understand you correctly, yes, you can upload a file through WWW::Mechanize. See the pb-upload example.
Yes it can be done if the client computer has a mail client that is configurable enough to allow a commmand of the type "mail $TO $SUBJECT -attachment $ATT_FILE". Even then you need user to cooperate by launching the action.
Otherwise, no. You can't do it via JavaScript AFAIK due to sandbox restrictions.
I don't know enough about Flash to know if that's an option.
If anyone can help me with this, I'd be eternally in their debt.
Without getting bogged down in details, I'm trying to program an app so
that, for instance, while the application is currently launched, if I say the words,
"activate function A", a specific function which already exists in my app, is activated.
Have I explained myself clearly? In other words, on the screen of the phone is a button
which says "function A". When the software is "armed" and in listening mode, I want
the user to have the ability to simply say the words "activate function A",
(or any other phrase of my choice) and the screen option will be selected without requiring
the user to press the button with their hand, but rather, the option is selected/activated
via voice command.
My programmers and I have faced difficulties incorporating this new voice command capability,
even though it is obviously possible to do google searches with voice command, for instance.
Other voice command apps are currently in circulation, such as SMS dictation apps,
email writing apps, etc, so it is clearly possible to create voice command apps.
Does anyone know if this is possible, and if so, do you have advice on how to implement
this function?
QUESTION 2
Assuming that we are unable to activate function A via voice command, is it possible
to use voice command to cause the phone to place a call, and this call is received
by our server? The server then 'pings' the iPhone and instructs it to activate function A?
For this workaround to work, I would need the ability to determine the exact phrase.
In other words, the user can't be forced to use the word "call function A". I need the
ability to select the phrase which launches the function.
Hopefully I've been clear.
In other words, as a potential workaround to the obstacles we've been facing regarding
using voice command to activate a specific function within our app, is it possible
to harness the voice command capability already present in the phone? aka, to place
a phone call? And then this call is received by our server, and the server
accordingly pings the phone which placed the call, and instructs it to activate the function?
I obviously understand the necessity for the app to be currently launched, before it
would be possible for my application to receive the instruction from the server.
If someone can help me to solve this vexing problem, it is not hyperbole to say that
you would change my life!
Thanks so much in advance for any help one of you kind souls can provide!!!
Michael
I don't believe the iPhone comes with any built in speech recognition functions. Consider speaking to Nuance about buying and embedding one of their speech recognition engines. They have DragonDictate for iPhone, but they also provide a fair amount of other recognition engines that serve different functions. Embedded solutions is clearly one of their areas of expertise.
Your other path of pushing the audio to your server may be more involved than you expect. Typically this process involves end-pointing (when is speech present) and identification of basic characteristics so the raw stream doesn't need to be passed. Again, investigation into the speech recognition engine you intend to use may provide you with the data processing details you need. Passing continuous, raw voice from all phones to your servers is probably not going to be practical.
I want to write a workflow application that routes a link to a document. The routing is based upon machines not users because I don't know who will ever be at a given post. For example, I have a form. It is initially filled out in location A. I now want it to go to location B and have them fill out the rest. Finally, it goes to location C where a supervisor will approve it.
None of these locations has a known user. That is I don't know who it will be. I only know that whomever it is is authorized (they are assigned to the workstation and are approved to be there.)
Will Microsoft Windows Workflow do this or do I need to build my own workflow based on SQL Server, IP Addresses, and so forth?
Also, How would the user at a workstation be notified a document had been sent to their machine?
Thanks for any help.
I think if I was approaching this problem workflow would work to do it. It is a state machine you want that has three states:
A Start
B Completing
C Approving
However workflow needs to work in one central place (trust me on this, you only want to have one workflow run time running at once, otherwise the same bit of work can be done multiple times see our questions on MSDN forum). So a central server running the workflow is the answer.
How you present this to the users can be done in multiple ways. Dave suggested using an ASP.NET site to identify the machines that are doing the work, which is probably how I would do it. However you could also write a windows forms client that would do the same thing. This would require using something like SOAP / WCF to facilitate communication between client form applications and the central workflow service. This would have the advantage that you could use a system try icon to alert the user.
You might also want to look at human workflow engines, as they are designed to do things such as this (and more), I'm most familiar with PNMsoft's Sequence
You can design a generic "routing" workflow that will cause data to go to a workstation. The easiest way to do this would be to embed the workflow in an ASP.NET application. Each workstation should visit the application with a workstation ID in the querystring:
http://myapp/default.aspx?wid=01
When the form is filled out at workstation A, the workflow running in the web app can enter it into the "work bin" of the next workstation. Anyone sitting at the computer for which the form is destined will see it appear in their list of forms to review. You can use AJAX to make it slick and auto-updating.
I'm writing a data collection app for the iPhone, and want to be able to export my data to a file the user can process on their desktop. I'd generate the file in csv or whatever format on the iPhone and then somehow the user would get the file to their desktop. From reading other questions here and on the rest of the web, it seems like my options are:
1) Implement my own web service somewhere in the cloud which the iPhone app connects to and sends the data. Then my server would either email it to the user or make it available for download somehow.
2) Write SMTP code or use an off the shelf library, which would require the user to enter their own email server details. Then send the data to the user as an attachment.
3) Use some kind of bonjour setup where I give the user an app to run on their desktop and the iPhone app finds and talks to that desktop app.
All three of these seem cumbersome: #1 for me because I have to code/maintain a server (including detecting/preventing spam/misuse, etc). #2 and #3 for the user because there's extra configuration, stuff to run, and things that can go wrong. (Not to mention a bunch more things to code and test for me, potentially with a bunch of desktop OSes and configurations.)
Are these the options people are using? Did I miss any? Which do people like best?
Thanks much!
You can run a web server on the phone, and point the user at that IP address, then serve up an AJAXy web page where they can download the file to their desktop.
Not hard, but they have to type in an IP address or http://myphone.local type address...