At 10:44 AM 7/5/2006, David Mathog wrote:
> Thanks, but that really won't help. We need to be able to link each
> printing job to a specific billing code, and user. Each user needs to
> be able to work on multiple billing codes.
You could always roll your own through a web interface. That is, have
users print to a file, and then upload that through a web interface
which requires them to fill in all the fields you need for accounting,
for instance: username, billing code, project, target printer, number of
copies, paper size, paper source, etc.. It wouldn't be terribly
difficult to write but would be a minor PITA for the end users.
Especially because you'd have to do something to keep the end users
from ever printing directly to the printers and so bypass the
accounting system.
We have a homegrown system for student print accounting that allows
native printing to a central collection queue, where the jobs are
"held". Our users must then go to one of several nearby release
stations where they can select their jobs, authenticate via
IDcard-swipe or username:password, and choose to release or delete
the job(s). Once released, a background process moves the job(s) to
a "feeder" queue which prints through to the printers.
This system easily supports multiple billing codes, as well as a
simple staff/student privilege hierarchy.
The catch is that it was written around LPRng. A couple times now,
I have attempted to modify (update) the system to use CUPS -- but
I've always been stymied by the lack of any functions to move jobs
from one queue to another.
(We have not implemented Samba printing support layered on top of the
LPD layer, but this could theoretically be done rather easily. A web
interface that displays a user's queued jobs and allows release &
selection of billing code, etc. should also be do-able with enough
time and resources.)
Cheers,
-D
Don Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Network Manager, ACES Academic Computing Facility
Technical System Manager, ACES TeleNet System
UIUC College of ACES, Information Technology and Communication Services
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty or safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
--
To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the
instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba
