Quiotix PrintServer

The Quiotix PrintServer Application

The Quiotix PrintServer application allows printers and print server devices to advertise and provide print services to an AppleTalk network. It is able to manage multiple concurrent sessions with AppleTalk workstations, passing print data to any number of attached printers. The Quiotix PrintServer application can run by itself, or can run concurrently with print server applications supporting other protocols within the device. This allows printers to be shared between users of each protocol.

Operation

The Quiotix PrintServer application advertises one or more printing services to an AppleTalk network. Macintosh workstations can select from the list of available printing services via the "Chooser" mechanism. To submit print jobs, workstations connect directly to the print server, inquire about printer characteristics, and send the job. No special client software is required; network printing capabilities are included in the standard Macintosh operating system.

Inside the print server, the Quiotix PrintServer application is layered atop an AppleTalk protocol, called the Printer Access Protocol (PAP). Using PAP, the application advertises print services for the attached printers and accepts print requests from workstations. It sends the data it receives out the printer port, and sends responses from the printer back to the workstation.

The AppleTalk printing architecture requires bidirectional communications with the printer. This requirement can present a problem when attempting to print to devices having unidirectional parallel ports (or other unidirectional communications channels). To support this configuration, the PrintServer application can recognize PostScript queries in the data stream and generate appropriate responses on behalf of the printer.

Although the Quiotix PrintServer application requires relatively little administration (it can run "out of the box"), administrators may wish to customize its behavior, such as change the name or number of print services advertised, or configure the type or characteristics of the attached printer(s). We provide programming interfaces to allow existing administration software to configure the AppleTalk printing services.

Requirements

The Quiotix PrintServer application requires the services of several lower-level AppleTalk protocols, including DDP, NBP, ATP, and PAP. The Quiotix PrintServer supports Quiotix Embedded AppleTalk and can easily be adapted to other AppleTalk protocol implementations.

A well-documented communications driver interface, included with the PrintServer application, provides communication with any type of printer port (serial, parallel, MIO, proprietary, etc.) with a minimum of integration effort.

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