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RPM Remote Print Manager Select Changelog

What's new in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.564

Apr 25, 2024
  • Resolved issue where the orientation setting was ignored in rf5 format.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.562 (Apr 1, 2024)

  • We did a tremendous amount with the LPD protocol including supporting Microsoft's way of byte counting, added capture support, increased speed substantially, fixed "lpstat" results so network probes are satisfied, added AS/400 specific extensions, and around a dozen items
  • In network updates we made all new "print" programs for LPR and Telnet for sending outgoing jobs, and more
  • In job processing, our biggest change was fixing and greatly improving the situation with multiple actions AND multiple transforms in a setup; in fixing that we actually made the whole process much more fluid even for simpler setups; plus we added PCLXL support to the PCL Resource Transform, worked on the Intel CPU bugs, and more
  • Also in job handling, we made a lot of fixes to reprint and error handling
  • We made a number of changes to database handling but probably the biggest is that we streamlined the log message process; it now completes in its own thread so you can turn up the log detail and not slow RPM down by much
  • The biggest User Interface update that people have commented on was that we enlarged the icon that shows whether the UI is connected to the service, so it's a lot more obvious; we did more than that but this is the one people have commented on

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.561 (Mar 21, 2024)

  • Added diagnostic logging to a number of action modules.
  • Removed some tests for data file existing and not being empty, as we were getting false positives, and those requirements had been addressed previously. Tests show that we have 100% file fidelity and no inexplicable errors.
  • For installations with a large number of DNS servers, we now start up correctly.
  • The job manager now has an entirely new job cache.
  • Addressed an outlier condition with the user interface communication with the service.
  • The PCL parse module was eliminating white space at the top of a PCL file without accounting for that being intentional. It never had before.
  • Removed some diagnostic logging from the dbpipe and dbshm modules.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.560 (Mar 21, 2024)

  • We discovered an edge case would result in a stuck job, under the following circumstances:
  • you are using a shared device with "admin only" access
  • you use credentials for a local user without admin privileges
  • RPM now records an appropriate error message and moves on to the next job.
  • If you were using the diagnostic log with "device-mgr" we found an incompletely formatted message

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.553 (Oct 4, 2023)

  • Rewritten the Queue Folders to address bottlenecks causing the directory monitoring to freeze
  • Fixed the issue when message log entries are stored in the database out of order
  • Fixed the "source doesn't exist" issue when moving/copying a file to another folder
  • on some user systems
  • And other fixes

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.545 (Jul 6, 2023)

  • Library causes issues
  • One of the libraries we've used for years has apparently started failing. Users would show error messages, which we ultimately traced to progress on job processing being interrupted at unexpected places.
  • Control file issues:
  • Many dialogs include a control called "Name template" where you can use values from the print job to construct a file name, perhaps the job ID or day of the week it's created. There were issues using some control file lines in this template. That is now fixed.
  • A few of the more obscure, rarely seen, control file lines were not making it into the database. This is now fixed.
  • Some control file lines contain an integer, and when this integer was extremely long, the operation faulted. This is now fixed.
  • Filter actions
  • Filter actions were not behaving consistently when stdin was off.
  • User interface:
  • The Hewlett-Packard PCL manual said that tray identifiers could not be over 39, but apparently, they are. This is now allowed.
  • The user interface now displays "Unlimited" for "unlimited devices" (this is one of the RPM Elite editions) rather than a huge integer (2**32)
  • Miscellaneous
  • RPM sometimes would not stop processing when instructed to shut down. We removed some unnecessary items from the shutdown logic, and this now
  • We see occasional critical event reports regarding "Error 0" on file write operations. This is meaningless and baffling, for instance, why signal an error if there is none? We've done some work to correct that using some of the mainstream AI chatbots (they are supposed to be good at programming issues). Time will tell.
  • The Queue Folders module now ignores zero-length files. The other input protocols already do. The challenging thing with Queue Folders is that it often deals with newly created files. We give files a couple of seconds in the hopes that all the data written to it will actually show up by the time we move that file into our space.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.543 (May 25, 2023)

  • Completely overhauled Job Launcher that schedules and executes print jobs after they arrive All jobs are now spooled to a folder and added to RPM by a task in the background Updated all the code in RPM that runs a program Updated the PCL to PDF transform to include the trial watermark And more

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.542 (May 14, 2023)

  • We did a tremendous amount with the LPD protocol including supporting Microsoft's way of byte counting, added capture support, increased speed substantially, fixed "lpstat" results so network probes are satisfied, added AS/400 specific extensions, and around a dozen items
  • In network updates we made all new "print" programs for LPR and Telnet for sending outgoing jobs, and more
  • In job processing, our biggest change was fixing and greatly improving the situation with multiple actions AND multiple transforms in a setup; in fixing that we actually made the whole process much more fluid even for simpler setups; plus we added PCLXL support to the PCL Resource Transform, worked on the Intel CPU bugs, and more
  • Also in job handling, we made a lot of fixes to reprint and error handling
  • We made a number of changes to database handling but probably the biggest is that we streamlined the log message process; it now completes in its own thread so you can turn up the log detail and not slow RPM down by much
  • The biggest User Interface update that people have commented on was that we enlarged the icon that shows whether the UI is connected to the service, so it's a lot more obvious; we did more than that but this is the one people have commented on

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.540 (Mar 21, 2023)

  • Launcher:
  • Completely overhauled the job launcher that schedules and executes print jobs after they arrive. Some users had seen that output stopped. We put a lot of resources into fixing this; since then, while testing, we have sent over a million jobs into RPM, and we are satisfied this problem is behind us.
  • Reinstated support for device limits
  • On startup, we now clear the error status from existing jobs, so they are not restricted from starting
  • We also clear the error status for queues when you resume (turn ‘off’ suspend) or enable
  • We post the active job status proactively to the user interface when we launch the job and when it completes
  • On job errors, we take more caution to make sure the UI shows the job error status and the message
  • Launcher was sometimes failing to remove files in the TEMP folder because they were still in use; RPM now has a thread that will attempt to remove files periodically until they are gone
  • Update to job error handling: if the error was due to a problem with a transform, we now clean up sufficiently that a job retry might succeed
  • Job management:
  • All jobs are now spooled to a folder and added to RPM by a task in the background. This happens continuously. There should no longer be delays starting RPM when significant numbers of jobs are left from a previous run.
  • The text banner transform can now safely follow a data extraction transform and display the desired fields
  • Jobs that failed were occasionally marked as “complete”. This is fixed.
  • Overhauled and streamlined the way the job manager creates jobs, updates jobs, and issues database commands
  • When RPM removes a job for any reason, the text reason is now included in the log and other messaging, for instance, if the job completed normally, removed manually, or due to job retention policies
  • The Jobs folder is now assigned parallel to the Spool folder
  • While resetting job status on startup, RPM proactively updates any jobs not in “wait” status so that the UI reflects this for the user
  • RPM was failing to archive jobs on a hidden Windows share
  • Addressed a problem where we weren't able to use credentials to examine a folder on a hidden share. This is fixed.
  • Archive to folder action now reports when the folder is not found and the folder path is not a folder
  • The job cleanup manager could exit on startup
  • If you had job retention turned on with a maximum number of jobs and have a queue with more jobs than the retention limit, RPM could exit on startup
  • Process management:
  • We updated all the code in RPM that runs a program. We had occasional reports of RPM failing to run a program, be it a user’s filter program or the PCL to PDF utility. We updated the filter action, filter transform, PCL to PDF and PCL to PostScript, the email action, the alert function, the LPR and IP Printer actions, the device tester, and the interactive Text and Raw Printer actions
  • Simplified process management and updated the way we check on idle time for processes we launch
  • Eliminated the “shell” option from running a process as an action or transform
  • The filter action and transform now have a setting to react to the program exit code as an error, including a diagnostic log message and a Critical Event
  • The process code now logs the directory it’s running in
  • PCL to PDF:
  • Update the PCL to PDF transform to include the trial watermark and overlay options
  • Now shipping a new version of the PCL to PDF utility
  • The string translator could lose a byte here and there on large substitutions using regular expressions
  • LPD:
  • Now allows an incorrectly formed queue status command as some mainstream print clients fail to follow the RFC specification
  • Added logic to detect that client lost network connection while sending the data file, which happens often on some networks (possibly VPN). We handle these incomplete jobs using the UI settings to error the job, delete, or ignore the error and process it anyway
  • LPD object was “closing” twice, which is unnecessary and resulted in an erroneous diagnostic log message that the queue was not specified (although it was)
  • Added the connection ID from the socket manager to the properties for the job and some of the diagnostic logging, so we could track an LPD job from the initial connection to job scheduling.
  • The LPD protocol now adds port settings to the parameters in the job so that the LPD manager can determine the right setting for auto-creating the queue if it doesn’t exist
  • The “LPQ” or “print queue status” command now returns text results as expected
  • The verbose or long version of the “LPQ” command now returns the results
  • If you do a status query on a queue that doesn’t exist, you get immediate feedback
  • Also updated the “LPQ” message text for non-existent queues in those instances where RPM is not configured with permission to automatically create the queue
  • Device manager:
  • The device error message includes the device type and attempts to look up the queue name
  • Device error messages are now written to the event log a maximum number of times (5) although the device continues to be tested, silently
  • If the device error clears, we note that in the event log as well
  • Queue Folder:
  • Completely removed the old program and replaced it with a new one. Queue Folders now routinely fetch tens of thousands of files without issue.
  • The Queue Folders module in RPM now moves the new file or files from the watch folder to a staging area. In the past, if files were created in the watch folder faster than Queue Folders could process them, it may submit the file multiple times which didn't help to process if it was otherwise bottle-necked
  • Email:
  • Addressed logic in the email program and the module that manages it, to better track and log exception returns
  • If the service can’t start, it now attempts to send an alert email provided the Email Notification settings are in place (Configure / Notification Settings)
  • Email action now handles a trailing comma in a To: address
  • Email action parses the output of the email client program and records it in the event log
  • Fixed an exception in the email alert process
  • Critical event emails now include the RPM version, the Windows version, and the product serial number
  • Logging:
  • Added startup messages, updated many existing messages, and removed several
  • Removed the document management warning from the device tester and print actions
  • Improvement to diagnostic log to suppress newlines from data we are logging
  • Somewhat increased the number of things we include in the diagnostic log
  • Message log entries are now spooled to disk rather than being cached in memory
  • User interface:
  • If the user enables “use overlay” then make sure they select an overlay
  • Text to PDF: better security options
  • Licensing:
  • Added “Multiplexor” to the list of adapters names we ignore alongside Juniper
  • Database:
  • Overhauled the way we do database queries and updates
  • Upgraded our handling of converting text date/time statements
  • Miscellaneous:
  • File handling: Improved the way we manage file operations in a threaded environment; as soon as we did this, several unusual errors were eliminated
  • Server sockets are now removed gracefully when the service exits unexpectedly
  • PDF Gen now runs 60 minutes idle before shutting down
  • The RPM installer will suppress the upgrade dialog if the /silent switch is used
  • Somewhat simplified the chain of events for outgoing RPC and solved some issues which were preventing the UI from recognizing events from the service
  • The process for adding a telnet protocol was taking an exception; this is fixed
  • We put the startup code for Timer manager in its own thread, in case it has to read thousands of stored time events (such as the time to remove a job)

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.538 Beta (Jan 4, 2023)

  • Addressed a problem where we weren't able to use credentials to examine
  • a folder on a hidden share. This is fixed.
  • The job cleanup manager could exit on startup.
  • We now calculate a new LOG_ID whenever we insert into the MSGLOG rather than depend
  • on the database to generate a value.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.537 Beta (Nov 17, 2022)

  • Moved loading timers from the database into a background thread. For instance, if the user had thousands of print jobs set to expire at a given time, loading these times could make RPM startup take a very long time.
  • Loading LPD jobs left over from a previous run of the service is now loaded into its thread, and it can be interrupted if the user decides to exit the service
  • RPM’s JOBS folder was supposed to be parallel to the SPOOL folder, not in it
  • LPD jobs are now spooled to disk as they arrive, not cached in memory
  • QueueFolder jobs are spooled to a staging area immediately, which keeps files from being recognized and staged more than once
  • Message log entries are now spooled to disk and archived in the database as a background task
  • Updated diagnostic logging for numerous file operations
  • Worked to make file operations more thread-safe
  • Added a connection string in diagnostic logging to track incoming jobs starting with the network and through the various stages of LPD processing
  • If a temp file is still open when we try to remove it, cache that path and try again until it succeeds
  • Upgraded the way we parse results from the email program which we use in the email action and in notifications
  • Important fix to a string translation issue using regular expressions; rarely, an output block could be truncated by a few characters
  • When adding a Telnet port, the Telnet manager issued a traceback
  • Jobs and actions both now successfully error the job status when in fact, an error occurred
  • Resolved an error that occurred rarely when importing a configuration that used the version 1.0 QueueFolders
  • Added message log support for queue status operations

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.536 Beta (Nov 13, 2022)

  • Summary of changes:
  • Moved loading timers from the database into a background thread. For instance, if the user had thousands of print jobs set to expire at a given time, loading these times could make RPM startup take a very long time.
  • Loading LPD jobs left over from a previous run of the service is now loaded into its thread, and it can be interrupted if the user decides to exit the service
  • RPM’s JOBS folder was supposed to be parallel to the SPOOL folder, not in it
  • LPD jobs are now spooled to disk as they arrive, not cached in memory
  • QueueFolder jobs are spooled to a staging area immediately, which keeps files from being recognized and staged more than once
  • Message log entries are now spooled to disk and archived in the database as a background task
  • Updated diagnostic logging for numerous file operations
  • Worked to make file operations more thread-safe
  • Added a connection string in diagnostic logging to track incoming jobs starting with the network and through the various stages of LPD processing
  • If a temp file is still open when we try to remove it, cache that path and try again until it succeeds
  • Upgraded the way we parse results from the email program which we use in the email action and in notifications
  • Important fix to a string translation issue using regular expressions; rarely, an output block could be truncated by a few characters
  • When adding a Telnet port, the Telnet manager issued a traceback
  • Jobs and actions both now successfully error the job status when in fact, an error occurred
  • Resolved an error that occurred rarely when importing a configuration that used the version 1.0 QueueFolders

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.531 Beta (Jul 1, 2022)

  • Job launcher:
  • In the Launcher, we rebuilt how we process jobs. Rather than using a pool of threads, we launch a thread for each print job. Unfortunately, some users saw threads die off, and no jobs would process.
  • We never did find why or how to re-launch threads in a way that achieves the stability our customers need. However, we have run close to a million jobs through the current software and have not found abandoned jobs.
  • Executing programs:
  • We rebuilt the entire process of running programs from RPM. Users occasionally had this fail, so we updated RPM to use modern methods to track processes, utilize return codes, etc.
  • Additionally, for processes:
  • The user can utilize the return code from the program if they wish
  • The “shell” option is no longer supported
  • LPD protocol:
  • We made several LPD changes:
  • Some print clients decided to “go rogue” and change the format for queue status requests from the standard (that everyone uses) to something else. We now support this.
  • Queue status requests now work across the board, with high and low detail, and we return status text regardless of whether the queue exists.
  • If the sending client loses connection with the RPM host while the data portion of the file is transferring, we now process this according to the UI settings of “delete the job, or error the job, or ignore the error and process”. Users noticed the job restarted on their end, and in RPM, without explanation. We hope to make now clear what happened.
  • Queue folder, aka watch folder:
  • For RPM Elite users, the Queue Folder process is entirely new. We feature a new detection methodology for the watch folder. We now move new files from the watch folder to a staging area, so we do not rescan multiple times if RPM is not keeping up with new files. We now have tests of many tens of thousands of files without complications.
  • There are many more changes than this! If you have had a technical issue with RPM, please consider updating to use this beta release. We will post an official release when enough customers report satisfactory results with this beta.
  • Miscellaneous
  • We discovered that if you install the 530 beta on a clean machine, without RPM already installed, the first time it ran it reported some errors and crashed. We corrected this unfortunate mistake in the 531 beta.
  • We also tested Queue Folders with a locked file and made changes as needed. Locked files are reported now but not retried.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.530 Beta (Jun 27, 2022)

  • Updated the Job launcher.
  • Updated the entire process of running programs from RPM.
  • LPD protocol changes.
  • Added a new Queue Folder process.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.526 (Jun 29, 2021)

  • Text print was aligning overstrike text at the beginning of the line
  • instead of in the correct position. This is now fixed.
  • A thicker underline for bold text in Text Markup to PDF transform is now available.
  • Improved underline position in Text Markup to PDF transform.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.522 (Sep 30, 2020)

  • Resolved an exception in print accounting which caused the text print action to fault.
  • Fixed text in message log records.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.514 (Apr 28, 2020)

  • We did a tremendous amount with the LPD protocol including supporting Microsoft's way of byte counting, added capture support, increased speed substantially, fixed "lpstat" results so network probes are satisfied, added AS/400 specific extensions, and around a dozen items
  • In network updates we made all new "print" programs for LPR and Telnet for sending outgoing jobs, and more
  • In job processing, our biggest change was fixing and greatly improving the situation with multiple actions AND multiple transforms in a setup; in fixing that we actually made the whole process much more fluid even for simpler setups; plus we added PCLXL support to the PCL Resource Transform, worked on the Intel CPU bugs, and more
  • Also in job handling, we made a lot of fixes to reprint and error handling
  • We made a number of changes to database handling but probably the biggest is that we streamlined the log message process; it now completes in its own thread so you can turn up the log detail and not slow RPM down by much
  • The biggest User Interface update that people have commented on was that we enlarged the icon that shows whether the UI is connected to the service, so it's a lot more obvious; we did more than that but this is the one people have commented on

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.495 (Dec 14, 2018)

  • Possible reasons for slow printing

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.493 (Nov 28, 2018)

  • Current version 6.2.0.493
  • Latest release 6.2
  • Product roadmap
  • Latest blog: Possible reasons for slow printing

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.2.0.480 (Jul 17, 2018)

  • New LPD module:
  • LPD has been the print protocol utilized across the Internet since some time
  • Before 1990. RPM of course has handled LPD since its beginning.
  • With this release, we set about to create a new LPD module which focused
  • On reliability, clarity, and performance. Internally we call it “lpd2” since it’s
  • A new architecture, at least in the way we put it together. It’s not strictly
  • The second iteration but the second we’ve done since the RPM 5.0 version
  • Which was a complete rewrite of everything.
  • Here are the main considerations for this new LPD handling module.
  • SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT BYTE COUNTING Probably nothing has tripped us up as
  • Much as setting up a Microsoft “print to LPR” port for use with a printer, only
  • To find jobs not processing in RPM. Now when a job data size claims to be
  • 4GB or more, we assume it’s probably from an LPR client which didn’t want to
  • Spool the print job so that it can send a byte count first. That’s perfectly fine; we
  • Know what to do.
  • MULTIPLE CONTROL AND DATA FILES We now handle multiple control files in a job,
  • And multiple data files, and combinations thereof. Some Linux clients use this
  • As a way of sending multiple print jobs on a single connection. It’s faster than
  • Opening a new connection for each print job and it’s perfectly legal.
  • SUPPORT FOR AS/400 EXTENSIONS RPM now supports AS/400 specific LPD subcommands.
  • We have also supported extended control file attributes for years
  • Now.
  • LPD STREAM SUPPORT RPM supports the so-called “LPD stream” where the data
  • RPM 6.2 Release
  • We have scheduled a new product release for
  • RPM Remote Print Manager® (“RPM”) for July
  • 2018. This release has been in process since
  • August 2017 and includes a tremendous number
  • Of additions and updates.
  • This PDF version of the guide condenses the
  • Online pages into a single document, should that
  • Be more useful for your review.
  • RPM Remote Print Manager® | Connect. Print. Innovate.
  • Size is said to be zero. This is another way of handling the
  • “don’t count the data bytes first” problem.
  • INTRODUCED CAPTURE SUPPORT We’ve added a “capture”
  • Feature which writes the overhead part of the LPD protocol
  • To a file, which we can then replay. This is intended to help
  • Us understand unexpected job behavior not related to the
  • Actual data. It does not (at this writing) include the actual
  • Job data, rather a representation which we can use to synthesize
  • A fake job.
  • END OF DATA ISSUES We added support to resolve a problem
  • We’ve seen at the end of extremely large jobs, where sometimes
  • The end of the job data didn’t arrive with the rest of
  • The data. We coaxed it a bit and now it works as expected.
  • CONTROL FILE ORDER We had put a lot of attention into handling
  • All the parts of the LPD job without relying on order,
  • Only to find that if the control file came first, it was overriding
  • The size of the data file when it comes to the final job
  • Record, the one that appears in the UI. The actual size of the
  • Data file was unaffected. This is fixed.
  • FIXED NULL CHARACTER ISSUE Some print clients, notoriously
  • The Microsoft LPR client, append a null character to the
  • Control file and the data file. We meant to trim that NULL
  • Character from the data like we did in the previous RPM but
  • Apparently missed coffee that day. This is now fixed. This
  • Was apparently causing problems for some clients using the
  • Raw Print action, depending of course on the printer.
  • Also, if there are “extra” bytes like that NULL appended to
  • Either the control or data files, we now mention this in the
  • Diagnostic log.
  • UNEXPECTED CHARACTERS IN NAMES We now account for
  • Non-ASCII characters in the control file names. Some Linux
  • Clients increment a character without apparent limitation if
  • You send multiple files on a single print request.
  • LPSTAT RESULTS The following changes were made to the
  • Lpstat response.
  • » We were transmitting the results of “lpstat” commands
  • But the clients weren’t getting them. We
  • Got our act together and now both Linux and the
  • Windows “lpstat” clients receive our output.
  • » We added a status message to the result like we did
  • With RPM 4.5
  • » We also remove the column headers if no jobs are
  • Listed.
  • » You can control whether RPM sends actual job results
  • From “lpstat” using a setting in the UI. It is off by
  • Default.
  • SMALL JOB REMOVAL The user interface lets you set a minimum
  • Size for jobs; any job that size or less is supposed to be
  • Removed. Unfortunately, we were merely leaving them in
  • The “xfer” state. Now they are automatically removed as they
  • Were supposed to be.
  • NON-ASCII JOB NAMES If the job name in the control file is
  • Not ASCII or UTF-8 we attempt to use the system’s native
  • Code page to translate the name to UTF-8. If that fails we’ll
  • Replace non-ASCII characters with an underscore. This
  • Should not affect the job processing, and you can use data
  • Extraction to override the job name.
  • Networking Updates:
  • Networking is a core area of RPM and something we put
  • A lot of focus on.
  • In this release, we introduced a new “LPD” module. We
  • Completely rewrote the way we handle incoming LPD
  • Requests and how we created the jobs. The page to the
  • Left of this includes the highlights and we will document
  • The new functionality thoroughly.
  • However, we did a lot in the networking part of the system
  • Outside of LPD, which we describe here.
  • NEW NETWORK PRINT ACTIONS RPM supports two network
  • Print actions: LPR and IP. That is, we receive, and we also
  • Send out. In this release we replaced the old implementations
  • For these outputs with all new code. Our goal was
  • Code that responded quickly and yet let us know of potential
  • Problems. In testing, we have sent tens of thousands of
  • Jobs through those actions. We have tested this with RPM in
  • Our local network and with our various printers.
  • This code has been available for several beta releases. For a
  • Very brief window of time the new Print LPR was sending
  • Jobs to the same host they came from, which of course we
  • Fixed immediately.
  • RPM Remote Print Manager® | Connect. Print. Innovate.
  • NETWORK “DISTANCE RELIEF” A client was experiencing unexpected
  • Problems with jobs sent from a considerable networking
  • “distance”. Some jobs randomly seemed to never
  • Complete. It turns out that their client system was sending
  • “write” and “close” events at the same time. We had never
  • Seen this but found a way to account for it. This seemed to
  • Solve their problem.
  • TELNET ISSUES If you started with a clean database, the
  • Telnet manager would fault because it’s next job ID was not
  • Specified as expected. This is fixed.
  • If the job name template was blank, incoming jobs would
  • Produce a fault. The telnet manager now provides a default
  • Template for creating a name if none is specified. This has
  • Also been fixed in the UI.
  • When RPM starts up it will now look for empty data files and
  • Abandoned data files for prior telnet sessions
  • OTHER ISSUES The socket for “lpstat” commands is now shut
  • Down proactively which helps keep the LPD jobs processing
  • At a steady rate
  • Eliminated a frequent call to check on listening ports, which
  • Occasionally failed for unknown reasons and resulted in
  • RPM reporting that it’s own path is using the port. This
  • Required a system reboot to fix.
  • Job Processing:
  • After your print job arrives in RPM it is scheduled to process.
  • We made a number of improvements and fixes to
  • Print job processing.
  • TRANSFORMS EXCEPTION EXECUTION We did a major rework on
  • The way transforms are processed, if the queue has more
  • Than one active action, or if the job has copies. The processing
  • Is now much more reliable, and in some instances much
  • Faster (although correctness and completeness are always
  • The goals). If you had a situation with errors like “empty
  • Result from transforms” then you probably need this update.
  • INTEL CPU BUG In light of the widely reported Intel CPU
  • Bugs, RPM now explicitly zeroes decrypted password fields
  • Immediately after using them, rather than merely letting
  • Them pop off the execution stack, just in case that makes
  • Some difference. We suspect it does not.
  • DATA EXTRACTION UPDATES You can now use values from data
  • Extraction in the command line for filter actions and filter
  • Transforms
  • The text banner transform now supports data extraction
  • If you search for multiple patterns, the earlier iteration of
  • Data transform would concatenate those values and return
  • Them in the data field you specified. This functionality is
  • Restored.
  • The data extraction transform now properly initializes all the
  • Fields you intend to look for, so if the value you want is not
  • Found, the field will be empty rather than uninitialized
  • Fixed a problem with positional search in data extraction
  • When jobs have blank lines, it was throwing off the line
  • Numbering.
  • PCL5 UPDATE In the Text Markup to PCL transform, we added
  • A PJL command for the job name to the existing command
  • To display the job name on the printer status window; and
  • The “ENTER LANGUAGE” command to help distinguish from
  • PCLXL.
  • PCL RESOURCE UPDATES
  • » Added “copies” support to the PCL Resourc
  • A buffer boundary, we were not keeping the correct
  • Number of bytes in reserve for searching the next
  • Buffer. This problem applied to partial matches, and it
  • Is fixed.
  • » We also discovered that if you have a string translate
  • Transform followed by a remove markup transform,
  • The “end of text” marker disappeared. This is also fixed.
  • TRANFORM ERROR LOG Resolved a situation where transform
  • Errors were logged repeatedly and prevented the job from
  • Being declared unsuccessful.
  • FILTER TRANSFORM OUTPUT Fixed a problem with the filter
  • Transform where it might not read the specified output file.
  • FILTER ACTION ARGUMENTS Some filter action arguments were
  • Being “quoted” when we didn’t want them to be.
  • LARGE FILES ON WINDOWS 10 Identified and resolved an
  • Unusual race condition with very large input files (90 MB or
  • More) on Windows 10.
  • FILE COPY ON WINDOWS 10 We were using a new method of
  • Copying files which unfortunately exposed a race condition
  • In Windows 10, when the source path is a different drive
  • Than the destination, so we went back to our old method.
  • Text Printing:
  • From the beginning, RPM’s ability to render text on a
  • Windows printer has set it apart from nearly all other
  • Solutions. Text printing is a fundamental process which
  • We continue to invest in.
  • OVERLAYS
  • » If you specify overlays for a text print, they now appear
  • On page 1 only if you wanted it to
  • » Furthermore, if an overlay was supposed to appear on
  • Page 1, the text was not printing
  • » It was possible to configure printing with overlays
  • Without actually configuring the overlays
  • END PAGE ERROR Windows was reporting an error in “EndPage”
  • For some print drivers but we were able to work
  • Around this.
  • TOP MARGIN We corrected a problem where the first line of
  • Text in a file could print above the configured margin.
  • BLANK PAGE HANDLING RPM has always had a “suppress blank
  • Page” feature which somehow slipped through the cracks
  • In the previous release. It has been restored to its rightful
  • Place.
  • BLANK JOB If a print job was entirely white space, it never
  • Finished printing even though it didn’t print anything. This
  • Is fixed.
  • More Job Handling:
  • JOB ERROR HANDLING We have greatly improved the retry
  • Process. Each job now has its own retry count and we
  • Added a “max retries” to the UI. This value defaults to five.
  • We also have a retry frequency to specify how long to wait
  • Between attempts.
  • We have seen customer systems where jobs have continually
  • Retried, without anyone realizing, for as long as five
  • Months. Others reported they had enough jobs retrying
  • That it prevented new jobs from processing.
  • JOB REPRINT Added “reprint” notification to the job pump,
  • Which means if RPM reprints jobs for any reason, the effect
  • Is immediate and not potentially delayed up to ten seconds
  • When the user reprints a job, RPM will reset the “job retry
  • Count” on that job. This way if you make changes of any
  • Kind to fix whatever was causing the job to retry, doing a
  • Reprint will give you a new set of retries for that job.
  • If one or more actions are disabled for a job, and you
  • Reprinted it, it could attempt to keep printing forever. This is
  • Fixed.
  • JOB RETENTION Jobs with a Remove Time set are removed
  • By RPM on startup, when that time is in the past; in other
  • Words, RPM was not running when the job was scheduled
  • To be removed normally. This is part of the job retention
  • System.
  • RPM Remote Print Manager® | Connect. Print. Innovate.
  • Database Updates:
  • RPM relies heavily on the database since all jobs, configuration,
  • And logs are stored there. Following are the
  • Updates in database processing since the last release.
  • MESSAGE LOG The message log now adds log entries in a
  • Separate thread, so that logging will not slow down the
  • Other processing substantially. You can even turn on high
  • Detail with a far lower performance penalty. Much of course
  • Depends on your computing environment.
  • We tracked a substantial memory leak to the message log
  • Code and eliminated a third party library to resolve the
  • Problem.
  • PRIORITIES TABLE After a customer sent us their database
  • File, we discovered that the PRIORITIES table had literally
  • Thousands of entries for queues and devices which no
  • Longer existed. We added cleanup for the PRIORITIES table
  • In RPM startup, and added handlers for whenever a queue
  • Or device is removed.
  • QUEUESEQ TABLE We discovered that the QUEUESEQ table
  • Was not properly updated after an RPM upgrade from a
  • Previous version. The system was unable to generate a job
  • ID when creating new jobs. This is a fairly serious showstopper
  • Error. We added code to check the QUEUESEQ table
  • On startup and ensure that it was error free.
  • DATABASE RECOVERY We found some database transactions
  • Which invoked an error in the database which we were
  • Not recovering from. We found a way to report these errors
  • Safely. They are currently being reported in the RPM events
  • Log.
  • DBMIGRATE Dbmigrate will now migrate the database if the
  • File exists in the default location, even if we are not upgrading
  • RPM.
  • Logging Updates:
  • RPM logs everything of interest, in various levels of detail.
  • We log when jobs arrive, when they are processed, and of
  • Course all manner of errors and warnings. We also have a
  • Diagnostic log which can be useful to our staff.
  • MESSAGE CONTENT IMPROVEMENTS We studied some massive
  • Customer logs and identified a number of ways our logs
  • Could be more useful for problem resolution, or simply
  • Identifying normal behavior. In general, we added contextual
  • Data to many log messages:
  • » We now associate a queue name with a device name
  • In the device tester logs, so if you use the same device
  • In multiple queues (a typical situation) you can track
  • Down which setup you need to check
  • » We added a device name or folder path to device
  • Tester logs.
  • MESSAGE LOG CLEANUP We discovered that the message
  • Log insert was attempting to purge old log entries each
  • Time we added. We eliminated that overhead and added a
  • Scheduled task within RPM that would purge old log entries
  • Each hour. You can set the duration of log messages in the
  • User interface.
  • This significantly reduced the impact of logging.
  • JOB EXECUTION LOGGING We added real-time logging for job
  • Execution. We use a custom script to accomplish this. We
  • Do not plan to release a tool publicly.
  • PCL5 LOGGING
  • » The PCL Resource mapping transform logs all trays
  • And bins in the input file to the event log once, at the
  • End of the file. Previously it logged each occurrence.
  • » The “missing macro” warning for PCL5 files is now
  • Logged once at the end of the input files. All missing
  • Macro ids are listed.
  • » We now list the job name and macro ID for any PCL
  • Macro related messages, if you have turned on logging
  • For that transform.
  • WINDOWS VERSION LOGGING We added support to log the
  • Operating system version for Windows 10 and Windows
  • Server 2016.
  • RPM Remote Print Manager® | Connect. Print. Innovate.
  • User Interface Updates:
  • The User Interface, or the “UI” as we usually call it, plays
  • An essential role in RPM. While the majority of the actual
  • Work goes on out of sight in the RPM service, the UI is
  • Where you keep an eye on things, watch jobs processing,
  • Look for errors and warnings, and do all the configuration.
  • REMOTE HOST CONNECTION Not everyone knows that the UI
  • Can connect to RPM running on another host in your network.
  • We disabled some functions which don’t make sense
  • When you are connected to a remote host, including:
  • » View Job Files
  • » View Contents
  • » Open folder containing a job
  • » Clean Spool Folders
  • » Email to Support (a feature to email a job data file)
  • » Dependent Services (refers to services on your computer
  • That might depend on the RPM service running)
  • » Add-on Modules (must be configured locally)
  • » Diagnostic Logging (requires modifying an XML file in
  • The install folder)
  • SERVICE CONNECTION ICON We updated the “connected to service”
  • Icon in the lower right corner to a larger, more readily
  • Identifiable image.
  • TASK AVAILABILITY NUMBERS We removed the task availability
  • Numbers since they were always out of date (by the time
  • They get to the UI) and often confusing.
  • QUEUE REMOVAL SAFEGUARDS When the user wants to remove
  • A queue, we now check first that the queue is not used in a
  • Telnet port and is not the target of a copy queue action.
  • DUPLICATE RPC PORT We now prevent the port configuration
  • From adding a duplicate RPC port.
  • TELNET PORT UPDATE We now require the telnet port configuration
  • To have a job name template and a queue destination.
  • JOB DISCARD We modified the wording of the “job discard
  • Option” to be more clear.
  • CAPTURE We added “capture” support to the LPD settings.
  • If enabled, our new LPD protocol module will generate a
  • Capture file for each incoming job and place it in the “JOBS”
  • Folder in the RPM spool area. The “capture” file contains only
  • The protocol exchange and not job data.
  • QUEUE FILTERS ON STARTUP We added a command line argument
  • To the UI to pre-load the “queue filters” field. This will
  • Narrow down the list of queues automatically displayed in
  • The UI. You can always clear the filter at any time.
  • DATABASE MAINTENANCE If the UI is stopping the service for
  • Database maintenance, proactively check that the service
  • Actually stopped correctly.
  • CODE PAGE TRANSFORM The code page transform was
  • Missing from the transforms list. It was automatically used
  • By some transforms, but you were unable to add one as
  • Intended.
  • TEXT BANNER TRANSFORM The text banner transform was
  • Not allowing you to save the form if a template file was not
  • Configured. This is optional again as it should have been.
  • QUEUE FOLDERS The queue folders setup now requires the
  • Parent folder to be a local drive, not shared. There are several
  • Reasons for this, the most obvious being that directory
  • Notifications are not broadcast over the network to neighboring
  • Windows systems.
  • BLANK PRINTER NAME The printer list for the Raw Print action
  • No longer includes a blank printer name.
  • STARDARD INPUT & STANDARD OUTPUT IN FILTERS
  • » you can’t use “standard input” and include the %s
  • Parameter in the command line
  • » you can’t use “standard output” and include the %o
  • Parameter in the command line
  • For users who don’t fully understand these concepts, they
  • Are diametrically opposed meaning you can use one or the
  • Other but not both. The form now checks if the user is trying
  • To use both and prevents it.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.1.0.456 (Aug 24, 2017)

  • Improved job processing:
  • The upgrade provides a more responsive experience by allowing users to interrupt or affect print processing in real time. RPM also includes several new processing models to control what prints and in what order. This has been verified with volume testing internally and at customer sites. In addition, it’s easier to add PDF watermarks and other overlays, even under heavy loads, and users can now specify how much parallel processing can be performed on their systems.
  • FTP upload:
  • This release adds native support for the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP) as a means to upload files, similar to the way it already archives to disk. RPM supports the full range of print job naming options as well as options familiar to all FTP users.
  • Job stall fix:
  • Certain configurations resulted in a situation where a job was not recognized as complete and further processing was affected. The Brooks Internet Software development team identified and corrected this issue.

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 6.0.0.362 (Jun 7, 2014)

  • Database improvements:
  • Refactored for improved performance
  • Built in maintenance from the GUI--no more scripts
  • Job scheduling options built into database
  • You can customize where the database is stored, so you are not dependent on our path
  • Logging is now selective so you can further reduce the load by eliminating messages you are not interested in
  • Database access is managed by a separate server, no longer internal to RPM
  • Performance improvements:
  • RPM does a much better job of processing multiple jobs simultaneously, up to the limit of the available worker tasks. In the past it tended to run 1-2 at a time.
  • RPM can now send jobs directly to networked printers, bypassing the Windows spooler entirely.
  • Crash Reporting - RPM Service should not be brought offline by external instabilities and will provide us debugging information where appropriate. No confidential information is sent during crash reporting.
  • User interface improvements:
  • Copy queue configuration from one queue to another using drag and drop
  • Reorder transforms via drag & drop or via keyboard shortcuts
  • You can open multiple queue configurations side by side for comparison
  • You can selectively disable actions and transforms
  • Separate windows can display a master list of actions and transforms
  • The GUI can display in multiple languages
  • An events pane was added to facilitate easier troubleshooting of problems
  • You can administer RPM on remote hosts
  • You can quickly and easily email problematic print jobs directly to support
  • Added a built-in check for updates
  • You can customize which application is used to preview a print job
  • You can now view the message log filtered by job, device, queue, and more.
  • Job scheduling:
  • Added a priority job scheduler, where you can weight various items and better control your job order
  • You can order by job ID
  • New actions:
  • You can send jobs directly to an LPR printer, avoid the Windows spooler
  • Send jobs via a direct TCP connection on a configurable port, usually 9100, and avoid the Windows spooler
  • New transforms:
  • Break up non-paginated data by lines per page
  • FCFC, First Character Form Control, a format used by IBM
  • Data sanitize, obscure all customer data in a print job while preserving formatting
  • Add a watermark to a PDF file, either an image or another PDF
  • PDF improvements:
  • Add watermarks to PDFs, including images and existing PDFs as overlays
  • Supports multiple overlays for PDF files
  • New security:
  • Printer crashes and faulty print drivers no longer crash RPM
  • For remote RPM administration, passwords are no longer sent in plain text over the wire
  • RPM now tracks print driver versions, provides several ways to deal with configuration issues
  • PCL options:
  • Macros are now supported in the improved PCL to text conversion
  • Change PCL input trays and output bins on the fly including mapping any tray to a given tray, and the same with bins
  • Licensing changes:
  • RPM skips network devices with certain names which don’t preserve the MAC address
  • RPM now supports a “live trial” where, for a period of 7 days, you can use the product as if it were activated, suppressing trial watermarks
  • We have removed the "trial limits" where you could only archive so many jobs during the trial, etc.
  • RPC support:
  • We have our own remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism which we use for commands, events and updates.
  • “RPC” is our integrated suite of events and commands which allow 3rd party applications to control RPM’s behavior and configuration.
  • Some of the ways our customers are already using RPC features:
  • Administering and monitoring multiple RPM Installations from a single workstation.
  • Integrated trickle-feed printing - queued jobs are released to idle printers, all centrally managed by a client database.
  • System wide event support - create custom reports and logs filtered to your criteria. Track devices, actions, transforms, queues, and more.
  • Scheduled behaviors - modify configurations, suspend background queues during busy hours, plan job processing during off-peak times, or customize job retention settings on a per-job basis.
  • Output organization - add custom logic to track and schedule multi-part jobs, reschedule separator pages between groups of jobs, and report back to a client database when processing concludes.
  • Additional use cases for RPC:
  • Process jobs “out of band” – your program tells RPM which jobs, and in what order, to work on.
  • Filter jobs – if a job does not meet a criteria you specify, you can remove it instead of processing it.
  • Monitoring / reporting – request real-time updates about which users are printing, to which volumes or devices, etc.
  • On-the-fly job-level configuration – incoming print data can contain configuration information. Your program can read the job, determine the appropriate settings, update RPM, release the job, then revert to the previous settings when the job is complete.
  • Sorting – a separate process can contain rules that move jobs between RPM queues for fully customized workflows.
  • More features:
  • Native 64-bit support
  • Supports Windows 8 and Server 2012
  • Windows 2000 support is dropped

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 5.0.70.3 (Jan 15, 2009)

  • Queue deletion for transforms has been corrected

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 5.0.59.0 (Jun 10, 2008)

  • Completely rebuilt GUI with many new and enhanced features

New in RPM Remote Print Manager Select 4.5.1.12 (Feb 27, 2008)

  • Resolved a buffer overflow security vulnerability during the receive data file LPD subcommand