Forum Discussion
Printer Accounting - how to pass the account data via the cloud printer
Hi, I have the "Universal Cloud connector" installed on Windows Server 2019, added a Xerox C8055 printer to the server, registered the connector and added the printer. On my Windows 10 PC when I go add a printer the new printer "XeroxAzure" shows up. All seems great.
Then I try to print a document from Word choosing the "XeroxAzure" printer but when I click the printer properties the only options I choose are portrait/landscape and under advanced paper size and copy count.
How do we specify we want to print in colour for example? Or collate and staple? Hole punch? etc
But just as or more importantly how to pass the account code of the user that is printing? Our printer has the standard accounting enabled and expects to receive a code from each print job identifying the user so we can track for costing etc.
Maybe I am missing a key concept on how a universal printer is supposed to operate or messed up the install but I don't see how end users will be able to use a printer without all the print options.
Thanks, appreciate any advice.
- Saurabh_Bansal
Microsoft
carloshenriques - you touch upon an interesting topic. Universal Print relies on the printer's driver on connector to get the printer's capabilities. If you look one level deeper, printer capabilities can be defined by printer drivers using either "standard" attributes as per Windows PrintSchema definitions or "custom" attributes. It depends on driver to driver what approach they take. Sometimes different drivers from same manufacturer can behave differently for the same printer.
Currently, Universal Print supports "standard" attributes only. The attributes you notice have been dropped might have been defined using some custom schema.
Can you try another driver for your printer and check. To change a printer's driver on connector refer to this help page - https://docs.microsoft.com/universal-print/fundamentals/universal-print-updating-printer-driver-howto.
User account code support doesnt exist in Universal Print currently. Can you add it as a feature request so that others can vote on it? One question though - instead of user's account code, does any other attribute like username work?
Saurabh_Bansal - thanks for the reply. I had already tried a different driver without any success, well limited success, I can set the "accounting code" on the print driver that is connected to the "connector" but then everyone prints with the same code.
When you say "Universal Print supports "standard" attributes only. " what are the attributes it supports?
- Saurabh_Bansal
carloshenriques unfortunately account codes are not supported at this point of time. Are there any other options other than account codes that you may be concerned about? What driver are we referring to here?
Print options and the way they are defined depends a lot on how drivers are authored. We are considering how best to guide our customers on evaluating the drivers for Universal Print.
carloshenriques Did you ever get an update on the question of Universal Print being able to work with printers that have Accounting Codes set?
It's been over 4 years since this post was done, and Microsoft hasn't provided any updates anywhere that I could find. I could only find this old post from a user asking the same question I need to know. Does Universal Print support accounting codes? We have 10 Xerox AltaLink C8155 copier/printers with accounting codes. I was looking for a no-pay solution since MS Universal Print is included in our A5 Education Licensing. But it needs to support accounting codes. Currently, we are managing printers on devices individually, and it's a pain. It sure would be nice if the "Universal Print" solution that Microsoft developed, actually was "Universal" and supported the feature sets that direct TCP/IP printing supports with the vendors global driver.Saurabh_Bansal Can you provide an update on this please or point us to an Engineer with the UP team that can give us an update or at least some kind of roadmap?
Thank you.
