Some of my users can print Invoices, some can print Workorders, and some can print both, all depending on whether I've installed the printer which is referred to as the AlternateDefaultPrinter() in the programming of the "Print" button on each form.

What happens to the PrintString output when a user without a referenced printer pushes the button?  Of course, there is no print output, and none of the installed printers show any activity.  Is the output just lost in the ether?  Is a file created on disk somewhere?

Can I create an @Error test to check for this, so I can alert the user with "You cannot print a Workorder from this workstation" message?  I tried putting such an @Error test after the first Printstring command, as so:

// Selects the printer
// AlternateDefaultPrinter("Workorder")
AlternateDefaultPrinter("Test")

// Prints the Workorder number
Printstring(Workorder_Number, 430, vPosY + 5, 0, "BSanSerif", 22, 0)

// Alerts the user if the Workorder printer does not exist on his machine
IF @Error
THEN Writeln("Your workstation cannot print Workorders.") 

but the slate did not pop up. ("Test" is an imaginary printer.)

Any help will be, as always, greatly appreciated.

Infinity wrote on Aug 29^th, 2007 at 3:36pm:

I'd have to go read the source, but I strongly suspect that if the specified printer does not exist, it falls back to the system's default printer.

If you are using version 2, you can probably make use of the -user_param startup switch or USER PARAM INI file entry to specify which printers are available. See the @UserParameter command in the 2.0 Programming Guide for how to make use of these values.

Infinity wrote on Aug 29^th, 2007 at 3:52pm:


Do they have the same names by any chance?

If the Alternate Printer does not exist by that name nothing will be printed. @Error will be set when FinishPage() is called as that is when the output is sent to the printer.

-Ray