Print Interface with an SAP R/3 application server on a remote system

Figure 1 shows how the Print Interface LPD and an SAP R/3 application server that runs on a remote system (such as AIX® or Windows) fit into your system. When no SAP R/3 application server is running on the z/OS system, the Infoprint Server LPD (as opposed to the Infoprint Server OMS) receives print and status requests, and notification of job events does not occur.

Figure 1. Printing SAP R/3 documents with an SAP R/3 application server that runs on a non-z/OS system
The following text explains the figure.
  1. From an SAP R/3 GUI, users make print, cancel, job query, and device query requests to an SAP R/3 application server that runs on a remote system such as Windows, AIX, or Solaris. These print requests specify the name of an SAP R/3 output device that is defined to the SAP R/3 system. The SAP administrator associates each output device with a printer definition in the Infoprint Server Printer Inventory.
  2. For a status request, the Print Interface LPD returns the status of a print job or a list of print jobs that the printer is processing.
  3. For a print request, Print Interface automatically detects the data format. It calls Transform Interface to transform the data to another format if the administrator specified a filter in the printer definition. For example, if the data format is PCL or PostScript, Transform Interface can call the PCL to AFP transform or the PostScript to AFP transform to transform the data to AFP format for printing on an AFP printer. The transform that you need depends on the type of output the SAP R/3 output device creates.
  4. Print Interface creates an output data set on the JES spool. From the JES spool, IP PrintWay™, PSF, or JES can print the document, or IP PrintWay can send it to an email destination.
  5. IP PrintWay selects data sets from the JES spool and transmits them to remote printers or print servers or sends them to email destinations.
  6. PSF selects data sets from the JES spool and prints them on AFP printers. The printers can be local, TCP/IP-attached, or SNA-attached.
Parent topic: Print Interface