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Since MS Windows does not have a TCP/IP RAW printer port socket listener, W-ELP provides one, a sophisticated one. It is more than just a port listener as ELP scans the incoming data stream and if it finds special printer command requests (PJL commands), ELP will answer them and emulate the bidirectional communication between the sender and the receiver. The backchannel communication can also be switched off. This freeware part within the W-ELP Control Center can listen to several IP ports / IP Addresses (as supported by the hardware). It can then send the received data stream to a defined printer Windows Queue for further ELP processing or store it directly into an archive folder or both. This freeware is also available as a non-freeware Windows service that works in the background and does not need a user logged on to the Windows system. Ask for a quote!
In other words: This function emulates a printer receiving data sent with the standard "RAW" TCP/IP protocol usually to port 9100. It also responds to PJL commands, including bi-directional communication requests, e.g. from the AS/400 spooler.
The Get IP Job tab in ELP Control Center must have at least one port set up for listening and at least one destination needs to be defined (printer queue or archive directory) before the listener can be started. Any received data from a monitored port can be sent to a printer Queue (maybe an ELP enabled Queue) and/or you may configure the listener to store the incoming streams to file.
In order to setup the listener, you first need to open the Get IP Jobs register tab and create a new project.
| Project | Any combination of IP Address, Port, UNC Share or Folder archive must lead into a new project. |
| IP Address | If All is selected then a 'catch all' is performed. Otherwise you can select the adapter (if multiple) or even the IP Address per adapter (if multiple). |
| Listen on port | Most printers listen on port 9100. You can define the same port on different IP Addresses or other ports as 'catch all' or any combination thereof. |
| Queue name | Select any local shared print queue if the received jobs should end up there for further (ELP) processing |
| Archive | Specify a folder if you want to store the received jobs. The same folder can also be specified in the Archive tab for further processing. |
| Save | Saves the selected project (must be done before starting the listener) |
| Delete | Deletes the selected project. |
| New Project | Adds a new project for e.g. a different port or IP Address. All existing projects will be processed in parallel once listening is started. |
| Delete list | Deletes the list of all arrived jobs. |
| Close after UEL | If an UEL is found within the receiving job the IP connection is forcibly closed. |
| Disable backchannel | If checked, the Get IP Job function will not respond to any queries done e.g. by PJL via the receiving IP port. |
| Start port listening | Start the project(s). Once started, the button will change to [Stop port listening] and can be used to stop the projects. When started, you will see the jobs in the list as they arrive. Please note that if your configuration contains errors when you try to start you will receive error messages which you must first resolve - possible errors include duplicated ports on one IP Address in 2 projects or invalid IP Addresses. |
| Enable logging | A log file will be written in the debug folder in <workpath>\debug (e.g. c:\ProgramData\Welp\debug): Get IP started as a service log filename: GetIPService.log Get IP started as a standalone EXE (Freeware): GetIP.log |
| Log options | Enable logging: A log file GetIP.log will be written in the debug folder within the Workpath (e.g. c:\ProgramData\Welp\debug) |
| Option - Log received content: All incoming data will be written in the log. | |
| Option - Log sent data: log backchannel communication (must not be disabled). | |
| Option - Log recognized PJL queries: Explicitly log only PJL queries. | |
| Show Log file | Opens the file GetIP.log from the Workpath\debug folder with the default text editor |
If you need to change or add settings click on Stop port listening and add more ports for listening. It is important to save the new port settings before starting to listen, otherwise the new settings will be lost.
The configuration is stored in the file ReadIP.ini and resides in the Workpath folder. You can manually edit the configuration with any editor like Notepad, though it is not recommended. Please use the GUI of the W-ELP Control Center to avoid misconfiguration.
As this freeware part is implemented with ELP you may want to put the ELP Control Center call in the autostart/startup group. The call for automatically starting the listener is: „C:\Program Files (x86)\WELP\PPadmin.exe“ /G
Get IP Jobs Service
There is also a service for the exact same function available. After the service is installed and set to autostart, it runs in the background, even when nobody is logged onto the system. The service is started automatically on system start.
If the service is installed the user interface for the Get IP Jobs tab changes slightly in its wording to Stop Service port listening and Start Service port listening.
If the service is currently not running, you can start it by clicking Start Service port listening.
To have the service handle raw printer data all the time:
- Configure one or more ports with the W-ELP Control Center.
- Start or restart (stop service first, then start it) the service.
Note: When using the Service the incoming print jobs will no longer be displayed by the W-ELP Control Center in the Get IP Jobs Tab with their: Arrival time, Size, Port, IP-Address and File name.
PJL Backchannel Support
Since MS Windows has no spooler that provides backchannel support, W-ELP only emulates printer state and cannot provide actual printer status, thus most responses will be hard-coded.
The following table shows PJL commands that affect the backchannel and what support is currently provided by W-ELP Control Center. Unless otherwise noted, the responses are fixed, "hard-coded".
Unrecognized and unimplemented commands will receive the response "?" (including the quotes), wrapped with the standard PJL backchannel response header and trailer.
| DINQUIRE | not implemented |
| ECHO | implemented |
| INFO CONFIG | implemented |
| INFO ID | implemented (hard-coded response "HP LASERJET 4") |
| INFO MEMORY | implemented |
| INFO PAGECOUNT | implemented (hard-coded response "12345") |
| INFO STATUS | implemented |
| INFO USTATUS | implemented |
| INQUIRE | not implemented |
| USTATUS DEVICE = ON / OFF | implemented - correctly causes unsolicited device status updates. |
| USTATUS DEVICE = VERBOSE | not implemented |
| USTATUS JOB = ON / OFF | implemented - correctly causes unsolicited job status updates. Job updates are not hard-coded, but use the job name indicated in the JOB command. Job names indicated in the EOJ command are currently ignored. |
| USTATUS PAGE = ON / OFF | implemented - causes unsolicited page status updates (job page counting is not properly implemented - W-ELP has no print engine to count actual pages) |
| USTATUS TIMED | not implemented |
| USTATUSOFF | implemented - correctly turns off USTATUS updates. |
Example:
| Input stream | Backchannel output |
| %-12345X@PJL @PJL ECHO Hello World Stream @PJL USTATUS JOB = ON @PJL JOB NAME = "Hello World" @PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = PCL Hello World ! %-12345X@PJL @PJL EOJ NAME = "Hello World" @PJL USTATUSOFF %-12345X |
---------------------------127.0.0.1--------------------------- ---------------------------127.0.0.1--------------------------- ---------------------------127.0.0.1--------------------------- ---------------------------127.0.0.1---------------------------
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