Using Microsoft Dynamics GP Named Printers with Terminal Server or Citrix Metaframe
Updated: December 15, 2004
By David Musgrave
When setting up Microsoft Dynamics GP Named Printers on a Terminal Server or Citrix Metaframe system, there are a few considerations to keep in mind:
| • | Named Printers is machine based. This utility stores a machine ID in the DEX.INI file for each workstation, and all settings apply to the current workstation only. In a Terminal Server environment, this means all users share the same settings because they are all using the same workstation. |
| • | Using Workstation Printers with Named Printers is not recommended, as they can change depending on which machine is used to log in to a Terminal Server session. It is best to select only printers that are permanently visible to the Terminal Server. |
| • | Printers can be set up on a user basis, which allows different users to have different configurations on the single Terminal Server workstation. |
| • | If using multiple application folders on the one Terminal Server or multiple Terminal Servers, ensure that each has its own machine ID. You might need to manually edit the ST_MachineID setting in the DEX.INI file. You would then need to configure Named Printers on each instance individually. |
Setting Up Single Location Access
For a simple site where all users have the same printers defined, set up Named Printers as though it were a single workstation, using System or Company class printers.
Setting Up Multiple Location Access
For the more complex site where a number of remote locations access the server, you should employ user class printers so that each user has his or her own configuration defined. However, when you use a user class printer, you must define it for all users—which can be time consuming. Usually, all the users from a single remote location will want the same configuration. Named Printers enables you to set this up simply and quickly.
To do so, you’ll need to use the Template Users feature of Named Printers. I’ll use an example to illustrate:
Suppose I have three remote locations using my Terminal Server in Sydney. The remote users are based in London, Paris, and Fargo, North Dakota. Each remote location has 30 users. The following steps tell you how to set up this configuration:
1. | Create a new user ID for each remote location, and assign each access to a single company (which company you use is not important). These user IDs will not be used to log in. |
2. | Select Setup -> System -> Named Printers. If this is the first time you have used Named Printers, you will be asked to set up the machine ID. (This is normally the computer's unique network name.) You will also need to set up the default printer ID. This should point to a printer based in Sydney. The default printer ID is automatically assigned to the System Default Printer Task. |
3. | From the Assign Named Printers window, click the Setup button and then click the Advanced button. Using the bottom half of the window, enter the template user ID as the remote location user ID. Then, using the check boxes in the bottom half of the window, assign to that remote location user ID all the users from that location. Repeat for each remote location. You now have created your three template users. |
4. | From the Setup Named Printers window, create all the printer IDs needed for each location as user class printers assigned to the template user for that location. Repeat for each remote location. |
5. | From the Assign Named Printers window, change the user and company to one of the template users and the assigned company, respectively. Set the company default printer to Printer Class: User and select the default printer ID to be used for that location. |
6. | Assign other user class printers to other printer tasks as required. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each location. |
That’s it! You’ve now completed the Named Printers setup by configuring 3 template users instead of 90 individual users.
You may already know David Musgrave from one of the nine Microsoft Dynamics GP newsgroups he monitors. Based in Perth, Western Australia, David has been working as a Microsoft Dynamics GP developer and consultant for 10 years (the past 3 with Microsoft). He is currently working with the Microsoft Business Solutions Services Asia Pacific team as a support engineer and consultant. David is the original author of Named Printers, Advanced Security, Field Level Security, and Business Activity Statement (for Australian GST), and he has made a number of contributions to the code in the core Microsoft Dynamics GP Dictionary.
