PSF/AIX accounting
ITEM: RTA000099413
Q:
Subject : PSF/AIX accounting exit.
I would like to know how this exit operates ( I have already read the
manual)
1. Is the information about no. of pages,received before the actual
printing or after the job has printed ?
2. Can I get count information on every page that is going to print
or has been printed instead of receiving a total page count at
the end of the job process.
The purpose of these question is to enable a special services of
printing to a pc printer and charging for each page which has been
printed. The charge is to a smart card and it must be updated for
each page and not each job.
If there is another way of doing the page count please let us know.
A:
Here is the information I received from the developer:
1) The accounting/audit exits are activated (and report information)
when control is passed to them, which is after PSF is done processing
(convert and send) the data for the job. It is not specifically tied
to the actual printing of the data, although in most cases, it's
pretty much at the same time. Since we want a continuous stream of
data (to keep printers fed with data), we don't want to wait on
printer acknowledgements before accumulating job statistics.
2) There's a couple of options for page by page reporting as long as
you don't require acknowledgement/confirmation from the printer:
- If you have identifiable datastreams, you can alter (write your own)
the input data exit (or output exit for that matter) such that you
determine page counts, etc. and feed them to your accounting system.
- You can alter the accounting (or audit) exit (ainacclog/ainaudlog)
such that rather than one line for each job, you can generate an
accounting record for each page printed.
If the number of pages (and the timing) returned by PSF are sufficient,
I'd recommend the second approach as we should provide accurate numbers
regardless of whether the printer (and the job) are simplex/duplex,
contain blank page (eject to front face), or print multiple pages per
physical sheet (use bin sheet count rather than page count).
If you require physical commitment from the printer, then the exits
aren't going to provide the needed interface for the customer. PSF will
get some counters/etc. back from the printer at job completion, but we
don't externalize these values.
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I hope this helps.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
AIX PSF/6000 PSF/AIX PSF AIX ACCOUNTING EXIT PAGE CHARGEBACK
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000099413 ITEM: RTA000099413
Dated: 06/1998 Category: XPSF6000
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