PORT-DESPOOL

Despools print jobs to a printer or terminal attached to your current port.

COMMAND SYNTAX

PORT-DESPOOL {formqueue} {(X)}

SYNTAX ELEMENTS

formqueue is the formqueue assigned to the logical device type PORT where the output is to be despooled. If formqueue is omitted, the print queue is despooled from the first formqueue in the spooler tables that has the same logical device type, (PORT), and port number of the process which executed the PORT-DESPOOL command.

X stops the despooler after output of all queued print jobs. If you omit the X option, the port despooler must be terminated by pressing ctrl <BREAK> and then entering quit to the jBASE debugger prompt.

NOTES

The PORT-DESPOOL command is a synonym for the PORTOUT command.

EXAMPLE

To use the PORT-DESPOOL command:

First create a formqueue with a Device Type of 'PORT'. For this example we will assume the name of the form queue is 'SCREEN'. There are 2 ways to accomplish this:

1. From Option 1 on the SP-STATUS menu. When prompted enter

SCREEN PORT

2. Or from the jShell command line type:

SP-CREATE SCREEN PORT

Note: In both cases, press <Enter> when you are prompted for 'Device Name'.

Now assign this queue using the SP-ASSIGN command, e.g.

SP-ASSIGN = SCREEN

At this point you are now ready to create a print job. For this example, simply type

LIST . (P

which will send the contents of the current directory to the spooler, specifically to the form queue SCREEN.

Finally you can now despool this job with

PORT-DESPOOL SCREEN (X

Note that the spooler assignment (SP-ASSIGN = SCREEN) will remain in effect until you execute another SP-ASSIGN or you terminate the current connection to jBASE.

A common use for this is to send spooled output through the 'aux' (serial) port of a local pc to a 'slave' printer. The trouble is that 'slave-on' and 'slave-off' sequences are not generated automatically. Not to worry though, jBASE has a solution. To 'auto generate' slave-on/slave-off sequences you need to defined these in a spooler form-type that is assigned to the form queue. Continuing with our example of using the form queue SCREEN:

First, assign a form-type with defines STARTJOB and ENDJOB. STARTJOB will send a 'slave on' message at the start of each job and ENDJOB will send a 'slave off' message. For these two actions you need to create two jBC programs called 'slave_on' and 'slave_off' respectively:

PROGRAM slave_on
PRINT @(-17):

PROGRAM slave_off
PRINT @(-18):

Now compile and catalog these two programs, and ensure they can be seen from the PATH environment variable.

Next create the new form-type by copying the 'jspform_deflt' file to a new name. This file is located in %JBCRELEASEDIR%\config directory. For example, on Windows, at a jShell prompt type:

COPY C:\JBASE30\config jspform_deflt
TO: jspform_port

This assumes that jBASE was installed in the default location on Windows. A similar command on unix might be:

COPY /usr/jbc/config jspform_deflt
TO: jspform_port

Edit the new 'jspform_port'  file, locate the STARTJOB and ENDJOB commands and enter the following two lines:

STARTJOB slave_on
ENDJOB slave_off

[Note: Other form-type settings you might want to set at this time are WIDTH and DEPTH so that you do not have to issue these as TERM commands.]

Finally, assign the new form-type to the SCREEN form queue by enter the following command at a jShell command prompt:

SP-TYPE SCREEN port

We're now ready to test this with the PORT-DESPOOL command...

SP-ASSIGN = SCREEN
LIST . LPTR
PORT-DESPOOL (XL

[Note: When issuing a PORT-DESPOOL command under BASIC control, do NOT 'capture' the output as this will not allow the job to be despooled.]

Spooler