Papercut Question

[fiza]

I want to allow a teacher to release jobs to her printers and her printers only. When students print I want the prints to go into a hold queue until the teacher approves the prints.

I am already using my Release Station licence in the Library but from what I read I don't need a release station to do this. Problem is I cant figure out how to do it. Google only gives me results on Release Stations. I get mentions of teacher approved printing but nothing on how to do it.

 

I only want the teacher to see jobs queued for the 2 printers in the room.

 

Any ideas?

[Edu-IT]

You could set the built in script called 'require approval code' to be enabled on that printer then the teacher would need to provide an approval code when kids printed?

[fiza]

You could set the built in script called 'require approval code' to be enabled on that printer then the teacher would need to provide an approval code when kids printed?

 

Would you set the code in the script? If so wouldn't take long for students to find out what the code was.

[Edu-IT]

Yes, it is.

 

You'll probably have to do a hold/release queue then although I don't think it's possible to control which printers they can actually release. You can however set it so they can only print student print jobs and not staff. I think this is the closest you'll get to what you want.

 

Hold/Release Usage Scenarios

 

Staff member would then just log on and go to http://papercut/release to view jobs pending release.

 

They can easily filter the view to show only the print jobs for the printer they're interested in.

[fiza]

I may have found a better way to do the code. Trawled through Edugeek and found this:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/coding/120638-papercut-scripts.html#post1074872

 

code changes every hour. May not take students long to work out the pattern but at least it changes all the time.

[Edu-IT]

Yes, that was what I thought about, but couldn't find it.

[fiza]

Yes, that was what I thought about, but couldn't find it.

 

Just tried the script. It works but only gives a 3 digit code rather than 4 digits. IE for 4pm on 3rd Nov it should be "1603" but it gives me "163". It would be better to have 4 digits. @ukwebb who posted it states it should give 4 digits but I cant get it to do that. If I type 1603 as the code it gets rejected.

[Edu-IT]

Is it the same everytime there's a 0 involved? For example, 1703? 1803?

[MicrodigitUK]

Don't know if this helps but we use a random code system excep everything is linked back to department Accounts, that the teacher or cover for that department issues. These codes are random and helps link printing to a subject for charg back if you whant to.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/enterprise-software/134343-papercut.html

Edited November 3, 2014 by MicrodigitUK

[fiza]

Is it the same everytime there's a 0 involved? For example, 1703? 1803?

 

Yes. This morning the code is 94 (for 9am and 4th Nov). So depending on time and date it could go from 2 digit code to a 4 digit code. Not ideal.

[fiza]

Don't know if this helps but we use a random code system excep everything is linked back to department Accounts, that the teacher or cover for that department issues. These codes are random and helps link printing to a subject for charg back if you whant to.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/enterprise-software/134343-papercut.html

@MicrodigitUK - I thanks for the link. I think it may be overkill for us as I only need this in one room at the moment.

 

Quick question though. If you had staff shared accounts in there where you didn't want pin codes to change would this script just ignore those and just change the ones starting with STUDENT_ ?

Edited November 4, 2014 by fiza

[spadam]

You should be able to force a 4 digit code by tweaking the script a little:

 

replace this line:

var code=new String(inputs.job.date.getHours())+String(inputs.j ob.date.getDate()) ;

 

with this:

var hour = inputs.job.date.getHours();
var day = inputs.job.date.getDate();


hour = hour<10? '0' + hour: '' + hour;
day = day<10? '0' + day: '' + day;


var code = hour + day;

Edited November 4, 2014 by spadam
Sloppy coding

[fiza]

You should be able to force a 4 digit code by tweaking the script a little:

 

replace this line:

var code=new String(inputs.job.date.getHours())+String(inputs.j ob.date.getDate()) ;

 

with this:

var hour = inputs.job.date.getHours();
var day = inputs.job.date.getDate();


hour = hour<10? '0' + hour: '' + hour;
day = day<10? '0' + day: '' + day;


var code=String(hour) + String(day);

@spadam - superstar!!! Cheers - works a treat!

[fiza]

@spadam - As you very kindly helped me earlier I was wondering if I could tap you again for some info?

 

Now I need it so that the code only comes up for students and not staff. I have seen the "isinGroup" snippet which goes :

 

// Test if a user is in group called 'students'.

if (inputs.user.isInGroup("students")) {

// Add your action code here

actions.log.debug("The user is in 'students' group.");

}

 

Is it possible to change it so that it can check for membership of several groups? Our groups are split by year group so I need it to check for membership of year7, 8,9,10,11,12 or 13. If not a member of those years then don't ask for a code.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[MicrodigitUK]

@MicrodigitUK - I thanks for the link. I think it may be overkill for us as I only need this in one room at the moment.

 

Quick question though. If you had staff shared accounts in there where you didn't want pin codes to change would this script just ignore those and just change the ones starting with STUDENT_ ?

 

Yes, exactly that. Our staff shard accounts start with STAFF and we don't change the pin codes for them.

[spadam]

I think the easiest way to test for membership of several groups would be to list them all in the if condition such as:

 

// Test if a user is in group called 'students'.
if (inputs.user.isInGroup("year 1") || inputs.user.isInGroup("year 2") || inputs.user.isInGroup("year 3")) {
// Add your action code here
actions.log.debug("The user is in 'students' group.");
}

 

Just add as many groups as you need in this way separated with the OR operator ||