Re: [IUG] Receipts not printing every time

[Josh Stompro <stomproj at larl dot org>]

Welch, Andrew wrote:
> We're having an issue with our receipt printers at the circ desk. When
> items are checked out to a patron and staff click the Close button, the
> receipt doesn't always list the patron's items, just the "Items checked
> out to..." message at the top and our custom message at the bottom.
> However, clicking the Print button before closing the patron record
> prints the receipt correctly every time. Of course, this means a huge
> waste of receipt paper, as we often get 2 full receipts for each
> transaction.
>
> The really odd thing is that receipt printing is working perfectly at
> our Central branch, which sees by far the highest volume. Nearly every
> one of our 6 other branches reports the above problem. To make matters
> worse, it isn't at all consistent (that we can tell); not tied to
> specific patrons or item types or a particular time of day. This makes
> us wonder if perhaps it's a network issue, but we can't see why receipt
> printing would need to talk to the Millennium server when the
> information it needs is already sitting in the patron window.
>
> Has anyone else experienced this and determined a cause?
> OR
> Can someone confirm whether the network is involved in the "Close"
> method of receipt printing?
> OR
> Is there an option to only use the Print button and turn off the Close
> button for receipts?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Andrew Welch
> Sr. Library Systems Technician
> Aurora Public Library
> awelch at auroragov dot org 
>
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We have also experienced this problem before and haven't found a 
solution.  It doesn't happen at our largest branch which is on the same 
LAN as our III server, so , like you said, it might be network related.  
It is also impossible to replicate in any consistent manner, there is no 
pattern to when it happens that I have been able to figure out either.

We are running Release 2006.

I was running a packet sniffer to see if I could tell if the print 
command was triggering network traffic, and I used the print button 3 
times in a row, fairly rapidly.  The third print job failed with this 
error in the console windows.

########start############
print exception: Printer is not accepting job.ils.larl.org:0 milcirc : 
terminus/
192.168.40.5:lmcirc:14547:javax.print.PrintException: Printer is not 
accepting j
ob.

javax.print.PrintException: Printer is not accepting job.
       at sun.print.Win32PrintJob.print(Unknown Source)
       at 
com.iii.print.PrintServiceProxy$DocPrintJobProxy.print(PrintServicePr
oxy.java:362)
       at 
com.iii.print.LocalPrinter$PrintRunnable.run(LocalPrinter.java:598)
       at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
ils.larl.org:0 miltoolbar : 
terminus/192.168.40.5:lmcirc:24643:javax.print.Print
Exception: Printer is not accepting job.
###########Stop###########

That same error message was sent to our III server over the network on 
port 4600 to the logsystemerr target, so maybe III keeps a log on the 
server of all client errors.

Maybe the problem is that instead of retrying in a second or so when the 
printer isn't accepting a print job, the Millennium client just gives up 
immediately without notifying the user.  Have you seen any error 
messages like this on the staff machines that are experiencing the problem?


Josh Stompro
Network Administrator

--
Lake Agassiz Regional Library - Moorhead MN larl.org
Josh Stompro               | Office 218.233.3757 EXT-139
LARL Network Administrator | Cell 218.790.2110