Anyway to Reprint last X reports in MLS?

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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jworkin-p40
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Any way to Reprint last X reports in MLS?

#1

Post by jworkin-p40 »

Our ward recently had a printer die on them, and when it died, there were several reports trying to print from MLS. These reports were the ones that had resulted from a "Send/Receive Changes". These print jobs are still in the print queue for the old printer, but Googling around I've yet to find a good way to move these print jobs to a different queue.

Is there a way to get MLS to reprint the last x number of reports, or to redo that Send/Receive Changes?

Just curious. I suspect that the ward will go on surviving without them, but if there's a way to do it, that might be helpful.
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mkmurray
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#2

Post by mkmurray »

jworkin wrote:Our ward recently had a printer die on them, and when it died, there were several reports trying to print from MLS. These reports were the ones that had resulted from a "Send/Receive Changes". These print jobs are still in the print queue for the old printer, but Googling around I've yet to find a good way to move these print jobs to a different queue.

Is there a way to get MLS to reprint the last x number of reports, or to redo that Send/Receive Changes?

Just curious. I suspect that the ward will go on surviving without them, but if there's a way to do it, that might be helpful.
I did a Google search of my own and somebody said this utility helped them:

http://www.andtechnologies.com/qcontrol.html

Also, if you don't know about printer spooling already, here is an excerpt that might lead you to a solution (or a Google search that leads to a solution). This is from Wikipedia:
In print spooling, documents are loaded into a buffer (usually an area on a disk), and then the printer pulls them off the buffer at its own rate. Because the documents are in a buffer where they can be accessed by the printer, the user is free to perform other operations on the computer while the printing takes place in the background. Spooling also lets users place a number of print jobs in a queue instead of waiting for each one to finish before specifying the next one.

The OS stores this somewhere on disk and if you can find it, perhaps you can recover the print jobs or transfer them to another print queue somehow.
russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

If the new printer is close to the old one (such as both are HP LaserJets), you might just want to let the old stuff print to the new printer. I know I've set up an "HP 4" driver to print to a HP LJ 1300 as the simpler driver seems to print faster.

However, I'd probably try another method to back it up first.
jworkin-p40
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#4

Post by jworkin-p40 »

RussellHltn wrote:If the new printer is close to the old one (such as both are HP LaserJets), you might just want to let the old stuff print to the new printer.
I'd be more than happy to let the old stuff print to the new printer if I knew how to direct those queued items to the new printer. Although I guess there's a chance they've already been encoded for the old printer, and perhaps they might come out as gibberish. Thats kind of why I was wondering if MLS had the ability to reprint reports from HQ.
russellhltn
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

jworkin wrote:I'd be more than happy to let the old stuff print to the new printer if I knew how to direct those queued items to the new printer.
If you connect the new printer to the same port as the old one, it will be sent to the new one. In the case of the old LPT printer port, this will happen. What happens with a USB connection is less clear.

Off hand I don't know of a reprint ability. I do remember that was a issue I've heard off. All it takes is a paper jam or other printer malfunction to loose the printed page.
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mkmurray
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#6

Post by mkmurray »

Perhaps try this location on your drive:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS

...or the other folders beneath the spool directory.

Just a thought.
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thedqs
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#7

Post by thedqs »

What you can do is take Mike's suggestion and copy those files as a back up. You might have to disable the print spooler service before you are allowed access. You then place them in the new printer's spooling folder and re-enable the print spooler service.
- David
unixguy
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#8

Post by unixguy »

I submitted this (the ability to reprint some printouts) as a feature request a year or two back, when I was the financial clerk and lost one of the check summary reports (the one that the clerk and the bishop both have to sign when checks have been printed) through some printer issue (ran out of toner, I think).

Since then, I think I've seen an option to reprint the last report you printed in MLS (and as long as you haven't logged out), but not to choose from the last several.

It would be more of a hassle, but you could always print to CutePDF first (to create a PDF of the report), and then print the PDF from whatever PDF viewer you're using.

(Not that this helps you with your immediate problem...)
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