Plaspool
Plaspool 1.2.5
Copyright 2011 Christophe Gros <skylendar@yahoo.com>
Download
Snapshot
Installation
Usage
Configuration
Author
This program is free software, and has been released under the GPL
licence.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
02110-1301, USA.
Plaspool is a Plasmoid for KDE4
on Posix systems, such as Linux, running the CUPS (Common Unix Printing
System). Its role is to display and manage the printers jobs queues. Plaspool can also print files via drag n' drop.
DOWNLOAD
You can download the plaspool's package here.
SNAPSHOT
INSTALLATION
In order to install plaspool, you need the KDE4 devel packages and the
cups devel package installed on your computer, and also the cmake
utility. Then, from a shell, run the following commands:
tar xjf <your path>/plaspool-1.2.5.tar.bz2
cd plaspool
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../plaspool
make
su
make install
...
Notice that <your path> is the path where you downloaded the
plaspool archive. You probably need to give the root password when "su"
is executed.
USAGE
On the desktop or on the panel, select Add Plasmoids.
You should see the Plaspool icon. If you drag it onto the desktop, the
plaspool's main widget will appear. On this widget, you will of course
see the current jobs list. You can cancel a pending or processed job,
hold it (block it) or release a held job. A completed job can also be
restarted. In that case, don't forget to check the Preserve job print files option at
http://localhost:631/admin/?ADVANCEDSETTINGS=YES
Since 1.1, a Printers tab
widget has been added. Select a printer on the ComboBox on the right,
then you can pause it (no printing), resume it, or hold jobs, i.e. no
new jobs allowed on this printer. Also, you can purge all the current jobs.
Important: you need to add your own user name to the lpadmin system group, so that the pause/resume/purge works.
The icon on the panel allows you to print a file if you drop its icon
on the plaspool's own icon. Then, a list of available printers will
show up. Select one and the printing will start up.
Remember that cups needs to interpret the provided file, i.e. cups
passes the wanted files through filters in order to convert the content
of the file into a printable form.
Currently, cups can directly print images, pdf and plain text files.
For more, e.g. html, you need to provide cups with your own filter.
Instead of displaying messages on usual dialog boxes, you can send them to syslog. Don't hesitate to install interceptor, another plasmoid which will be able to raise notifications whenever a plaspool event is detected.
Click on a job line, and a dialog box with more info on it will be displayed.
CONFIGURATION
- a delay (in seconds) between polling.
- You can render the jobs list transparent or not.
- Syslog messages instead of dialog boxes.
- The plaspool's icon can be concealed, and a thin invisible bar will be displayed instead. This bar is nevertheless clickable.
AUTHOR
Christophe Gros
<skylendar at yahoo dot. com>
June 24th, 2011