Author Topic: NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster (Read 234,644 times)

techidave · « **Reply #50 on:** December 14, 2009, 11:34 AM »

Congratulations to Joker and also to DC on another fine program! I cannot wait to try build 155 at school today.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #51 on:** December 14, 2009, 11:55 AM »

Quote from: mouser on December 14, 2009, 06:03 AM

Did anyone notice that Page Countster already got it's own writeup at ghacks:
http://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/13/printer-management-and-inventory-software-page-countster/

I did actually, and while I wasn't sure exactly what the implications of it being there were, I did (panic) jump on getting the Email Report feature rewritten yesterday before it turned into a fiasco.

kickarse · « **Reply #52 on:** December 14, 2009, 02:57 PM »

Nice app! What about adding the ability to scan multiple SNMP communities?

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #53 on:** December 14, 2009, 03:30 PM »

Quote from: kickarse on December 14, 2009, 02:57 PM

Nice app! What about adding the ability to scan multiple SNMP communities?

The option is available at scan start to change the community name for the current scan. And I could add the option to save an alternate (default) community to the Config.ini fairly easily. But, are you looking for the ability to scan multiple communities simultaneously? That may take some time to figure out, as it would involve extensively modifying the core scanning engine code.

techidave · « **Reply #54 on:** December 14, 2009, 08:10 PM »

Ok, so I fibbed a bit about not wanting anymore features. I just tried to print a report out but couldn't do it from the default screen. The only option the program gives me is to save a report; or email the report. If I save it then it goes to a csv which I could then open excel and print from there. But since I am a wee bit lazy and that involves too many keystrokes or mouse clicks to do. is it possible to add some kind of print functionality?

When I email it, Outlook 2007 scrambles the report and removes any of the delimeters. Anyway to format this a little better instead of this:

IP Address,MAC Address,HOST Name,Model Name,Serial Number,Current Page Count,Color Page Count,Scan Date & Time 10.3.1.1,00:00:AA:5C:82:6D, ,Xerox DocuPrint N2125 Network Laser Printer - 2.12-60 , , ,164063,2009-12-14 14:05:34 10.3.1.2,00:00:AA:64:63:96,GSCompLab,Xerox DocuPrint N2125 Network Laser Printer - 2.12-51 , , ,171165,2009-12-14 14:05:34 10.3.1.3,00:04:00:6D:42:FB,GS2ndGrade,Lexmark E240n 72BHZPZ BR.Q.P026 -- Part Number --,72BHZPZ-62-0,13016, ,2009-12-14 14:05:34 10.3.1.5,00:01:E6:69:9E:72,GS4THGRADE,hp LaserJet 1300n,CNCB102053,12323, ,2009-12-14 14:05:34 10.3.1.6,00:01:E6:69:3B:EC,gs5thprinter,hp LaserJet 1300n,CNBB063031,24488, ,2009-12-14 14:05:34 10.3.1.7,00:60:B0:D5:43:51,SUPTLASERPRINTER,HP LaserJet 4100 Series,JPLGD27606,2900, ,2009-12-14 14:05:34

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #55 on:** December 14, 2009, 08:49 PM »

Hm... I had rather gotten used to that. The Email report really just spits the contents of a .csv file into an Email...which is all I really need for our billing system. I've been in the habit of hitting the replace "Extra" (according to Outlook...) line breaks and then pasting it to a text file for the billing system.

This may take some time, but I should be able to add the HTML code to the output stream to format the whole thing into a presentable table. Currently the toner levels are not stored in the reports, so I'm assuming that you would like those included in the HTML Email also, yes?

I was also thinking about adding the option to the context menu to pull the current display text from the printer. This would allow you to actually just see an error message instead of having to get user X to read it to you (there is a tendency for end users to "round-off" the error message and the .xxx is usually important). Does that sound usefull?

techidave · « **Reply #56 on:** December 14, 2009, 08:54 PM »

first answer is yet for toner levels.

the last paragraph, I am not following what you mean. Does this mean when an error is showing on the control panel display, I could then see it from within your program?

can you just add a "print screen" to your program? maybe that would save some time.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #57 on:** December 14, 2009, 09:56 PM »

Quote from: techidave on December 14, 2009, 08:54 PM

the last paragraph, I am not following what you mean. Does this mean when an error is showing on the control panel display, I could then see it from within your program?

Basically, yes. Any of the standard textural message that show up on the printer's display (Ready, Tray X Empty/Open, Cartridge Door Open, & etc.) can be queried for by polling their message buffer(s). It's identical to the text output of the Printer Status program I posted earlier in this thread.

For the most part it would be a waste of time/screen space (I think) to pull that info for a regular scan. But if you get stuck on the phone trying to troubleshoot something on the other side of campus, it might be handy (I thought) to be able to dump the printer's display (text only) so you can see the error message the user is trying to describe.

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can you just add a "print screen" to your program? maybe that would save some time.

Some printers have the ability to stream the display as a .gif which is a live screen shot of the printers graphical display...but I'm afraid that would take more time than I have.

techidave · « **Reply #58 on:** December 14, 2009, 10:34 PM »

I wouldn't worry too much about the print screen functionality at this point in time. It would be nice but probably not worth the effort. Unless some others would like it too. I can just use excel to print it.

Since my users don't normally print a huge amount so being able read the display is a big deal for me. not yet anyway.

techidave · « **Reply #59 on:** December 14, 2009, 10:35 PM »

It's interesting how my Xerox DocuPrint N2125's page counts shows up under the Color Page Count column. It also doesn't report the serial number.

But I would bet this is just how that model is programmed.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #60 on:** December 15, 2009, 12:58 AM »

Quote from: techidave on December 14, 2009, 10:34 PM

I wouldn't worry too much about the print screen functionality at this point in time. It would be nice but probably not worth the effort. Unless some others would like it too. I can just use excel to print it.

lol ... Okay, now I'm confused... Which are we "printing", the programs, or the printer's graphical display screen? The .gif thing I was talking about earlier was regarding the printer's graphical display (which I gave up on a year ago).

Printing the program's report output window (e.g. the ListView control's contents) is do-able (in reasonable time frame). That's part of the Email report HTML formatting thing we discussed earlier. I'm currently working on the Save Toner Levels on report code and should have it finished tonight. If you don't mind a quick & dirty "Print" function I can stream the formatted output to a text.htm file which opens in the default browser for printing...when I do the HTML Email code.

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Since my users don't normally print a huge amount so being able read the display is a big deal for me. not yet anyway.

Okay, it was just a thought...That had occurred to me when in the situation I was describing.

Quote from: techidave on December 14, 2009, 10:35 PM

It's interesting how my Xerox DocuPrint N2125's page counts shows up under the Color Page Count column. It also doesn't report the serial number.

But I would bet this is just how that model is programmed.

Hm... Is that during the scan? Or when reopening the report? Xerox has a habit of piling a bunch of stuff into one field and then parsing it out later (I'm guessing the last part). The main reason that .tsv is a file save option is/was Xerox, and their inane habit of returning commas in the response string. It would work fine in the ListView control, but totally BorK a .csv file (for I'd gather rather obvious reasons).

Now if it's the initial scan that's being garbled then that is something I've not seen before (OIDs used are Industry Standard RFC stuff). I tried piecing the report you posted earlier, but can't be sure if the save function didn't trip over an extra comma (HostName is also oddly missing). Let me know if goofs up the info during the scan and I'll try to find something in that series I can MIB walk if need be.

techidave · « **Reply #61 on:** December 15, 2009, 01:47 AM »

I will post a screenshot. Sorry about the confusion. I am not a coder by any means. If I ask for something and it sounds like its too difficult, then I will say forget it. The screenshot is what I would like to be able to print.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #62 on:** December 15, 2009, 04:26 AM »

Hay, don't give up the ship man...even my boss liked your toner levels idea ... and if the boss is happy...

I've got the toner levels stitched into the report, but want to do the HTML formatted Email thing before doing another release (day or so).

On the Xerox issue I'm not sure what I can do, but I'm not prone to giving up. I'm supposed to be off Wednesday, but I go on vacation next week so that (wednesday off) may get canceled. Assuming it doesn't how does your Wednesday look, and is a Skype Video call an option?

techidave · « **Reply #63 on:** December 15, 2009, 11:37 AM »

Ok, I will hang in there. Also the xerox's only report )% or 100% toner level. but the web access doesn't give you a percent either so probably nothing could be done there. Hmmm... I wonder if a firmware update would take care of that?

We do have Skype installed on one of the computers in the lab. I would have to find out what time it is free and let you know. We are 1 hour behind you.

techidave · « **Reply #64 on:** December 15, 2009, 11:39 AM »

I have the latest firmware on already, so update there.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #65 on:** December 16, 2009, 03:40 AM »

Okay this last one took a bit of fiddling with, but I think it was worth it. Originally the Emailed report was just a .csv file spit into the message body (e.g. it was ugly) ...which was fine if it was only going to be read by a machine. Now the reports are sent as an HTML Email in a bit more people pleasing table format. For those that don't want to go back to the first post to see the screen shot I'll stick it here too:

techidave · « **Reply #66 on:** December 16, 2009, 11:52 AM »

Sj, I have downloaded the 163 build. it appears scan for network printers, if it finds more than one local area connection, will go with the last one. I installed skype on my computer so now it show more than one LAN in the network connections.

I am attaching screenshots.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #67 on:** December 18, 2009, 12:05 AM »

Okay, so it occurred to me that some folks may be wondering how the above turned out... (Dave and I discussed it at length via video conferencing).

The Xerox we discovered does not quite follow the protocol standards of how & where (and if) the information is stored. Hence if the data isn't where it's supposed to be... it can't be gotten. Some of HP's plotters also suffer this affliction ... but this is a fairly rare occurrence that I've to data only seen twice out of several thousand different makes & models tested.

On the scan picking the wrong address info issue. Yes it can happen. When the scan options opens it grabs the IP address & subnet mask off the first adapter it comes to while enumerating the adapter list from whichever end (been a while since I did that research) is least likely to be/have a dial-up adapter.

I had considered at one point enumerating all of the local adapters and having them (and their associated address info) available on a drop-down menu to pick from on-the-fly. But I suspect this may just be unnecessary complexity as it would seldom be needed. ...Being game to try it however, I'm looking for any input on how useful this feature might be.

techidave · « **Reply #68 on:** December 18, 2009, 02:02 AM »

Well SJ, I am glad you thought of updating the folks here. Because I sure didn't think of it. Oh well, I couldn't have explained it as well as you.

Joker created a wonderful program, small, fast and non bloated!

If you are needing a program to scan your network for IP based printers and then give you a report showing the IP address, host name, serial number, pages printed, amount of toner left (in percent) and then he goes and add columns for color lasers toner amounts and pages printed.

It truly is a wonderful program. Oh, did I say how wonderful it was?

techidave · « **Reply #69 on:** December 19, 2009, 03:36 AM »

Hey Joker, just had an idea. I don't know if it is possible or not but here goes.

Is it possible to show whether or not DHCP is enabled or not? I had this situation at school today and it would be nice to know when it scans for printers, just in case I missed setting a static ip or not.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #70 on:** December 19, 2009, 04:33 AM »

Hm... I - Don't - Know ... But it is close to something I was thinking about today regarding the collection/display of other parts of the network configuration info. Granted the main view is "full" so more columns would start to get messy, but a context menu more details option might be a possibility. I'll have to do some MIB walking on the test group to see if/how reliably I can query for that information.

mouser · « **Reply #71 on:** December 20, 2009, 04:17 AM »

Page Countster featured on makeuseof.com (!):

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-your-printer-inventory-a-breeze-with-page-countster/

it's actually a rather long write up and with a bunch of screenshots.
very cool!

ps. welcome to the world of too-late-to-change-the-program-name.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #72 on:** December 20, 2009, 05:14 PM »

Well, I can't seem to find a smiley for stunned/speechless ... but Wow! ...and to think I was afraid this thing would flop because it was too narrow focus for anybody else to really need.

Apparently it's a good thing to (occasionally) be wrong.

techidave · « **Reply #73 on:** December 20, 2009, 05:46 PM »

Good job, SJ! As I have said, it is a great little program. In a couple of weeks, I will be adding another school to my list that I support. This will work good up there... let me see what models and what IP's are be used without having to physically go to each one. I do know that they are still on DHCP and they have had one grab another's IP address already. So they print to Printer A but it prints on Printer B.

Now I will just have to figure out which IP they are supposed to have so that I don't have to reinstall them on all the machines.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #74 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:25 PM »

Quote from: techidave on December 20, 2009, 05:46 PM

Good job, SJ! As I have said, it is a great little program. In a couple of weeks, I will be adding another school to my list that I support. This will work good up there... let me see what models and what IP's are be used without having to physically go to each one. I do know that they are still on DHCP and they have had one grab another's IP address already. So they print to Printer A but it prints on Printer B.

That does tend to be a problem when the only thing guaranteeing a network's configuration is a really long lease time. Given that static addressing is rather problematic on large networks, and printers have a habit of getting corrupt and needing to be (cold) reset (to factory settings), the best option I've found is to use the MAC address to create IP address reservations in DHCP. That way even if the printer "forgets" where it is supposed to be, the DHCP server will always assign it the correct (reserved) IP address.

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Now I will just have to figure out which IP they are supposed to have so that I don't have to reinstall them on all the machines.

Easy-est/Fastest method I've found is: Printer properties->Ports Tab->Port Configuration ... and then hope they all match (I've seen that one go both ways).

I'm still researching the if/how to get the IP addressing method & info to see if it can be implemented (and reconfigured) reliably.