Creating input devices

When you need an input device that has very different properties from existing input devices, you can create a new one.
To create an input device:
  1. Click the Administration tab.
  2. In the left pane, click Devices ⇒ Input Devices.
  3. Click Add and choose the type of input device you want to create.
  4. On all the tabs, fill in the required and optional properties that need to be adjusted to match your environment.
      Note:
    • For LPD input devices, it is best to limit the input device name to 8 characters. Depending on the print command that you use, you might have to create a print queue on the sending system with the same name as the input device. Some systems truncate print queue names to 8 characters.
    • For input devices, RICOH ProcessDirector creates the directories that you specify as the Folder location and Staging location if they do not already exist. If they exist on a shared network drive, edit the mountDrives.bat file to map the network drive whenever RICOH ProcessDirector starts.
  5. Determine how you want the input device to assign the workflow for each job.
    When using SubmitInputFiles as the submit step for the input device, you can select one of these:
    • Set the Child workflow initialization step property to Not set and set the Child workflow property to the name of an existing workflow to assign the same workflow to every job that this input device processes.
    • Set the Child workflow initialization step property to SetJobTypeFromRules and use the Child workflow parsing rules property to specify the name of the control file that can set the workflow from a value of an option of the print command.

      RICOH ProcessDirector provides a sample control file that is used to set the workflow: receive_jcl_jobtype.cfg, receive_lpd_jobtype.cfg, or receive_lpd_pdf_jobtype.cfg. The sample control file is installed in the C:\aiw\aiw1\samples\rules\ directory. You can copy that file to the C:\aiw\aiw1\control_files\rules\ directory and modify it to meet your needs, then update the value of the Child workflow parsing rules property to point to your file.

    • Set the Child workflow initialization step property to SetJobTypeFromFileName and use the Child workflow pattern property to specify the string that RICOH ProcessDirector should look for in the input file name and use as the workflow name. If you use this method, you must make sure that a workflow with the corresponding name exists.
  6. Click OK.
  7. To use the new input device, select it and click Enable, then select it again and click Connect.

Related information:

Creating credentials
Mapping network drives
Using supplied input devices
Connecting and disconnecting input devices
Enabling objects
Disabling objects
Cannot connect LPD input devices
Parent topic: Defining input devices