Printanista Hub Integration - Best Practices & FAQ

To ensure a trouble-free integration, please review the Best Practices and Frequently Asked Questions, regarding the collection of Local Device data, and integration with Printanista Hub.

Best Practices

  1. Create a default tracking profile for new devices in Printanista Workflowfor new devices, and select the tracking level to "Ignore"

    This step ensures that when new devices appear, they will not be assigned to a Printanista Workflow tracking profile and automatically uploaded to Printanista Hub. This provides an opportunity to ensure that Serial Numbers, Locations, and virtual life counts are input before the device is uploaded to Printanista Hub for the first time. This practice helps to ensure, both during the initial configuration of local device tracking, and on an on-going basis that there are no missed steps in performing the configuration requirements on new devices before they are uploaded to Printanista Hub.

    Procedure:

    1. Open Workflow Administrator

    2. Select Printer Profiles from the sidebar.

    3. Above the main frame is a drop-down menu labeled "Default Profile"

    4. Select "Ignore" from the drop-down menu

    5. Close Workflow Administrator

    The ignore profile should exist by default. If it does not, simply create a new printer profile with a track option of "Do not track" and set this as the default profile.

     

  2. Deploy the Printanista Workflow clients and allow time for the clients to populate all the printers that are within the organization.

    All of the organization’s printers will populate, including those network printers already being tracked by Printanista Hub with the DCA. This is not an issue, because only data from the locally connected printers will be sent to Printanista Hub.

     

  3. Merge duplicate printers and setup auto-merges.

    Frequently, a single physical device will register multiple times in the Workflow Administrator, due to a single printer being tracked across several ports. For example, a local printer will be identified on different port than the computer to which it is attached, if it is being printed to via a share. In WorkflowAdministrator, it is best to merge these devices into one device, ensuring that any pages sent to any of the constituent printers will increment the virtual life count of the single merged device.

    Procedure:

    1. Open WorkflowAdministrator

    2. Select Printers from the side menu.

    3. Select the printer into which the duplicates will be merged.

    4. CTRL-click on each printer that corresponds to the physical device

    5. Select "Merge Printers" from the Advanced Menu.

    Some devices, like USB printers, will undergo a change of port if the printer is unplugged and plugged back in. This can also cause a duplicate printer to populate in WorkflowAdministrator. To prevent this, use the auto-merging utility in Printanista Workflow, to detect and automatically merge duplicate devices as they are discovered.

    Procedure:

    1. Open Workflow Administrator

    2. Select Printers from the sidebar

    3. Double click on the printer you want to set up auto-merging on

    4. Select the auto merge tab

    5. Specify criteria which when met will result in automatic merging, you can use * as a wildcard.

      For example, with a USB device, you would replace the number in the port field with a * to ensure that any device on that host, with that name/model will be considered the same printer, regardless of which USB port it populates.

       

  4. Perform any required/desired configuration of the local devices.

    5. Printanista Workflow does not automatically populate Serial Number, or Location, and virtual life counts will start at 0. Those values may be entered into the appropriate fields on the Edit Printer page in Workflow Administrator, so they can be included on their first upload to Printanista Hub. Virtual life counts should be set to the appropriate values taken from the actual device.

    NOTE:

    Important: This configuration must be done after merging duplicate devices, because virtual life counts are not included during device merging. This configuration must also be done before the integration with Printanista Hub is active, to prevent dramatic life count changes. (For example: If a device is uploaded to Printanista Hub with a virtual life count of 1, and then the life count is updated to the actual value afterward, it will appear in Printanista Hub as a device whose entire life count occurred in a single day.)

 

  1. Change the tracking level for all local devices to "Track."

Devices will not be uploaded when they belong to the Ignore profile. To make this easier in a large site, always merge devices into the local printer that they represent, when it comes time to change device profiles you can filter the printers list in WorkflowAdministrator to local printers.

6) Enable local device tracking for the site in Printanista Hub and ensure the upload filters will pass the devices you have assigned tracking levels to.

By default, the upload filters will match devices whose port conforms to USB*, LPT* or COM*. You may have to add additional filters, for example DOT4*.

On your next scan, local device tracking information should flow up to Printanista Hub.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

The following are questions you may have regarding the Printanista Hub integration with Printanista Workflow

The DCA software does not need to be installed on the same server as Printanista Workflow and is not required for tracking local devices. The DCA software is still required in Printanista Hub to track Direct to IP devices.

With the advanced printer matching in Printanista Workflow, merging, and filtering local printers is no longer required. Non-hardware printers (such as PDF writers and MS XPS Document Writer) only appear as a single entry in Printanista Hub and can be set to "Do Not Track".

No, SNMP capable devices are handled through the DCA.