Question

What are the main differences between Automation (A) and Enterprise Automation (EA) Edition in BarTender v2016?

Answer

Only in the Enterprise Automation Edition of BarTender, you will be able to make use of our BarTender Print Portal and Android / iOS apps or of any web based application which you develop using our .NET SDKs.

In fact, in terms of the .NET SDK's you can use, with Automation Edition you can make use of the .NET Print Engine API, the System Database API (as long as you're logging to a local database) and partially the Print Scheduler API. With Enterprise Automation, apart from the ones the Automation Edition supports, you can also make use of the methods and properties available under the Print Server API and the  Librarian API.

In terms of Printer Maestro, only the Enterprise Automation Edition will allow you to: 

• Track printer media usage and inventory of printer parts.
• Generate custom alerts for printer events and low inventory levels.
• Log printer events for Windows print jobs other than just those from BarTender.
• Single, Centralized Enterprise-Wide View of all Network Print Jobs.
• When the Enterprise Automation edition of BarTender is installed along with Printer Maestro on the viewing workstation and at least the Printer Maestro service is installed on the computer(s) to which your remote printer(s) are attached, then you only need the associated Windows printer drivers installed on the computer that actually has the printer(s).

The Integration Platform requires Enterprise Automation Edition in the following cases: 

The following Integrations require Enterprise Automation: 

• Web Service Integration
• Message Queue Integration
• Network Socket

 The following Actions require Enterprise Automation: 

• Send Message Queue
• Send Web Request
• Read from Network Socket
• Write to Network Socket
• All XSL Transform actions

** A bidirectional integration (in terms of sending back a response to the ERP system sending the variable data and parameters) requires the Enterprise Automation Edition of BarTender.

*** BarTender XML-Script is now supported in the Automation Edition of BarTender (including sending BarTender XML-Script via the Integration Platform and via our .NET SDKs).

In terms of Administration Console, the following is only available in the Enterprise Automation Edition: 

• Use of electronic signatures in order to know which user performs a particular action over any BarTender Suite application.
• For troubleshooting and auditing purposes, you can log BarTender permission checks to the system database.

Reprint Console / History Explorer features only available to Enterprise Automation Edition: 

• Regardless of where the print job originated, you can redirect any label reprint job to "Any copy of BarTender", "On any computer of the network", "Using any network printer". This will cover situations such as "the original computer is no longer functioning" or "the printer has been moved".

When logging to the BarTender System Database, logging an "Image preview of the printed items" is not supported in the Automation Edition.

Also, logging to a central BarTender System Database is only supported in the Enterprise Automation Edition of BarTender.

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