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Curious On Grouptask

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9 comments

  • Avatar
    Domingo Rodriguez
    Moderator

    John,

     

    1. Please attach the BarTender document (.btw) in question for us to examine.
    2. When you say 2 copies are requested for the 2 page tag, do you mean that 2 separate print requests (print jobs) are requested?
    3. What happens if you pause the printer's print queue and just send 1 copy for the 2 page tag? Do you just see one print job in the print queue?
    4. To which printer make and model are you printing to? Which printer driver (and version) have you installed for this printer? Do you see this behaviour as well when printing to a different printer?
    5. Will the behaviour be any different if the number of engines is set to 1 rather than 5? Print job order isn't guaranteed when more than one BT task is running simultaneously.
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  • Avatar
    Legacy Poster

    Hi Domingo,

     

    1. Please attach the BarTender document (.btw) in question for us to examine.
    I will need to confirm with my client about posting the BarTender documents on the forum. Alternatively, if I receive permission, may I email them to you directly (or via a support email address)?
     
    2. When you say 2 copies are requested for the 2 page tag, do you mean that 2 separate print requests (print jobs) are requested? 
    The two LabelFormats are placed into a GroupTask instance, and then the GroupTask is added to the print queue (Print Server SDK function). What is the best way to verify the number of print requests?
    FYI: My client has raised a support request with the Asia Pacific technical support who have briefly investigated and have stated that the code is "sending each single page as a separate job". Isn't that defeating the purpose and intention of the GroupTask object? The documentation states a GroupTask is processed in order ("Represents a Task that contains one or more Tasks that are run in order on a single TaskEngine"), and there might be a bug in the implementation of GroupTask by the Print Server .NET SDK.
     
    3. What happens if you pause the printer's print queue and just send 1 copy for the 2 page tag? Do you just see one print job in the print queue?
    I will try and let you know.
     
    4. To which printer make and model are you printing to? Which printer driver (and version) have you installed for this printer? Do you see this behaviour as well when printing to a different printer?
    We are printing to a Zebra ZT-230, and using the Seagull Scientific Zebra ZPL-II Driver Version: 7.3.3, Build Target:    x64, Build Date:5/2/2013 6:49 PM. 
    I will try to print to another printer of the same make and model, but, as the print document is formatted to fit a specifically size paper roll, it is difficult to a select different printer type.
     
    5. Will the behaviour be any different if the number of engines is set to 1 rather than 5? Print job order isn't guaranteed when more than one BT task is running simultaneously.
    I suspect it will be different, especially if only one print job is sent per GroupTask instance. However, the volume of printing is expected to reach 3.5 million "tags" per annum, and thus the need for multiple Task Engines from the very beginning. While it is just a simple configuration change to only start one Task Engine rather than five, I am hesitant that one Task Engine may not be enough to handle the expected volume. I will ask the client to confirm the expected prints as prints per minute, given the range of operating days and hours across the company.
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  • Avatar
    Domingo Rodriguez
    Moderator

    I think that the most interesting information to find out is the "What happens if you pause the printer's print queue and just send 1 copy for the 2 page tag? Do you just see one print job in the print queue?" part.

     

    Once I know this, I might be able to know as well if a "2 copies for the 2 page tag" request might end up with the pages being intercalated. 

     

    If your customer is also based in Australia, contacting our Asian office for tech-support is the correct way to go. Our Asian office has direct access to our development team, and if necessary, will contact them for their input.

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  • Avatar
    Legacy Poster

    I did a quick test and sent 1 copy of a 2 page tag to the paused printer, and found that two jobs are shown in the print queue (as seen in Printer Maestro).

     

    Printer Maestro is also showing each job as 0 pages. Hhhmmm...

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  • Avatar
    Domingo Rodriguez
    Moderator

    John,

     

    It would be good to take a look at the BarTender .btw document (the one containing the 2 page "tag"). Either attach it to this forum topic, or send it to the corresponding tech-support office.

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  • Avatar
    Legacy Poster

    Domingo,

     

    It is actually two BarTender .btw documents - each being one page - that are "joined" in a GroupTask to make the two page "tag"....

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  • Avatar
    Domingo Rodriguez
    Moderator

    When using the task manager and several BT processes are running, when sending different print jobs to the same printer, it might occur that the print job order is random. This is true if one bartend.exe print task takes longer than another. In order to make it a strict FIFO queue you could consider the following:

     

    • Just starting 1 BT process (might not be the ideal solution for you).
    • Set a task priority by using the Task.Priority property.
    • Implement your own task manager. We've other customers doing this because of the same reason (print job order might be random).
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  • Avatar
    Legacy Poster

    Thanks Domingo.

     

    I've suggested the third approach in resolving the issue to the client, and they have agreed.

     

    As Seagull have discovered that you've several customers already doing this, can I suggest that you provide the solution in your future release ...

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  • Avatar
    Domingo Rodriguez
    Moderator

    Hello John,

     

    Yes, we're aware of this and it is a "feature request" item. At this point we cannot guarantee you if and when this will be implemented, but I can guarantee you that our developers are aware that several customers would like the behaviour of the task manager with multiple running BT engines to be changed.

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