Aloaha Printer Subsystem

The Aloaha PDF Suite is able to monitor any printer which is configured to spool as EMF and which is paused. 

Additional it contains the Aloaha PDF Printer connected to the ALOAHAPDF: Port and the AloahaPrint Printprocessor.

There are several advantages of using the Aloaha PDF Printer such as:

- better performance
- better quality
- plug in support

Registry Settings

LeavePrinter

During the startup of the PDF Suite creator process all printer settings are validated. In case settings of a printer are not correct they will be fixed fully automatic.
In some rare cases this behavior is not whished. To skip the validation of a printer just enter the Name of the Printer in:
HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\LeavePrinter

AloahaPortPrinterName

The name of the printer connected to the ALOAHAPDF: port MUST be "Aloaha PDF Printer". If that name changes every printer will fail.
If it is required to change the name of the printer you need to create the key HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\AloahaPortPrinterName with the name of the new printer. 
After the new name has been set in that key it is possible to rename the Aloaha PDF Printer to the name specified in AloahaPortPrinterName. Please restart the spooler afterwards!

DisableMonitor (DWORD)

The process aloaha_prntjobmon.exe is responsible to trigger the creator process in realtime that a new print job is available. In case the creator process is not running it will start it fully automatic. There are two ways of disabling aloaha_prntjobmon.exe. The first and most simple way is to call aloaha_prntjobmon.exe with the option -close. For example: aloaha_prntjobmon.exe -close
It is also possible to create the registry key HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\DisableMonitor (dword) with value 1. In that case the aloaha_prntjobmon.exe will stop triggering Aloaha!

Aloaha Print Processor Plugin

It is very easy to create a plugin for the Aloaha Print Processor. That might be required to take over a print job instead of having it processed by Aloaha. For example you print on machine A but want to transfer all print jobs fully automatic to machine B. Just create a plugin which intercepts the Aloaha Print Processor to move all jobs into the spooler directory (c:\program files\wrocklage\spooler) of machine B.

Please note that Aloaha processes a Job only if the logged on user matches the values in the .ini file of the job.

The plugin itself must be an automation compatible COM object. The object name (for example cms.printer) must be registered in registry key HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\AloahaMonitorPlugin.

The COM Object itself requires to support two functions.

1. function info must always a long greater than 0. Otherwise the plugin will not be loaded

2. function handover with string parameter SPL File and Info File. In case it returns true Aloaha will NOT process the file itself anymore!

Pseudo language notation: function handover(SPL_path, INFO_path) as boolean

Plugin Sample

Public Function Handover(ByVal SPL_Path As Variant, ByVal INFO_Path As Variant) As Boolean 
          MsgBox SPL_Path + vbCrLf + INFO_Path
          Handover=true
End Function

Public Function info() 
          info = 1 
End Function



Below you will find a zipped source code sample incl. a compiled binary. To install and activate that plugin please register cms.dll with regsvr32 cms.dll 

Furthermore you need to create a registry key PortMonitorPlugin in HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf with value "cms.printer" 


 PortMonitorPlugin.zip (5,07 KB)