Access to Network Shared Resources

This section defines best practice steps for using network shared resources.

• User privileges for service mode. The execution component of Loftware Automation runs in service mode under a specified user account inheriting access privileges of that account. For Loftware Automation to be able to open label files and user printer drivers, the associated user account must have granted the same privileges. For more information, see section Running in Service Mode.

• UNC notation for network shares. When accessing the file on a network drive, make sure you are using the UNC syntax (Universal Naming Convention), and not the mapped drive letters. UNC is a naming convention that specifies and maps network drives. Loftware Automation tries to replace the drive-letter syntax with UNC syntax automatically.

  Example 97. Example

  If a file is accessible as G:\Labels\label.nlbl, refer to it in UNC notation as \\server\share\Labels\label.nlbl (where G: drive is mapped to \\server\share).

• Notation for accessing files in Control Center. If you open a file in Document Storage within Control Center, you can use HTTP notation such as http://servername:8080/label.nlbl, or WebDAV notation such as \\servername@8080\DavWWWRoot\label.nlbl.

  Additional notes:

  • User account under which the Loftware Automation service runs is also used to get files from Document Storage. This user must be configured in Control Center Configuration. This makes sure the user has access to the Document Storage files.

  • WebDAV access can only be used with Windows user authentication type in Control Center.

  Note

  The Document Storage is available with products LMS Enterprise and LMS Pro.

• Printer drivers availability. To print labels to network shared printer, you will have to make the printer driver available on the server where Loftware Automation is installed on. Make sure the user account that Loftware Automation Service runs under has access to the printer driver. If the network printer was just installed on the machine, Loftware Automation might not see it until your restart the Service. To allow automatic notification of new network printer drivers, you have to enable the appropriate inbound rule in the Windows firewall. For more information, see our Knowledge Base article.

Losing your Label Cloud connection

If your Automation Manager is signed in to the Label Cloud, and you lose the internet connection, you must reestablish the connection in up to 30 days. Without reconnecting with your Label Cloud, Automation Manager closes automatically.

After losing the internet connection, and if your computer stays offline, a warning appears in 30 days. Automation Manager closes 5 minutes after you see the warning.

After you reestablish the internet connection, open Automation Builder or Automation Manager and sign in to Label Cloud. This makes your copy active again.