Printer Configured in Design 32 Does Not Show in the Status Client

Description

A printer configured in Design 32 LLM Device Configuration does not show in the Loftware Print Server (LPS) Status Client. There are multiple ways that this can happen, but this article will be focusing on a poorly formatted Alias / Printer Name.

Explanation

There are a number of characters that are not permitted in a printer alias and will prevent you from exiting the printer configuration if the alias contains those characters.

The following link will provide more information:

http://help.loftware.com/display/LPSKB/Error+Alias+Contains+Invalid+Characters

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However, even when using valid characters an improper alias name can still be created that will prevent it from displaying or being accessible to the LPS. The most common case is created when the alias name is copied from a document list. It is easy to either copy more than just the text and include the "invisible" return character, or even additional lines of text. The text including those extra characters can be copied into the printer alias field. Since the field is only one line and does not expand the alias looks correct. When the alias is recorded in the settings those other lines and characters are also recorded and prevent that printer from being accessed by the LPS.

Solution

There are two ways to resolve this issue and are quite simple:

1. Place your cursor at the end of the displayed alias name and hold the delete key until all the extra text is deleted.
2. Click on the column to the left of the Alias column in the LLM Device Configuration (default: Port) and hit Tab. This will move the cursor to the Alias field and highlight all of the data. Use the delete key to remove the alias and re-enter it by hand.