Device Definition (General) (SAP Library - SAP Printing Guide (BC-CCM-PRN))

Device Definition (General)

Use

You must create a device definition in the SAP system for every output device on which you want to print a document, so that the SAP system recognizes this device. This device definition contains all of the important data for addressing the device. If the device definition contains errors or is incomplete, the system cannot address the device.

Prerequisites

You should have analyzed the requirements of your company with regard to printing, as described in Planning the SAP Print Architecture. You should also have put the planning into action.

For information about how the print architectures look and how to set them up, see Print Architecture and its subsections that deal with the individual architectures.

Activities

● Once you have determined the constellation of hosts, servers, and printers (print architecture) create a device definition for the printer (output device) in transaction SPAD.

There are mandatory fields in the device definition that you must fill out, so that the system can address the output device, such as Device Type of the Printer and Access Method.

● Once you have created the device definition in your SAP system and specify the name of the defined printer when printing, the system accesses the corresponding device definition to address the printer.

Structure

The following fields are mandatory when you are creating an output device, depending on the printer on which you want to print and from which operating system you are printing (transaction SPAD → Output Devices → This graphic is explained in the accompanying text Change→ Output device → Create/Create using template):

Tab Page	Field	Additional Information
Device Attributes	Output Device	The name of the printer in the SAP system. It can be up to 30 characters long, and is case-sensitive.
	Short Name	The system accesses the printer using this name. It can be generated automatically.
	Device Type	Enter the device type that is defined in the SAP system for the printer model here, such as HPLJ4 for the HP Laser Jet 4000. The generic device type SWIN is available for printing under Microsoft Windows, with which you can use every device supported by Microsoft Windows, even if the device type is not defined in the SAP system. You can search device types provided by SAP using the Device Type Selection function. For a list of device types, see SAP Note 8928 in the SAP Service Marketplace. For more information about device types, see Device Types for SAP Output Devices.
	Spool Server	Enter the name of the SAP spool server (application server with the spool work process) that is to prepare the output for this device here.
Host Spool Access Method	Host Spool Access Method (operating system spooler)	You select the type of connection to the printer here. The access method that you must enter depends on your operating system and print architecture (such as front end printing, local, and remote printing). It determines how data is transferred to the host spooler.
	Host Printer	Enter the name of the output device as it is specified in the host system (operating system). Enter the name exactly as it is defined in the host, that is, with the same capitalization. The name cannot contain any spaces. If you enter __DEFAULT in this field, the default printer of your Microsoft Windows PC is addressed.
	Host	This field appears only for local printing. The input is generated automatically and depends on the spool server.
	Destination Host	Fill this field out for remote printing (over a network): Name of the host that receives the data to be output. This is the host on which the (SAP)lpd is running.
Print Options	Print Option Status / Preselection (optional)	If the output device supports print options, you can activate or deactivate individual option values here, or set a value as a fixed predefined value. For more information, see Print Options.
Print Tickets	(optional)	If the output device supports print options, you can combine selected print options in a print ticket for this output device. For more information, see Print Tickets.

In addition to these mandatory fields, there are fields that already contain a default value or that can remain empty. These are required for the type of printing, but not by the SAP system for controlling the printer, such as tray and cover sheet information.

For information about creating a device definition for a particular printer, see the following sections:

● Defining Output Devices for Microsoft Windows Printing

● Defining Output Devices for UNIX Printing

● Defining Output Devices for Front-End Printing Using SAP GUI for Windows

● Defining Output Devices for Front-End printing Using SAP GUI for HTML

● Defining Output Devices for Printing Using E-Mail

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text SAP Printing Guide Start Page