DEFINE PRINTER |
([logical-printer-name=]n) | |
[OUTPUT
operand1]
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This document covers the following topics:
For an explanation of the symbols used in the syntax diagram, see Syntax Symbols.
Related Statements: AT END OF
PAGE | AT TOP OF
PAGE | CLOSE
PRINTER | DISPLAY | EJECT | FORMAT | NEWPAGE |
PRINT |
SKIP |
SUSPEND IDENTICAL SUPPRESS
| WRITE |
WRITE TITLE |
WRITE TRAILER
Belongs to Function Group: Creation of Output Reports
The DEFINE PRINTER statement is used to assign a
symbolic name to a report number and to control the allocation of a report to a
logical destination. This provides you with additional flexibility when
creating output for various logical print queues.
When this statement is executed and the specified printer is already
open, the statement will implicitly cause that printer to be closed. To
explicitly close a printer, however, you should use the
CLOSE PRINTER
statement.
For further information on the DEFINE PRINTER
statement, see Unicode and Code Page Support in the Natural Programming
Language, section
Statements.
Operand Definition Table:
| Operand | Possible Structure | Possible Formats | Referencing Permitted | Dynamic Definition | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
operand1
|
C | S | A | U | yes | no | ||||||||||||||
operand2
|
C | S | A | U | yes | no | ||||||||||||||
operand3
|
C | S | N | yes | no | |||||||||||||||
operand4
|
C | S | N | P | I | yes | no | |||||||||||||
Syntax Element Description:
| Syntax Element | Description |
|---|---|
(n)
|
Printer Number:
All print files to be used during a session must be
preassigned to an access method by means of subparameter
The printer number n may be a
value in the range of 0 - 31. This is the number also to be used in a
Printer number 0 indicates the hardcopy printer. Some
access methods do not support the hardcopy printer, for example,
|
logical-printer-name
|
Logical Printer Name:
Optionally you can assign a logical name
Naming conventions for
|
OUTPUT
operand1
|
Printer Name:
As
See also Printer Name for Additional Reports and Remote Destinations The 8-byte logical printer name can be defined initially
by keyword subparameter If the specified name is already defined for a different
printer number and this printer is unused; that is, in closed state, the print
output will be routed to this printer if keyword subparameter
Information on operating-system- or TP-monitor-dependent printer naming conventions is included in the following sections: |
|
With the following clauses, you can provide printing control information to be interpreted by the spooling system of the TP monitor or operating system respectively. You can specify one or more of these clauses, but each of them only once. |
|
PROFILE
operand2
|
Name of Printer Control Characters
Table:
With the You define the printer control characters table by the
profile parameter Note: |
CODEPAGE
operand2
|
Name of Codepage:
|
With the following clauses, you can provide values for parameters
of the TP monitor's spooling system. The default value of these clauses can be
set with the corresponding keyword subparameters of profile parameter
PRINT. See
PRINT
Keyword Subparameters for DEFINE PRINTER Statement in the
Parameter Reference.
When a printer is closed, all options are reset to their default
values. If the definitions are not clear in a Natural environment, Software AG
recommends to set them in each module using DEFINE PRINTER
statement.
Syntax Element Description:
| Syntax Element | Description |
|---|---|
FORMS
operand2
|
Form:
Maximum length of operand: 8 bytes. The default value of this clause can be set with
subparameter |
NAME
operand2
|
Listname:
Maximum length of operand: 8 bytes. The default value of this clause can be set with
subparameter |
DISP
operand2
|
Disposition:
Maximum length of operand: 4 bytes. For the The default value of this clause can be set with keyword
subparameter |
CLASS
operand2
|
Spool Class:
Maximum length of operand: 1 byte. The default value of this clause can be set with keyword
subparameter |
COPIES
operand3
|
Number of Copies:
The default value of this clause can be set with keyword
subparameter |
PRTY
operand4
|
Listing Priority:
Possible values: 1 - 255.
The default value of this clause can be set with keyword
subparameter |
This section covers the following topics:
For a printer number that is defined with access method
AM=STD,
you can use operand1 to specify a
logical or a physical data set name to be assigned to that printer number.
operand1 can be 1 to 253
characters long and can be one of the following:
a logical data set name (DD name, 1 to 8 characters);
a physical data set name of a cataloged data set (1 to 44 characters), or a physical data set member name (1 to 44 characters for the data set name, plus 1 to 8 characters in parentheses for the member name);
a path name and member name of an HFS file (1 to 253 characters) in an MVS Linux Services environment;
a JES spool file class;
NULLFILE (to indicate a dummy data set).
For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (21) OUTPUT 'SYSPRINT'
The specified data set with DD-name SYSPRINT must
have been allocated before the DEFINE PRINTER statement is
executed. For further information, see
Allocation
and De-Allocation of Data Sets.
The allocation can be done via JCL, CLIST (TSO) or dynamic
allocation (SVC 99). For dynamic allocation you can use the application
programming interface USR2021N in library SYSEXT.
The data set name specified in the DEFINE PRINTER
statement overrides the name specified with the keyword subparameter
DEST of
profile parameter PRINT.
Optionally, the data set name may be prefixed by DDN=
to indicate that it is a DD-name and to avoid name conflicts with additional
reports. For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (22) OUTPUT 'DDN=SOURCE'
For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (23) OUTPUT 'TEST.PRINT.FILE'
The specified data set must exist in cataloged form. When the
DEFINE PRINTER statement is executed, the data set is allocated
dynamically by SVC 99 with the current DD-name and JCL option
DISP=SHR. For further information, see
Allocation
and De-Allocation of Data Sets.
If the data set name is 8 characters or shorter and does not
contain a period (.), it might be misinterpreted as a DD-name. To avoid this,
prefix the name with DSN=. For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (22) OUTPUT 'DSN=PRINTXYZ'
If the data set is a PDS member, you specify the PDS member name (1 to 8 characters) in parentheses after the data set name (1 to 44 characters). For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (4) OUTPUT 'TEST.PRINT.PDS(TEST1)'
If the specified member does not exist, a new member of that name will be created.
For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (14) OUTPUT '/u/nat/rec/test.txt'
The specified path name must exist. When the DEFINE
PRINTER statement is executed, the HFS file is allocated dynamically. If
the specified member does not exist, a new member of that name will be
created.
For the dynamic allocation of the data set, the following z/OS path options are used:
PATHOPTS=(OCREAT,OTRUNC,ORDWR) PATHMODE=(SIRUSR,SIWUSR,SIRGRP,SIWGRP) FILEDATA=TEXT
When an HFS file is closed, it is automatically de-allocated by
z/OS (regardless of the setting of keyword subparameter
FREE of
profile parameter PRINT).
To create a JES spool data set, you specify
SYSOUT=x (where
x is the desired spool file class). For the default
spool file class, you specify SYSOUT=*.
Examples:
DEFINE PRINTER (10) OUTPUT 'SYSOUT=A' DEFINE PRINTER (12) OUTPUT 'SYSOUT=*'
To specify additional parameters for the dynamic allocation, use
application programming interface USR2021N in library
SYSEXT instead of the DEFINE PRINTER statement.
To allocate a dummy data set, you specify NULLFILE as
operand1:
DEFINE PRINTER (n) OUTPUT 'NULLFILE
This corresponds to the JCL definition:
// DD-name DD DUMMY
When the DEFINE PRINTER statement is executed and a
physical data set name, HFS file, spool file class or dummy data set has been
specified, the corresponding data set is allocated dynamically. If the logical
print file is already open, it will be closed automatically, except when the
keyword subparameter CLOSE=FIN (Time of
Closure) of profile parameter PRINT has been
specified, in which case an error will be issued. Moreover, an existing data
set allocated with the same current DD-name is automatically de-allocated
before the new data set is allocated.
To avoid unnecessary overhead by unsuccessful premature opening of
print files not yet allocated at the start of the program, print files should
be defined with keyword subparameter
OPEN=ACC
(open at first access) of profile parameter PRINT.
In the case of an HFS file, or a print file defined with the
keyword subparameter FREE=ON of profile
parameter PRINT, the print
file is automatically de-allocated as soon as it has been closed.
As an alternative for the dynamic allocation and de-allocation of
data sets, the application programming interface USR2021N in
library SYSEXT is provided. This API also allows you to specify
additional parameters for dynamic allocation.
In server environments, errors may occur if multiple Natural
sessions attempt to allocate or open a data set with the same DD-name. To avoid
this, you either specify the print file with keyword subparameter
DEST=* of
profile parameter PRINT, or you
specify OUTPUT '*' in the DEFINE PRINTER statement;
Natural then generates a unique DD-name at the physical data set allocation
when the first DEFINE PRINTER statement for that print file is
executed.
All print files whose DD-names begin with CM are
shared by all sessions in a server environment. A shared print file is opened
by the first session, and is physically closed when the server is terminated.
For further information, see the section
Natural as a
Server in the Operations
documentation.
For a printer number defined with the access method
AM=CICS, operand1
can be a transient data or temporary storage queue name (1 to 8 characters),
depending on keyword subparameter
TYPE
of profile parameter PRINT for the
printer. For TYPE=TD (transient data), only the first 4 characters
of operand1 are honored and the
transient data destination must be predefined to CICS.
For further information, see also Natural Print and Work Files under CICS (in the TP Monitor Interfaces documentation).
With AM=COMP, a valid
printer number (TID) or a logical printer name can be assigned. For
example:
DEFINE PRINTER (1) OUTPUT '11' DEFINE PRINTER (2) OUTPUT 'P102'
With AM=SMARTS, any
printer name can be assigned. For example:
DEFINE PRINTER (14) OUTPUT '/nat/path/printer' DEFINE PRINTER (14) OUTPUT '/nat/path/printer/file/' DEFINE PRINTER (14) OUTPUT 'printer'
It depends on the MOUNT_FS parameter of
SMARTS whether the file is located on a SMARTS portable file system or on the
native file system. The first element of the path (/nat/)
determines the target file system.
If the string is terminated with a slash (/), the last element is
taken as the name of the print file. Otherwise, the name of the file is
generated from the UserID and a sequence number. If the string
does not start with a slash, the path of the file is taken from the environment
variable $NAT_PRINT_ROOT.
The specified path name must exist. When the DEFINE
PRINTER statement is executed, the file is allocated dynamically. If the
specified member does not exist, a new member of that name will be created.
For Natural Advanced Facilities users, the name of any predefined
logical printer profile can be specified. This logical printer profile needs
not belong to the currently active user profile. It may be any logical printer
profile defined on the NATSPOOL file. It will be active only for
the duration of the Natural program which contains the DEFINE
PRINTER statement. For further information, see the
Natural
Advanced Facilities documentation.
Additional reports and remote print destinations can be assigned by default with the following names:
| Report | Function |
|---|---|
BROADCST
|
Output message line to a TP monitor terminal. Same
function as MESSAGE (see below), except that under Com-plete, the
message is not sent to the desired terminal until no transactions are active on
that terminal.
|
CCONTROL
|
CCONTROL is the name of a special printer
control table associated to the printer n-1; it must
not be modified. For further information, refer to
Printer-Advance Control Characters
(in the Operations documentation).
|
CONNECT
|
Output into a Con-nect folder.
Note for Natural installation: The |
DUMMY
|
Output to be deleted. |
HARDCOPY
|
Output to the current hardcopy device. |
INCORE
|
Output into the NSPF incore database. |
INFOLINE
|
Output to the Natural infoline. For details on the
infoline, see the Natural terminal command %X.
|
MESSAGE
|
Output message line to a TP monitor terminal. The first
8 bytes of a message must contain the target terminal ID. TSO
require the user ID
instead of the terminal ID. An example program MSGSW is supplied
in the library SYSEXTP.
|
SOURCE
|
Output to the Natural source area. |
WORKPOOL
|
Output into the Natural ISPF workpool. |
You can use the write-to-spool file feature (see the Operations documentation) to route data through a remote JES node and send it to a user or print it on a device defined in the remote JES environment.
/* PRINTER NAME DEFINITION FOR COM-PLETE * DEFINE PRINTER (1) OUTPUT 'TID100' WRITE (1) 'PRINTED ON PRINTER TID100' END
/* OUTPUT ON 'SYSPRINT' (FOR BATCH ENVIRONMENTS) * DEFINE PRINTER (REPORT1 = 1) OUTPUT 'SYSPRINT' WRITE (REPORT1) 'REPORT 1 PRINTED ON PRINTER SYSPRINT' * /* OUTPUT TO DEFAULT PRINTER DESTINATION /* DEFINED WITH PROFILE PARAMETER 'PRINT', SUBPARAMETER 'DEST' * DEFINE PRINTER (REPORT2 = 2) WRITE (REPORT2) 'REPORT PRINTED TO DESTINATION'
** Example 'DPIEX1': DEFINE PRINTER ************************************************************************ * SET CONTROL 'XI+' /* SWITCH INFOLINE MODE ON SET CONTROL 'XT' /* INFOLINE TOP * DEFINE PRINTER (1) OUTPUT 'INFOLINE' WRITE (1) 'EXECUTING' *PROGRAM 'BY' *INIT-USER WRITE 'TEST OUTPUT' EJECT /* FORCE PHYSICAL I/O * SET CONTROL 'X' /* SWITCH BACK TO NORMAL * END
EXECUTING DPIEX1 BY HTR Page 1 05-01-13 14:54:33 TEST OUTPUT
** Example 'DPREX1': DEFINE PRINTER ************************************************************************ DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 EMPL-VIEW VIEW OF EMPLOYEES 2 NAME END-DEFINE * * USE SESSION WITH DEFINED PRINTER 1 * DEFINE PRINTER (INVOICE-LIST=1) OUTPUT 'OUTQ1' LIMIT 5 READ EMPL-VIEW BY NAME WRITE (INVOICE-LIST) NAME END-READ * END
