SAP Printing Methods

Local Printing (Access Methods C and L)

Use local printing if the host spool system (operating system spooler) and the spool work process of the SAP System are on the same host.

• It is irrelevant whether the printer is directly connected to the PC or whether it is a shared network printer.
• The printer must be defined at operating system level of the spool server.

 Access method C: Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000; 
 Access method L: UNIX




Define the output devices in the SAP spool system. 
To do this, create device definitions for the output devices in transaction SPAD (choose the Output Devices pushbutton ® Output Device menu ® Create/Create Using Template).
1.  Specify the host system on which the spool server (application server with a spool work process) is running, as the spool server of the output device.
1.  In the Access method field, choose method L for a UNIX host.
2.  For a Microsoft Windows NT/2000 host, choose access method C. other Microsoft Windows operating systems are not suitable for local printing, as you cannot set up a spool server on them.


Remote Printing (Access Methods S and U)

Use remote printing if you are printing over a network; that is, when the host spool system (operating system spooler) and the spool work process of the SAP System are on different hosts.

 Access Method U: UNIX systems; Microsoft Windows system (using a TCP/IP Print Server and SAPlpd)
 Access Method S: Microsoft Windows systems (using SAPlpd)



To set up the print architecture for remote Microsoft Windows PC printing, follow the procedure below:

1. To use SAPWIN/SWIN, install and start the SAPLPD transfer program on a Microsoft Windows PC.
SAPlpd is installed with the SAP GUI frontend software.
If you are using Microsoft Windows NT/2000, remote printing can also be implemented using the TCP/IP Print Server.
SAPlpd and TCP/IP Print Server accept the data stream and forward it to the host spool system (operating system spooler).

2. Define the printers you want to use in the Microsoft Windows spooler.
You can use both locally connected and shared network devices.

3. Define the output devices in the SAP System.

To do this, create a device definition for the PC output device in transaction SPAD (choose the Output Devices pushbutton ® Output Device menu ® Create/Create Using Template).

1. • Specify the host system on which the spool work process is running, as the spool server of the output device.

2. • For printing using SAPlpd, choose Access method U (Print on LPDHOST using Berkeley protocol) or S (Print on LPDHOST using SAP protocol). For printing using the TCP/IP Print Server, you can only use access method U.
It is irrelevant whether the printer is directly connected to the PC or whether it is a shared network printer.


Frontend Printing on Local Printers 

Prerequisite
In addition to the general print authorizations, every user requires the following authorizations for frontend printing:
• Authorization object S_SPO_DEV, authorization field SPODEVICE, authorization %LOC
• Authorization object S_RFC:

Field Value
RFC_TYPE FUGR
RFC_NAME LPRF
ACTVT 16