Local Printing (Access Methods C and L)

Use

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.

The print architecture has characteristics typical of local printing, explained below.

Local printing is the fastest and most reliable form of printing from the point of view of SAP Systems. You can use local printing for the following operating systems:

● all Windows platforms that SAP supports for application servers iServer eSeries

● UNIX

All other operating systems use remote printing.

Prerequisites

Architecture Prerequisites

● The system prints locally 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.

SAP System Prerequisites

To be able to address an output device from the SAP System in which you are working, you must define the output device in this SAP System. You do this using a device definition.

When you are configuring the output device in a device definition, you specify how the printer is connected to the SAP System using the access method. The access method specifies whether you are using local or remote printing. The access method is identified by a letter and informs the system which architecture is in use and which operating system you are using. In this way, the system knows the way in which data is to be transferred.

The system uses the following access methods for local printing, depending on the operating system that you are using:

- Access method C: supported on all Windows plattforms that SAP supports for application servers; iServer eSeries

- Access method L: UNIX

The figure below illustrates how your print architecture must look so that it can be used for local printing:

Activities

● With local printing, the spool work process of the SAP Systems transfers the output stream, formatted for the printer, to the host spool system (operating system spooler) on the same host. The system uses the access method (C or L) that you have specified in the device definition.

The data does not need to be transferred over a network connection to reach the host spool system, which makes the connection fast and reliable.

● The data stream is printed using a local or remotely connected printer.