Distributed Printing
Articles and Tips: article
01 Jan 1996
Novell Previews Technology for Development Partners
In December Novell hosted top network developers for a conference on its next generation printing services, NetWare Distributed Print Services (NDPS ). During the two day NDPS Software Development Conference Novell delivered pre release NDPS application programming interfaces (APIs) for independent software vendors (ISVs) to add powerful new printing capabilities to their most popular applications.
NDPS technology is designed to scale from the smallest network to the largest global enterprise, increasing user and administrator productivity in organizations of all sizes. In addition, it uses a distributed database within NetWare Directory Services (NDS ) to deliver transparent access to printing resources anywhere on a network, as opposed to a single network server. As smaller organizations' private networks interconnect with enterprise environments and public networks to create a single Smart Global Network, NDPS will give users access to varied printing resources from any location throughout that network.
Announced at BrainShare '95 in conjunction with leading printer industry development partners Hewlett Packard Company and Xerox Corporation, NDPS will provide the printing services foundation for future versions of Novell's NetWare 4 network operating system (NOS). It is the first essential NetWare service designed to give users a comprehensive set of simple printing options and information to provide greater control over network print jobs.
"Through our partnership with Hewlett-Packard and Xerox, we're elevating network printing to a new level and paving the way for new third party product opportunities, said Richard King, executive vice president and general manager of Novell's Systems Group. "We're underscoring our commitment to fully support ISVs by providing Novell product and technology information early in their development cycles."
Software engineers from over 60 organizations participated in the NDPS Development Conference overviews, seminars, and tutorials to research the architecture and identify product applications. Throughout the conference, Novell, HP and Xerox engineers demonstrated NDPS technology and applications, lead development discussion sessions and address attendees' questions about using the cross platform APIs to build NDPS aware applications.
These applications will let users directly choose printing options from within an application, select the best printer for a specific document, and easily print multi part complex documents (for example, a stapled two page letter on letterhead and second sheet paper, with an envelope). ISVs can also develop applications to help network administrators simplify printer management and support. Through future releases of NDPS technology, developers will be able to give their users integrated access to fax, scanning and multifunction devices in addition to printing resources.
In Spring 1996, Novell plans to release a special NetWare Distributed Print Services software developer's kit (SDK) to ISVs interested in leveraging NDPS services. The NDPS SDK will be part of the Net2000 SDK, which will provide ISVs with universal access to all Novell services when building network applications. NDPS functionality will be available to customers in mid-1996 with the next release of NetWare. In the future, Novell's Extended Networks Division will leverage the final NDPS software and APIs to create a NEST development kit for printer manufacturers to embed NDPS technology in their products. ISVs interested in additional information should contact Novell DeveloperNet at 1 800 NETWARE.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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