Q: Do you support drag and drop?
A: We support the drag and drop of jobs from one queue to another. This will move the job(s) from the original queue to another queue. You can also hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on the keyboard when dropping to make a copy of the job in the new queue and leave the original job in the first queue untouched.
We used to support drag and drop from Explorer, either single files or groups of files. You could select whatever files you wanted and drop them onto an RPM queue in the user interface.
Unfortunately, Microsoft "broke" this feature when User Account Control (UAC) was implemented by restricting the passing of events from an unelevated program to one that is elevated. There are several reasons why the RPM user interface must run "elevated".
Here is a partial list of things the RPM user interface needs to do as an elevated process:
- Edit the diagnostic log settings
- Do database maintenance
- Configure the RPM database path and other global values
- The system tray icon starts and stops the RPM service
We receive numerous requests for these kinds of features, and relatively few for drag and drop. The passing of events from one elevated program to another is also restricted, so the solution is not just a simple matter of elevating both programs.
Partial solution
We provide a command line LPR print client program called "pylpr." Its arguments are compatible with the Microsoft "lpr" program. Besides, it has some useful features such as the ability to send any number of files on the command line, as opposed to one file at a time, which is a limitation for the Microsoft program.
Also, we don't require you to install anything from Microsoft to use pylpr, like you would if you installed their program.
One useful difference is that the Microsoft program limits the number of files you can send to 11 over several minutes. While there exists a Registry hack to relax this issue, pylpr has no such restriction. I often send 60K files at a time into RPM using pylpr.
If you ever run into limitations in your batch processing where you call the lpr program, and it fails to send your file, because you have sent "too many" recently, consider switching to pylpr and save yourself the troubleshooting time.
Hot folders
An alternative solution is to use our hot folders (or watch folders) module called Queue Folders.
Queue Folders will monitor disk folders on your system and associate a folder with an RPM queue. When new files appear in the folder, Queue Folders sends them to RPM.
You would simply then drag files into the folder with Windows Explorer. RPM will automatically process the files in that queue.