History
RPM Remote Print Manager® was introduced in 1995, nearly the same time IBM started to offer native TCP/IP support on mainframes and the AS/400.
Since that humble beginning, we have added many capabilities to RPM (see below) specific to the platform. We have also added more FAQ articles for the platform than anything else on our site.
The ubiquitous AS/400 was renamed the iSeries, then System i, and currently IBM Power Systems. These marks are the property of IBM, of course.
Using your System i with RPM
To get you started with setup, here is the page that tells how to configure a remote OUTQ to work with RPM. Here is the PDF version of the same documentation.
We have also consolidated everything on our site for working with the AS/400.
Using SCS
SCS is a native format on System i. On many systems, you will find this to be the default document or report format.
RPM is able to use SCS directly as input with no host print transform required. In fact, we recommend you send SCS to RPM because we can do more with it than the System i can (natively).
Using simple configuration steps alone, RPM can do the following with your SCS:
- print to a Windows printer, formatting preserved
- process through COR (Computer Output Reduction) ... yes, "that" COR--RPM has a COR filter built-in
- translate to PCL and print to an HP-compatible printer
- convert to PDF (formatting preserved) and:
- archive to disk
- attach to an email
- send to a compatible printer (check your printer specs, some printers support PDF natively)
- convert to plain text and archive to disk
- convert to HTML and archive to disk
- convert to HTML and use as the body of an email message
The item "convert to plain text" is actually used by a number of vendors as part of their customer solution, for instance, AP Technology uses this with their secure check printing system. This is yet another way that RPM provides a bridge from enterprise systems to your Windows platform.
Using PCL
In some environments, our customers prefer to use PCL. In these cases, we recommend using HP4 output as RPM does a decent job of removing that from the incoming data stream.
If you are using simple PCL in this way, it's very easy to configure RPM to do any of the following:
- remove PCL and treat as plain text
- archive to disk
- convert PCL to PDF (using RPM Elite only)
Contact us
Please contact our technical sales to discuss your issues. They are the ones who brainstorm with customers, and so have access to the latest ideas our highly competent AS/400, or iSeries, or System i IT customers discuss with us.