howto setup network printing cups - cups

Sorry to ask a very basic question, but I am completely lost with all this cups stuff, printing with linux used to be simple with lpd ...
What I would like to do:
I have several computers running different version of linux in my home-network.
On one machine (call it print-server) I have installed a driver with cups for a brother connected via LAN. This included downloading and installing the proprietary ppd-file etc.
Now on all other clients I just want to print via this print-server. And of course I don't want to go through the hassle of installing some ppd-files on every client - for me this abstraction is the main - if not only purpose of a print-server.
From what I understand, this is not possible with cups. Apparently cups requires me to install the 'driver' (ppd-file) on every client. And to make things worse this installation gets kicked out with virtually every update of centos.
Is my dream-world of printing really too simple or am I missing something?
Many thanks for any kind of help/advice
Wolfgang

Since you are using linux, the task should be easier. You just have to share the print queue on print-server, you can use cupsctl --share-printer. Since all other clients are connected to the server, the cups-browsed will be able to see the printer ( may require some changes in cups-browsed.conf file). It will automatically generate the ppd file and the printing should also work.

Related

Desktop programming language to connect to remote MySQL

A customer of mine asked me a better and faster solution to update it's real estate web site as he and his employees don't want to connect to the web site and update one by one the ads as they don't want to loose time waiting the normal latency of the internet.
I firstly solved the issue by building a PHP script that imported an Excel file into the web site's MySQL database and it worked greatly. But the problem were pictures that have still to be uploaded separately. I then wrote a PHP script that uploaded the pictures using ajax and drag&drop so the user could select multiple pictures and upload them at once. And this worked too, but the customer is still not completely satisfied as he says this solution is quite 'patched'.
I then thought about a desktop application - a kind of local database (could be SQLite) - that the user keeps updated locally and only at the end of the day the app connects to the remote server and updates the db and uploads the pictures.
My question is: what EASY desktop high level programming language I could use to do the job? Do you know any RAD (visual IDE) programming language able to connect to a remote mySQL server and upload data via a simple custom GUI?
I tried RealBasic and PureBasic but I did not work it out. I thought about building the app in PHP and then convert it to EXE but I did not tried yet.
Please don't suggest me Java, C or Delphy as I'm looking for something very easy.
Thank you
Have you considered a client side javascript/html app that syncs with the server, since you're already familiar with the platform? If one browser better supports what you want to do (Firefox has some extension perhaps vs Chrome, or whatever), than mandate that to run this app (rather than worrying about being portable across browsers).
All of the browsers can have client side storage now, and you can just do things locally, and finally push them to the server "all at once".
If your client is using a Windows platform, you could use IronPython (.NET), VB.NET, or C#. These all allow you to create windows/forms visually in Visual Studio. If you're not already familiar with the .NET platform I'm not sure how 'easy' this will be, but I think that's going to be true for most other platforms as well.
That being said, it sounds like your existing solution is probably the best idea - perhaps if you can make your solution feel less like a "patch" they will be satisfied.
No reason you can't use Purebasic if that's what you're comfortable with. There are HTTP file upload examples on the PB forums.
I've used Purebasic for years but I'd recommend spending the time to get to know C#/.NET - it's a world of difference and once you learn it stuff like this is pretty easy.

creating a basic database

Right now, in my internship, I'm assigned to create a system that holds employee information such as personal info, education, salary, etc.
All these stuff is kept in a few spreadsheets right now. I need a basic program, but I feel like I should be using MySQL or another database solution to hold the data. I used MySQL before, but it was a PHP/MySQL assignment which I used Wampserver to create the whole system.
Edit: The system will be used by a few computers across the network. When someone makes a change to the system, it will become visible to other computers aswell. (obviously) (Before the edit, I thought that it's gonna be used by a single computer.)
I'm confused right now. Should I create a PHP/MySQL webpage with wampserver (or similar) to hold the information, or not?
Would it be easier or better to combine MySQL with some other programming language (such as Java/C++) and build a GUI? (I doubt it)
Should I come up with a different solution? Without database usage?
Database usage would be the best option. In the end it will come down to what you are more comfortable using, Java/C++ or php, for what you want to do either can work, but remember the database will need to be live at all times and using wamp server wont cut it. You need to learn how to tun a mysql server without wamp, which is easy(Google is awesome). And personally I would have used Java because Java is also easy to link with mysql, just google it a bit, and java doesn't need to run on a server so no wamp needed as you would have needed for php.
EDIT:
Ok if I understand you correctly what you want to do is the following:
1. Identify a pc to be used as a server and assign it a static IP.
2. This must also be the pc that is turned on first every day and turned of last.
3. Create a front end client application that connects to your sql server that you will be running on the server machine.
Now I am assuming this network is rather small, so you wont need a specific computer to just act as server. The server can also be one of the client machines.
The best approach would be to create a mysql server and make sure the firewall is not blocking your sql server. Then create a client application that can access the database over the network using Java, I find this easier than creating a php server for the users because of port forwarding for an apache server is time consuming, I did it once and never again. Java will be easiest to make the application work over the network. Use Netbeans for the development, it's an awesome IDE and it makes life easier when setting up the database connection.
If you have anymore questions please ask in comment, and I will elaborate, since this might be a bit vague lol.
Of course you should use a database for this type of work. That is the best way to organize, search, sort and filter your data without having to reinvent the wheel.
As to the other questions, the choice of language and environment is up to you to decide after evaluating the needs of your application.
Your solution should use a database to store the data and an front-end application to manage the data.
The database and front-end should be seen as two separate layers. In other words create the database using whatever database your are familiar with eg: MySQL and likewise create the front-end using whatever technology youre familiar with eg: PHP.
Personally for this type of requirement i would typically use MySQL / SQLExpress and ASP.Net / MVC3 front-end.
Hope this is helpful.

Comparing RDBM's with a Java application

I am buiding an application in Java that connects to a variety of databases, MySQL, Oracle, Firebird and a few others. The user (me) can select a test for that connection (Not sure if I should predefine the tests or just allow a free form text box for the user to input a statement.)
The plan is to try the application(client) on a ubuntu, solaris and Windows 7 machine (I will infact be rebuilding a home computer several times).
On the server side I will be installing each RDBMS on a Windows, Ubuntu and Solaris Server.
The idea is I would like to collate some data on the RDBMS/Operating System client-side and server-side, times etc....
What I could use some help with is generating some informative tests. Ideally I would like them to mock a a real world enviroment. Seeing as I am using two-tier architecture and have no idea how I would go about implementing a buisness layer I would appreciate some thoughts on what kinds of tests I should run.
The application will be able to mock multiple users accessing the database so please be ruthless.
On a side note any thoughts on the scope... more o.s, rdbms suggestions would be great!
Kind regards
Simon
Assuming you aren't trying to write a whole benchmarking app yourself...
There are two tools that work well if it's a web app connecting to the database:
ab (apache bench) which is on every unix machine I've used in the past 4 years.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/programs/ab.html
And jmeter:
http://jmeter.apache.org/

Best way to update products

Some background:
We provide a complex system consisting of a large database and several programs - most written in C#, however some legacy applications are still running on MFC.
Most of the stuff we provide runs on a single server (runs SQL server and SQL Management studio 2005), however several applications can run on a number of client's computers. Updating this is a real pain, since after we update the database the outdated software is likely to break due to database changes. Updating the server software manually is one thing, however making sure all the client software works too is practically impossible, and will only get worse with time.
I am to write an updating service, which will be able to update the whole product - update the database, reinstall services and applications. (However only the programs / files /tables / etc that are actually modified should be updated. Downloading the whole product each time there is a update available is not an option. Also, some computers may only have a subset of avaliable programs installed)
First of all is there a already a good way of doing this? If there is something similar to ClickOnce that would also be able to update databases already out there I'd much rather use that.
If not, what are the best practices when it comes to updating? All and any material will be greatly appreciated.
I will need some updates to be installed on the server ASAP after the updates have been submitted, without any user input. That includes a windows service (that is running at all times) and any database changes. After these changes have been made, I will have to prevent any software that is not up to date from either accessing the parts that have been changed, or from running at all.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated - If I do have to write a system like that, I'd like to do it right.
Best practice would be to package the app up in an MSI and use Group Policy to push the updates out to each client.
If that's not possible then you need some way of informing the client app that it is out-of-date (simple check against a server holding the current version number would probably suffice) and refuse to work until an update patch is downloaded and installed - you could even launch this process from inside the app itself.
This answer may help you, I haven't personally used Wix but this seems to be along the lines of what you're looking for. Make sure to check out Lesson 4 in the linked tutorial, as this provides the details you would require.
I'm not sure where you would find best practices when it comes to updating, but in my personal opinion you shouldn't ever force a user to update unless it breaks the underlying application (like yours does). I would be very interested to hear if someone has a link to a list of best practices on this topic.
Edit
I was interested in possible best practices for updating so I started another question thread here. The general consensus in the answers is "Ask the user/client", but there may be some other details in the answers which may help you, I'm afraid I can't find any actual hard rules on the subject anywhere (which I was expecting).

How do you actually use Visual Studio Team System database projects to version Sql Server

How are you supposed to correctly use a Visual Studio Team System database project to implement version control on a sql server database?
This might seem overly generic but everything I've found so far online hasn't helped me in being able to achieve anything useful. I have managed to find functionality that appears to be similar to features that are in Redgate's tool Sql Compare but it definitely didn't seem as intuitive as their product.
From my understanding of how these db projects are supposed to work is that you're able to have a version of the database that either lives in Team Foundation Server (or inside the sql server itself) that you can check out to your local machine work on it and then check in the new changes which would allow for simultaneous development to work normally as it does for coding. Was I misinformed? Or is it just a complicated process to get setup?
Related is then how do you use it to deploy changes to the staging/production servers?
We don't use that, we simply script every thing and put it in source control like any other file and ALL deployments to prod are only through scripts pulled down from source control. I think the real key is that nothing gets put on prod except thorugh a source controlled script. Once the developer can't get his change to prod any other way (Devs should not have prod rights), there is no incentive to not put the change in source control.
Funny you should ask. I am the one responsible for getting our production databases under version control, and we're using Visual Studio Database Edition to do it. It is a fantastic tool. The very nice thing about this tool is that not only will it keep your schema under version control but it will validate your database schema as well and permit you to run code analysis against it. It also allows refactoring operations, and many other things.
Typically we work against a local development database, synch the changes back to VSDE, build the database to make sure there are no warnings or errors, and then create a deployment script for deployment to our production databases.
This is a simplified explanation of what and how we doing this, but I think it gives you a general idea of how it can be used. I'd be glad to answer any more specific questions you have.