Printers Snapin INF File Select Feature
-
Hi all!
So I have been recently rebuilding my FOG server and thought of a feature that would be very handy to have. Is there any way we could have an option, in Snapins, to locate and select the inf file locally, like you can select the snapin file in the snapin addon? That would be super helpful.
I appreciate all you do!
Thanks!
Joe
-
@Joe-Gill Can you please explain in more detail what you mean? You seem to mixup printers and snapins here and I am not sure I get what you mean.
-
I can understand that. What I mean is that in the printer feature where you enter in the location of the inf file it would be helpful if you could locate and upload the file in the same manner as you do a snappin. Hopefully that makes more since now.
-
@Joe-Gill Ahh, now I see what you mean. Without having actually looked into the code I am fairly sure this would take some major work to be implemented as it means that we need a way of transfer the INF file from the FOG server to the client. Not impossible but it’s something we have not implemented within the printer module yet.
As we don’t have much people working on the fog-client code right now I can’t say for sure if and when we’d be able to add that. Maybe you are keen to get into this as well and give it a go?!
-
My thought was to keep it simple. The INF file would remain on the server as it is currently with the printer module. The main goal with my idea is to make creating printers quicker and easier.
With the current setup you have to create a share directory on the FOG server (eg. SAMBA share) or locate an anonymously shared directory on an existing MS server where your inf files are located. Installing and setting up the SAMBA share is fairly straightforward. Getting the permissions correct the first time can be slightly challenging for some people. Why not incorporate the existing images directory share (as we do with snapins)? Have the very same upload option available when you upload INF files (the same as it is currently available for snapins). The upload feature would place the inf file in it’s own directory in the images directory.
It may be more code than it’s worth. I figured we could utilize the same code that is currently being used with the snapin feature (with a few mods). But I’m a novice coder.
-
@Joe-Gill As I review the topics I have on my watch/todo list I came across this thread. Doesn’t seem like we will find the time to add this feature an time soon as just not enough people help to work on FOG. Any chance you or one of your colleagues can join in and work on this?
-
I’d love to help out where I can. I’m not really a Windows guy. I’m more of a UNIX / Linux guy stuck in a Windows world. But I can certainly test things in my lab. I have a couple labs that get used very little that would offer a good test bed for features in the field.
Let me know what types of things you all need help with and I’ll see where my skillset works best.
-
@Joe-Gill said in Printers Snapin INF File Select Feature:
I’m not really a Windows guy. I’m more of a UNIX / Linux guy stuck in a Windows world.
Haha, same here!! Though I didn’t grow up with UNIX I am using Linux since more than 15 years now. Somehow I got drawn into this project as I love to solve those riddles that people come up with and even started programming .Net and picking up PHP again as well. It’s not that I had all the skills before but just grew into it.
Thanks for your quick response. It’s good to know you are around and keen to test things as we go. I will call you on that.
-
Sounds great! Like I said, let me know what you all are working on and I’ll do my best. I do have some background in programming but it’s been a bit. I am trying to pick up Python and do a little teaching here at our district.
I worked in UNIX for a couple years at one of my first computer jobs. They hired me because I liked tinkering in Linux. I’ve used Linux since the first iterations of Redhat.
The FOG project does draw you in. It’s a great thing. Some of us can’t afford to throw cash at it but certainly am willing to donate time.So keep me posted! Thanks!