The locations module

Locations contains information about locations where terminals and printers reside. A location can be a room, a floor, a house or some other type of geographical delimitation.

Every terminal should be assigned as a member of a location. In addition to terminals, printers may also be assigned to locations.

Locations

To edit a location, click on its name in the list. To add a new location to the list you press the Add new location button. This will bring up an empty location edit pop-up. See Fig. 28 for an example.

Fig. 28 New location pop-up

Fill the Name and Description fields with relevant information. Enable the switch if this location is to be used as a default location for unknown terminals when using the printer access control feature (see Printer access control for details).

To save changes, press the Save button. When you have pressed the Save button you will see that the Name field will change from being an editable field to become a static text label. To assure data integrity between the modules you aren’t allowed to change the name of an item after it’s added.

The Delete button deletes the currently viewed location, but only if the confirmation checkbox is also checked. The Add printer button will add a new field to the pop-up, a drop-down menu with all possible printers. An example of this can be seen in Fig. 29.

Fig. 29 Location details with printer

The Printer field above has the printer MX-2700N selected. Remember to save the changes if you change printer! You can assign more printers to this location by clicking Add printer again to bring up another printer line. To remove a printer you select the Delete checkbox corresponding to the printer(s) you want to delete, and click Save to apply the changes. The printer(s) will disappear.

Note

Printers contains entries for all available printers. These entries are just shadows of the real CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) printer system entries. This means that you first need the printers to be installed in the CUPS printer system and then added to this list.

Terminals

Terminals contains necessary information about all terminals. The most important information here is every terminal’s interface hardware (MAC) address.

Each terminal should be entered as described in this section. Enter the terminals module by clicking on the menu item. You will be presented with a list of currently entered terminals. This could be something like the example in Fig. 30.

Fig. 30 Terminals

Fig. 30 shows a system with a total of two terminals.

To edit a terminal, click on its name in the list. To add a new terminal to the list you press the Add new terminal button. This will bring up an empty terminal edit pop-up. See Fig. 31 for an example.

Fig. 31 New terminal pop-up

There are three editable fields in this view, Terminal name, Hardware (MAC) address and Location. They are described in Terminal properties below.

To save changes, press the Save button. When you have pressed the Save button you will see that the Hardware (MAC) address field will change from being an editable field to become a static text label. To assure data integrity between the modules you aren’t allowed to change this field after it’s added.

When a new terminal is requested or when clicking an existing one in the terminals list, there will be three buttons in the pop-up. The Save button is used to save changes made to the terminal. The Delete button deletes the currently viewed terminal. The Add printer button will add a new printer field to the pop-up.

Table 3 Terminal properties

Name	Description
Terminal name	Name of the terminal. For example the terminal’s DNS name or a name following a naming scheme that identifies the terminal.
Hardware (MAC) address	Hardware (MAC) address of the main interface of the terminal. This field is important! Without a correct value the nearest printer won’t work!
Location	Which of the locations, entered in the Locations module, this terminal belongs to.

It is also possible to add a printer to a terminal in the terminal module. This can be used if a terminal has its own printer or is closer to another printer than the ones assigned to this terminal’s location. You should use this feature moderately since it may cause more administration.

To add a printer you do exactly as in the Locations menu. Click the Add printer button, select the printer in the drop-down menu and then press Save to make sure that the settings are stored. To delete it, check the relevant Delete checkbox(es) for the printer(s) you wish to remove, and click Save.