Subject: IPP>PRO - Print by reference

From: Roger K Debry <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 14:07:28 -0400

As I stated in yesterday's telecon, Print by reference is a
requirement for Network computers that have limited local
storage. I suggested that we discuss this in more detail at
the protocol meeting being held at Sun in a couple of weeks,
and that we establish a set of assumptions on what the key
objectives are for Print by Reference.  From yesterday's
call it was clear that we each have a different view of what
Print by Reference is for.

I have what I think is a very straightforward requirement and
it does not require anything very complex in IPP. Furthermore,
I believe that this represents a major printing application within
the enterprise. Finally, I don't think that Print by Reference is
Web Printing, and we should probably distinguish the two.
Printing Web pages introduces more complexity and gets
into a number of issues that I agree with Randy on --
we probably don't want to deal with these in version 1.0
of the protocol.

My objective is to meet the following requirement.  An enterprise
chooses to keep libraries of technical reports, procedures
manuals, policies,  etc.  that are in printable format, e.g. as
Postscript files. They want to make these accessible to anyone
within their organization (no security requirements).  As an
employee I want to get a particular report and print it.  I'd like to
be able to use my web browser (or other GUI) to locate the
document and then issue a print request, pointing to the document
that I just found.  The printer gets the file and prints it.

This eliminates the need for me to download the file (In the
NC case, I might not have the local storage necessary to hold
the file to be printed).

This would be ideal in industries like insurance, where the home
office keeps the library of current policies, forms, contracts, etc.,
and when a branch wants to print a copy of something it just
points the print request to it.

The same could apply to publicly available documents (such
as Internet-Drafts) on the Internet. The two conditions required
are that the document be in a standard printable format and that
the document be publicaly available.

Roger K deBry
Senior Techncial Staff Member
Architecture and Technology
IBM Printing Systems
email: [email-masked]
phone: 1-303-924-4080

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From: "Scott Lawrence" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 15:34:21 -0400

>>>>> "RKD" == Roger K Debry <[email-masked]> writes:

RKD> They want to make these accessible to anyone
RKD> within their organization (no security requirements).
RKD> [...] The printer gets the file and prints it.

RKD> [...]
RKD> The two conditions required are that the document be in a
RKD> standard printable format and that the document be publicaly
RKD> available.

  It doesn't seem to me that the exemption from ordinary security is
  really required.  It is quite possible to give printers or print
  servers identities in order to support authentication and
  authorization functions; the document repository can then just
  decide whether or not a given document can be printed on the
  authority of a given printer (that is, the printer has access rights
  just as a user does).

  Granted, one would want to look at how secure the printer is before
  assigning it much access, but that is an issue for those using this
  model, not for the protocol.

  While I agree that the protocol should define the mechanism for the
  sort of print by reference you describe, I don't think that it
  should be a required part (that is it is a feature that may or may
  not be available from a conforming IPP server).

--
Scott Lawrence           EmWeb Embedded Server       <[email-masked]>
Agranat Systems, Inc.        Engineering            http://www.agranat.com/

---

From: Randy Turner <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 12:58:34 -0700

The kind of print-by-reference I would like to see would be where I
could send the printer a URL,
referencing a particular RFC;

        SendDocument: REF(http://ds.internic.org/pub/rfc/rfc1122.txt)

And that way I wouldn't have to suffer the time downloading the file
first to my machine, and then
PUSHing the document to the printer.

For this type of access, I don't think security is needed. For INTRAnet
printing, I pretty much agree
with Scott L. that it would be possible for printers to authenticate
themselves with a document
repository, because the domain of usage (departmental or company
divisional) would be small enough
to deal with.

Randy