1.3.1 Management of the Print System

A client can use this protocol to perform remote management operations on a print server. With server access credentials, client applications can manipulate the print server state and print server components, such as printer driver configuration and print queue configuration, or adding printer drivers and printers; they can monitor the print queue status; and they can perform general print server administration.

These operations are supported in the protocol by a set of container structures that are used by different print system components, specifically: DEVMODE_CONTAINER, DRIVER_CONTAINER, FORM_CONTAINER, JOB_CONTAINER, PORT_CONTAINER, SECURITY_CONTAINER, PRINTER_CONTAINER, and SPLCLIENT_CONTAINER. These print system components are supported as specified in [MS-RPRN] section 2.2.1.

To produce printed output that is the same, regardless of the configuration, the printer driver that is installed on the client computer must be identical to or compatible with the printer driver that is installed on the print server. This protocol provides the methods that the client can use after it connects to a printer on a print server to obtain the information about the printer driver that is associated with the printer. If necessary, the client computer can use this information to download the printer driver from the print server.

The client can also use this protocol to obtain detailed information about the settings of the printer and the printer driver that are installed on the server. The client application can use this information to perform layout and to make device-specific choices about paper formats, resolution, and color handling. After the client connects to a printer, this protocol provides the methods that the client can use to query these settings.

The following diagram illustrates this interaction using the scenario of adding a new printer:

Figure 1: Adding a new printer