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Setting Up the Network Printer Selection

Applies to: ✅ Microsoft Dynamics Business Central & b.print​

The Network Printer Selection is the heart of the solution, enabling you to select exactly for which users and for which reports, which printers are used and a lot more. This article provides guidance for IT administrators on how to configure a suitable Network Printer Selection for individual needs.

Prerequisites​

In order to follow through with the setup and test of the network printer selection, you need:

  1. A set up Business Central environment.
  2. The Client Setup has been installed to the necessary users clients.
  3. The necessary network printers are reachable from the users clients and visible within the Network Printers in Business Central.
  4. The b.print driver has been installed to a network printer.
  5. The b.print extension has been installed to the desired BC environment.
  6. All settings relevant to the Assisted Setup have been configured.

Defining a printer and report combination for a user​

In the following page, you can freely decide which User uses which printer for which report print and a lot more. This enables a very flexible controlling of what is printed in which way.

  1. Navigate to the Business Central Search

  2. Search for Network Printer Selection and open the page.

  3. Under User ID, select a user for the print configuration.

    [!IMPORTANT] Selecting a User is fully optional. Not selecting a user will result in everyone printing the respective report to trigger the b.print printing.

  4. Under Report ID, select a report ID for the User, defining for which report the configuration works.

  5. Under Printer Client, select a client for which the network printers are already connected in Business Central.

  6. Under Printer Name, define which printer will be used when the user prints the defined report.

  7. Under Stop Event Processing, choose the behavior of the system after printing via b.print. If the check mark is not set, downstream processes continue to be executed, which results in the preview of the document being displayed, among other things. If the checkmark is set, the system stops processing after printing via b.print. In some cases it is necessary (e.g. for customer-specific programming) for downstream processes to be executed. Normally, the box should be checked.

  8. Under **Confirmation Behavior, sekect the confirmation behavoir for printing via b.print. You can select between the following values:

    1. Show Always Confirmation -
    2. Always print - Always prints the document in the background via b.print without confirmation needed.
    3. Always no print - Never prints the document via b.print.
    4. Printer Selection

  9. Under Error Handling, define whether Errors, only Infos or nothing should be presented at all to the users while printing.

Congratulations! Now, when printing the selected report, b.print will be triggered and print the report on the selected printer.

Additional Printout Settings​

b.print can print more than once after a printing was triggered. In some cases the same document needs to be printed in more than one place, maybe even with different settings. Setting up the Additional Printout Settings provides exactly that ability.

  1. Navigate to the Business Central Search
  2. Search for Network Printer Selection and open the page.
  3. Navigate to a line for a User/Report/Printer combination of your choice.
  4. Click on the No under Add. Printout Settings.
  5. A page opens. In there, under PRinter Client, select a printer client to use for the second print.
  6. Under Printer Name, select a printer for the second print.
  7. Under Print preset, select a print preset to be used for the printing.

Other Settings for the Network Printer Selection​

Of course there are a lot of other settings to define here. Those will be specified in the following articles: