Installing YSoft SafeQ Client 4.x and adding a printer on a macOS workstation

YSoft SafeQ Client 4.x for macOS is a dedicated application to take advantage of advanced YSoft SafeQ print features and provide further benefits of using YSoft SafeQ server print and accounting system. Its purpose is to submit your print jobs to the server, while collecting further information provided by the operating system or user input upon print. This client supports YSoft SafeQ 4, 5 and newer versions. 

Benefits of using client application

The main benefits of using the client are:

  • Additional user authentication directly in the client - client can ask the user for his credentials.

  • Billing codes selection possibilities - it is possible to specify the number of the project the print job should be accounted to.

  • Price estimation and VIP shared queues.

  • TLS1.2 encryption of data-in-transit

  • Connection failover to defined YSoft SafeQ servers (since version 4.15)

Requirements

  • Mac OS X 10.8 up to macOS 11, see details on "YSoft SafeQ Client features"

  • Uninstall older version of YSoft SafeQ Client 2.x prior installation of new version (see Uninstall chapter). YSoft SafeQ Client 4.x does not need to be uninstalled before installation.

  • This client supports YSoft SafeQ 4 and 5. YSoft SafeQ 6 is supported but system changes or extension is needed. For more details read the article "YSoft SafeQ 5 Client Support" from product documentation.

Limitations

  • YSoft SafeQ Client cannot be used with printer drivers with Bi-direction communication

    • Bi-direction communication can be disabled in driver's configuration

    • You can use native macOS (Mac OS X) drivers without Bi-direction communication

Installing YSoft SafeQ Client

1

Log in to the Mac workstation.
 

2

In the YSoft SafeQ installation package, locate the file YSoft SafeQ Client Mac OS X-4.x.x.dmg.
 

3

Run the installation utility YSoft Client Mac OS X-4.x.x.mpkg to install YSoft SafeQ Client.
 

4

You'll be prompted to logout at the end of installation.
 

 Adding a printer to YSoft SafeQ Client

To set SQPort support into your macOS system please follow these steps:

images/s/-3eliqb/8502/404359a7d2ab19c9c7c58d12013124a386b28257/_/images/icons/emoticons/lightbulb_on.svg NOTE: sqport:// option is available only in Advanced printing menu. This menu is hidden by default.

1

Go to System preferences > Print & Scanners and add new printer by clicking + button.

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2

Now you have to add Advanced button to the bar. Press Control + Click on empty space in toolbar of Add Printer window.

Select Customize Toolbar.

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3

Drag Advanced icon (gear wheel) to tool bar and drop it there.

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4

Go to added Advanced selection and set all necessary options, then click Add.

  • Type: select YSoft SafeQ connected network printer

  • URL: enter path like: sqport://<safeq_server_IP>/<queue>
    Example: sqport://10.0.5.194/secure

  • Name: enter device name

  • Print Using: choose drivers for printer

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Configuration of the client

1

Go to System preferences > YSoft SafeQ

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OR

open YSoft SafeQ Client application and select YSoft SafeQ Client > Preferences on top application panel

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2

Click lock icon to enable editing of configuration. You'll be prompted for administrator credentials in order to make changes in global configuration.

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3

Change values of configuration. Click the lock icon again to apply changes. Changes are stored immediately. It is not necessary to reboot or logout. New settings will be applied on print job.

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Configuration options

Option name

Description

Default value

Identification

Client identification method:

  • Username and password – authenticate by login and password

  • Username – authenticate by username

  • Owner – use Job owner for login - no pop-up prompting for user credentials

  • Text – use specified text for authentication - no pop-up prompting for user credentials

Username and password

Allow storing credentials

When selected: Client will offer checkbox to remeber credentials during user authentication

Selected

Encryption

When selected: Client will encrypt authentication information and job data by SSL.

When not selected: Client will send authentication information and job data without any encryption.

Selected

Validate certificates

When selected: Client will check validity of certificate chain agains system trust store. If certificate is invalid the printer will be paused.

Not selected

Web base YSoft SafeQ applications

When selected: Client will display window with YSoft SafeQ web applications after delivering job. YSoft SafeQ provides several applications: Selection of billing code, VIP shared queues or price estimation.

When not selected: Client just delivers job to YSoft SafeQ. User won't be prompted to select billing code, VIP shared queues or price estimation.

Selected

Print Roaming

When selected: Client will use print roaming algorithm to determine address of YSoft SafeQ server. More details in YSoft Mac OS Client 4.x - User Roaming

Not selected

Failover configuration

When configured: Client will connect to the next server(s) in case that first server is not available.

Use the following syntax: sqport://<safeq_server_IP>/<queue>#<primary_IP>|<failback_IP1>|<failback_IP2>

  • The first part (before # character) must be the same as sqport configured in printer URL: field - see Adding a printer to YSoft SafeQ Client section - Step 4

  • Primary and failback IP addresses (after # character) are delimited by | character.

Example with values:

  • printer was configured with sqport://10.0.5.194/secure

  • we have YSoft SafeQ servers with IPs 10.0.5.194 and 10.0.5.195

  • corresponding failover configuration:

sqport://10.0.5.194/secure#10.0.5.194|10.0.5.195

Not configured

Ignored control commands

Enter control commands that should be ignored.

  • Control commands can be found by opening "Console.app" application and filtering logs by "Received file with name:". Logs will also contain correct file name. Example of control commands are: "Supplies Levels", "Printer Status"

  • Adding control commands to this list will make sure that YSoft SafeQ Client will not be shown when printer tries to communicate with it through Bi-Directional communication.

Entering the user name and password in Client

The first time Client is used (or any time the stored password doesn't match a YSoft SafeQ user's password), the user must enter his/her user name and password.

User specify username and password. Click Print for sending job to YSoft SafeQ server. Click Cancel to cancel job delivery.

images/s/-3eliqb/8502/404359a7d2ab19c9c7c58d12013124a386b28257/_/images/icons/emoticons/lightbulb_on.svg NOTE: User can select Remember me check box in order to preserve credential information for next print.

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Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting see YSoft Mac OS Client 4.x - troubleshooting

Uninstalling Client

Open Terminal and start script by following command:

/Library/Application\ Support/YSoft/uninstall-safeq-client.sh

You'll maybe prompted for your mac password. Uninstall script is using sudo command.

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