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FORMagic/400 - General Form Merge Issues
FORMagic/400 and FORMagic/400 PDF are heavily dependent on a great deal of hardware and software provided by others. It should be obvious that our forms generation process is extremely complex as it must support and integrate:Fortunately, OS/400 itself and emulators are seldom an issue when device configurations are properly created; and we can generally resolve program modification issues quickly. However, we have little control over the remaining areas (A) and (B) where complex issues occasionally occur:
- forms designed in any product,
- PCL-compatible printers manufactured by numerous parties,
- emulators from numerous vendors,
- application modifications made by user programmers, and
- OS/400 which was designed to support forms on AFP printers, but not SCS printers which are the target environment for FORMagic/400 and FORMagic/400 PDF.
- The thousands of forms design products use numerous techniques to generate the datastreams our conversion process is dependent on. It is our goal to properly convert all such datastreams into overlays which can be used in FORMagic/400 and FORMagic/400 PDF, but this is quite a challenge. We receive few reports of improper conversions, and our conversion engine has a very high success rate, probably between 98 and 99.9%. We will respond to failures with diligence because our goal is to provide a 100% reliable process.
In the real world, however, it is far faster and preferable for everyone if the user will make slight modifications in the form to eliminate any objects which do not convert properly. This is because it is highly time-consuming to change our very complex conversion process, and we could easily break something else and end up lowering our overall success rate. For this reason, we do not change the process quickly or lightly, because it has withstood the "test of time", failures are quite rare, and the chance of fixing one issue without causing a new one is always present.
- HP owns and controls the PCL language. Unfortunately, all PCL-compatible printers are not fully compatible with HP's PCL functionality. This issue can be particularly vexing when an AS/400 with no Windows printer driver functionality is involved. Many of the printers in use with AS/400s today are not even specifically recognized by IBM. Using a printer type which is supposedly compatible with the one being used is not a guarantee of success. If a form works on one printer (especially if it is an HP) and fails on another, the problem could be related to:
We can help you look at (a) and (b). We cannot help much on (c), but sometimes we can point you in the right direction.
- the emulator,
- the AS/400 device description,
- the printer setup,
- the "PRN capture" process, or
- even a printer incompatibility issue.
For (d), our conversion process does nothing to make forms sensitive to any specific printer. Forms may, however, be sensitive to the printer driver originally used to capture the PRN file used for forms generation. Issues are rare, but they are fully discussed in section 2.5 of the FORMagic/400 User's Guide.
For (e), given the thousands of printers available today, all we can do is try to provide general information about the kinds of things that cause the issue you are having. There is no practical way for us to test our products with every printer available today. Ultimately, if we cannot help you resolve it, you will have to deal with the printer manufacturer directly, asking the question: "Why does it work with HP's printer, but not yours". Sometimes, we can help you capture a datastream that will be useful to the manufacturer in making this determination.