(v13) Scalable RIP test tool
This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; and to Harlequin Core but not Harlequin MultiRIP
The Scalable RIP test tool is an interactive command-based console application that can be used to test the Scalable RIP. It is supplied as buildable source code, so it also provides an example of how to use the libripfarm library for interfacing with the Scalable RIP.
When running a Scalable RIP that the Scalable RIP test tool will communicate with, the RIP must be persistent. The simplest way to do this is to specify the -rfin
option. If you wish to accept input from hotfolders the -H option can be used instead to specify the hotfolder names.
The Scalable RIP test tool command line is parsed as a series of space-separated words. Double or single quotation marks can be used to include spaces in a word. Quotation marks can be escaped with a backslash. Each word is terminated by a space or by a newline, so quoted words are joined together if not separated by a space (e.g.,
“This" "is" is parsed as the single word “This is”). The Scalable RIP test tool commands are:
farmstart
Spawn a Scalable RIP process (if configured), and send a Farm Start message to the Scalable RIP. If the global configuration file has a SpawnBeforeFarmStart
section, and inside that there is an Executable key-value pair, the Scalable RIP executable specified will be run. The global configuration is communicated to the Scalable RIP executable. The SpawnBeforeFarmStart
dictionary may also contain keys WorkingDirectory
and Arguments. The values of these are a string (for WorkingDirectory
), giving the current directory in which the Scalable RIP executable will be run, and an array of strings giving the arguments passed to the Scalable RIP executable.
farmstop
Send a Farm Stop message to the Scalable RIP. This will shut down the Scalable RIP.
jobstart <id> <jobname> [config] [overrideps] [<priority>]
Send a Job Start message to start a new job on the Scalable RIP. The job ID and job name are mandatory; all other arguments are optional. If an optional argument is specified, all of the arguments up to it must also be specified (and given empty or default values as necessary). The arguments are:
ID | A job number. This should be a non-negative integer. The Scalable RIP cannot have two jobs with the same job number running simultaneously. If the job ID is zero, the Scalable RIP will automatically choose a job number. The job number chosen will be communicated back to the integration API in the Job Starting callback. Note that if job numbers are explicitly chosen (not zero), and jobs submitted from other sources simultaneously (e.g., hot folder), then the job numbers may conflict and produce an error. |
jobname | The filename of the job. |
config | The configuration to be used to interpret the job. This will usually be a test config name in the SW/TestConfig directory. However, it may also be an absolute filename, or a PostScript qualified device name such as |
overrideps | The override PostScript used to specify page features, etc. This is optional; however, if the remaining arguments (priority and pages) are to be used, this should be the empty string "". |
priority | A number giving the priority of the job. This can be used to change the order in which the Scalable RIP processes page ranges from jobs. Higher priority numbers will be processed first. The default priority is 0. Priorities can be negative for low priority jobs. |
jobcancel
[<id>] Send a Job Cancel message to cancel the job number specified. Specifying <id> zero will cancel all jobs.
jobpause
[<id>] Send a Job Pause message to pause the job number specified. Specifying <id> zero will pause all jobs.
jobresume
[<id>] Send a Job Resume message to resume the job number specified. Specifying <id> zero will resume all paused jobs.
jobstatus
[<id>] Request and print status, job and progress information for the job number specified. Specifying <id> zero will get status for all jobs.
rasterconnect
[<name>] Open a raster connection to request and handle rasters. Multiple connections may be open at the same time. The optional <name> will be included in the raster status, showing which client is responsible for requesting and handling a job. A message will be returned giving a connection ID. This connection ID must be used in requests to deliver or handle pages.
rasterdisconnect [<connid>]
Close the raster connection identified. If a raster connection is closed before handling all rasters for a job, the job is made available for other clients to handle.
rasterstatus [<id>] [None|Delivered|Ready|Unready|All|Counts]
Request and print status of rasters for all matching jobs and page states. Specifying <id> zero requests information about all jobs (this is the default if no parameters are specified). Specifying a page state or combination of page states will return detailed information about the rasters in various states in the jobs matched. Regardless of the page state(s) specified, the page counts returned for any matching job (PagesHandled, PagesDelivered, PagesReady and PagesUnready
) will reflect the state of the whole job.
rasterrequest <connid>
<id> [<n>] Request delivery of the next <n> pages for job <id> (all pages, if <n> is zero). The pages will be delivered and printed asynchronously, when there are enough pages ready.
rastershandled <connid>
<id> [<n>] Indicates that the first <n> pages already delivered from job <id> have been handled, and that the raster manager can forget about them. The raster manager expects to receive a raster's handled call with zero pages to indicate the end of interest in any job for which it has stored rasters.
ripstatus
Request and print status and progress information for all RIPs.
bladestatus
Request and print the status for all blade controllers in the RIP Farm, indicating which RIPs are running, and their status.
bladeshutdown
<id> [--include-controller] [--force] Request that an identified blade controller is shut down. All Farm RIPs managed by the blade controller will be removed from the RIP Farm.
sleep <n> Wait for a specified number of milliseconds before accepting a new command. This is really only useful when scripting, to delay the next command until a job is running or has finished.
exit Exit the Scalable RIP test tool application. If running a script, this should be the last command in the script.
Press Enter to print the command summary and prompt again.