Configure the client

This topic covers:

How to configure the client

You can configure the behavior of the Print Deploy clients without having to redeploy the clients. You just need to update the configuration file using one of the following methods:

  • Modify the general config settings in the Print Deploy Admin interface Settings tab.

    1. In the Print Deploy Admin interface, click Settings.

    2. Refer to the configuration values further down this page and update the settings accordingly. The changes are applied immediately.

  • Modify the advanced config file on the server that's in [app-directory]/providers/print-deploy/[os]/data/config/client.conf.toml. During installation, the client.conf.toml file is created containing the default values as outlined below in Configuration keys. This method requires restarting the Print Deploy service for the new config values to be applied and visible in the Settings tab.

    NOTE

    While not necessary, we recommend that you apply your changes to the configuration file before you deploy the Print Deploy clients to your users’ computers. However, it's also perfectly valid to change the configuration after the clients have been deployed.

    1. Open the .toml file using your favorite text editor and modify the values accordingly.

    2. Save the file .

    3. Restart the Print Deploy Server service. The new config values are applied.

How the client picks up the configuration changes

The client retrieves this configuration from the server on a regular basis. The frequency of this depends on the values set for the configuration key PollingConfig, as described below in Configuration keys. By default, it's set to every 15 minutes (± 5 minutes), with some offset applied to ensure that not all clients call in at the same time.

You can force the client to pick up these changes anytime by right-clicking the Print Deploy client’s task tray icon and selecting View or Refresh my Printers.

Configuration keys

The table below shows the configuration keys and their descriptions.

Some of these keys are only available in newer versions of Print Deploy. Ensure that your version of Print Deploy is equal to or higher than the specified minimum version of the configuration key you wish to use or change.

By default, Print Deploy automatically updates itself to the newest version. If you need to update the Print Deploy server manually, see Manually update the Print Deploy server to the latest version.

Config key Description Possible values Default value Available in Settings tab
AccessibleHost

With AccessibleHost, we allow the admin to override the hostname or the IP address that's appended to the client and cloner filenames. This address will be used by the cloner to upload drivers and by the client to retrieve and install printers. If not specified or invalid, the default hostname/IP address of the Print Deploy is used.

Alternatively, if deploying via an MDM tool, you can specify SERVER_HOST as an installer flag during installation instead of relying on the filename. See Client installer flags.

Available since v1.3.

A valid IPv4 IP address or a hostname. Do not include the scheme and the port.

""

 Y
AccessibleMobilityPrintTLSPort

This is the port the client and the cloner connect to when communicating with a Mobility Print server.

Available since v1.5

A valid port address

9164

 N
AccessiblePrintDeployTLSPort

This is the port address of the service that forwards requests coming from the client to the Print Deploy server.

This will not change the port that the Print Deploy server will run on. Instead, this represents the client-facing port of the service that receives requests from the client and forwards them to the Print Deploy server. This is particularly useful if the Print Deploy server is behind a network load balancer or an SSL proxy.

This port is appended to the client and the cloner filename when they're being downloaded and is only used to determine the address of the Print Deploy server during installation.

Alternatively, if deploying via an MDM tool, you can specify SERVER_PORT as an installer flag during installation instead of relying on the filename. See Client installer flags.

Available since v1.5

A valid port address

9174

 N
AuthMethods

An array of authentication options that the user can use when UserIdentityMethod is set to PROMPT

For more information, see Set the method that Print Deploy uses to determine the user’s identity.

Available since v1.5.

["username", "google"]

["username"]

 Y
CustomTempDirectory

Some organizations may want to customize the location that the Print Deploy client uses for temporary files. This temporary directory is used to download drivers and other meta data. Users on client machines will need read and write access to this directory.

Values need to be escaped, for example "C:\\Temp"

As determined by the admin

""

 Y
OAuthSessionKey

A 32-character alpha-numeric string that is auto-generated when using PROMPT as the UserIdentityMethod with an OAuth-based login option.

If you have multiple Print Deploy servers behind a load balancer, it is important to use the same OAuthSessionKey across all your servers.

N/A

N/A

 N
PollingConfig

The polling frequency determines how often the Print Deploy client contacts the Application Server to check for new print queues.

For more information, see Change the polling time for Print Deploy

Available since v1.0.547.

See Change the polling time for Print Deploy

[PollingConfig]

IntervalSecs = 900

MinRandomOffsetSecs = -300

MaxRandomOffsetSecs = 300

 Y
SelfServiceHelpLink

This config key is used to specify an alternative url that users navigate to via clicking the Help button in the Print Deploy client.

Available since v1.3.

 Any valid URL Clicking the Help link launches the Use Print Deploy Help Center page Y
SetDefaultPrinterEnabled

If set to true, the Print Deploy client sets the default printer (default print queue) based on applied Zones settings. See Modify a print queue to be the default for the zone

If there are no printers (queues) specifically defined as default, the Print Deploy client will set the first Find-Me queue (or variation of, with spaces/hyphens in between) as the default printer (default print queue).

If there are no default queues defined, and no Find-Me queues assigned to the user, the Print Deploy client will not set any printer as the default.

If Windows is set up to manage the default printer for users, then the client honors the Windows setting. Ensure this is disabled on the user’s computer for default printer feature to work as expected.

Available since v1.3.

true

false

 true Y
SharedDeviceEnabled

If set to true, the Print Deploy client will attach the appropriate user identity to every job sent to a printer installed by Print Deploy on a per-user basis, instead of per-computer.

On versions prior to v1.2.1045, the client, by default, only tracked one user per computer. It was not catered for computers shared by more than one user.

If you are deploying Mobility Print queues to computers shared by multiple users, ensure that TCP port 9265 on the user's computer is available for use by Print Deploy. This port is used to proxy IPP traffic in able for the client to attach the correct user information to every print job. This is only attached in the loopback address of the user's computer.

Direct queues and server queues will also be tracked accordingly.

Available since v1.2.1045.

true

false

true

 N
StrictSSLCheckingEnabled

If set to true, all Print Deploy clients will first verify the SSL certificate of the server before it proceeds with the connection. This helps mitigate any man-in-the-middle attacks. The client will only connect to the server if its certificate is either trusted or CA-signed. If the server is using an untrusted self-signed certificate, the client will reject the connection.

If you wish to enable this, we recommend following the steps outlined in Enable SSL certificate checking

Available since v1.2.1070.

true

false

false

 N
UserIdentityMethod

The client uses this authentication method to determine the identity of the user who’s currently logged in.

For more information, see Set the method that Print Deploy uses to determine the user’s identity.

Available since v1.0.547.

AUTO

PROMPT

TRUST

 AUTO Y
UserNotificationsEnabled

If set to true, the Print Deploy client will send push notification to the user.

If set to false, the user notifications will be disabled. If this key is missing, it defaults to true.

Available since v1.3.

true

false

true

 Y

Client installer flags

While the above config keys can be configured at any time—be it before or after deploying the clients—there are keys that can only be configured during installation. These are supplied as MSI installer flags on Windows and as a .plist configuration file on macOS.

Flag/Config key Description Possible values Default value
SERVER_HOST (Required)

The hostname or IP address of the Print Deploy server that the client should be connecting to.

A valid IPv4 IP address or a hostname. Do not include the scheme and the port.

For example, if the Print Deploy server is running on https://10.100.1.1:9174, the value of this flag should be set to 10.100.1.1

 127.0.0.1
SERVER_PORT (Optional)

The port address of the service that forwards requests coming from the client to the Print Deploy server.

A valid port address

 9174
SKIP_DPM (Optional)

If set to true, the Print Deploy client will not install the Direct Print Monitor for tracking print jobs sent to Print Deploy-installed direct queues.

You may want to set this to false for several reasons. For more information, see Deploy print queues but not the monitoring tool.

true

false

 false
STRICT_SSL (Optional)

If set to true, the installation automatically sets the client configuration key StrictSSLCheckingEnabled to true. This forces strict SSL checking from the very first call of the client to the server.

By default, if this key is only set on the server’s client.conf.toml file, the client’s first call to the server to get the configuration will still succeed. To ensure all calls use strict SSL checking, set this flag to true during deployment or installation.

If you are setting this to true, remember to also set the config key StrictSSLCheckingEnabled on the Print Deploy server’s client.conf.toml file to true. Otherwise, this will be set back to false after the initial retrieval of configuration from the server.

true

false

 false