Technical overview: the process of archiving

Print Archiving and Scan Archiving involve three processes, which are described below.

Process 1: Archiving process

1. A user prints/scans a job from a network device / Multifunction Device (MFD) set up as an integrated scanner.
2. The print/scan job is sent to the server.
3. On the server, the print/scan job is intercepted and copied into the archive folder location.
   For printing
   This is usually the spool file containing the print data in a Page Description Language (PDL) such as PostScript, PCL, EMF, or XPS. The copy process is carried out while spooling takes place, with minimal impact on printing performance.
   If the spool file is in a PDL format known to the system, images of the printed pages are created.
   For scanning
   This is a copy of the scanned file, duplicated and saved to the archive folder location with any accompanying metadata files, XML/JSON.

Process 2: Archive access and preview process

1. The administrator logs in to the admin web interface.
2. In the Job Log, the way the archives are displayed depends on the job:
   For printing, the first page of the print job is displayed as a thumbnail or icon.
   For scanning (MF only), the archived scans and metadata are displayed as hyperlinks to download.
3. If the print job is in a supported PDL format, click the thumbnail to bring up a viewer. From there you can page through and view the document.
4. As you page through a document, further images are generated as required.

Process 3: Overnight management process

At the set system maintenance time overnight, the archive is inspected for any content older that the Keep jobs for up to: X days option set by the administrator. Any content that matches is permanently removed from the archive.