PyKota : The print quota and accounting software

Jérôme Alet

Conseil Internet & Logiciels Libres

Long term goals

Be the most versatile software of its kind

Become the Market Leader for *nix like systems

Support all printing systems

Support all databases

Clients' needs

Reduce costs : ink, paper, hardware...

Control and optionally limit print usage

Charge for printing

Optimize the deployment of printers

Integrate transparently into global information system

Minimize users' complaints

Answering the needs

Supports CUPS and LPRng

Supports the vast majority of entreprise printers through hardware and software accounting

Entirely configurable, accepts plugins at every « strategic » point

Integrates transparently with existing LDAP directories

Supports RDBMS for very large sites

Command line interface

Manage thousands of users with a single command

Wild characters (* and ?)

Delegation of priviledges : user commands vs admin commands

Online help with examples (--help or manpages)

Powerful data dumper : combined filters, output formats++, database independance

Web based interface

Print quota reports

Print quote generator : know in advance how much printing will cost to you !

Delegation of priviledges through web server's authentication modules

Powerful data dumper (again !) : combined filters, output formats++, database independance

Hardware Accounting

Printer asked for its internal page counter through :

SNMP

PJL

AppleTalk

Or... Any command of your choice !

Users can't cheat the system

No problem with paper jams => No complaints from overcharged users

Software Accounting

Print job parsed to compute # of pages :

Internal parser :

PostScript (both DSC and Binary)

PCLXL, PCL3/4/5

PDF

ESC/P2

DVI

TIFF

OpenOffice.org Writer and Impress

Or any command of your choice !

Costs

Free Software, GNU GPL licensed

Available through Subversion for no fee

Basic 25 € fee for yearly subscription to « Official » packages : tarballs, Debian... « Official » packages are GPLed too !

Commercially supported by Author :

On site or remote installations (100 €/hour)

Support Contracts with guaranteed response time :

(100*NbPrintServers + 2.5*NbPrinters + 0.04*NbUsers €/year)

Strengths

Already the most versatile Print Quota solution for *nix and possibly all systems

i18n : en, fr, de, es, it, br, pt, sv...

LDAP or RDBMS

Hardware accounting : no problems with paper jams

Software accounting : not limited to PS

Strong technical support : Mailing Lists, IRC, email, dedicated website...

Weaknesses

No web-based quota manager yet

Basic reports => For complex reports use OpenOffice.org with ODBC driver or the data dumper

Incomplete documentation and i18n

Complex setup : dependencies++

2004-06-13T23:04:12