[cups.development] [RFE] STR #1440: admin/?op=config-printer should query printer for initial defaults

[Chapman Flack]

[STR New]

If a bidirectional link is available to the printer being configured,
config-printer should use the query snippets defined in the PPD to
get the initial values for this form. This is especially important
for those values that are determined by the hardware, when they might
differ from the defaults in the distributed PPD. Aunt Tillie should
not have to look at a form that pops up with the wrong values for
the firmware feature set, installed RAM, or number of paper trays in
her printer, and change them to the correct values. I'm not Aunt Tillie
and it even surprised me. :)

But it's important for the other defaults too. If Tillie went to the
trouble of setting some defaults by the printer's front panel before
adding it in CUPS, she's gonna be irked when CUPS reverts to the
defaults from the distributed PPD.

Design issue: this could be done semi-automatically when adding the
printer, OR could be implemented as a [Get Settings from Printer]
button on the config-printer form. The button would allow you easily
(say, after upgrading the printer) to just go back to the config form
and click [Get Settings from Printer] again.

Obviously the button should be grayed if the PPD contains no query
snippets. If there are query snippets but the printer URI uses a
method that precludes querying, maybe a dialog could come up asking
for an alternate printer connection. For example, I might choose
to add the printer via LPD, but when I click Get Settings the dialog
might offer the option to use AppSocket for the queries.

The op=add-printer wizard should really not just say "Printer foo has
been added successfully." It should proceed to the config-printer form
with a note to make sure the configured values are correct for the
printer (either using [Get Settings] or looking them up in the printer
book, if the printer isn't queriable).  Because the add wizard did
not mention that, my first inkling that the settings were wrong were
when I ran a normal user client to print something and it showed me
the wrong set of features available on the printer.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L1440
Version:  -feature