PaperCut 8.3 (Build 5959)

New features:

  • New set of “Environmental Impact” reports summarizing the impact of user printing.
  • Users with access to “Shared Account” can now view balances under their end-user web login.
  • Administrators can set a custom message that displays on login screen.
  • Native support for IPv6 networks (Yes! We have some University customers that have made the move.).
  • New report options allow reports to be run over ranges defined down to the second.
  • Added search to the online help documentation.

Performance and Scalability:

This release includes significant performance and scalability improvements, particularly for sites with a large number of users:

  • Significantly reduced the memory required to import a large number of users. It is now possible to import hundreds of thousands of users on a machine with limited memory.
  • Optimized adding new users on demand (i.e. when a user first prints). PaperCut would previously use too much memory and CPU resources when adding a new user on systems with thousands of users.
  • Reworked the database locking code resulting in improved performance under very high load.
  • Large speed improvements and reduced CPU usage (up to 1000% on large networks) when retrieving a large number of users from Active Directory.
  • Improved speed of admin login and display of the user list screen.
  • New SQL Server driver configuration that removes Unicode overhead and allows more effective use of indexes.
  • Large speed improvements when performing initial user import on a SQL Server database. The import process was modified to allow SQL Server to dynamically create index statistics, resulting in improved import speed.
  • Optimized “Bulk User Actions” when adjusting/setting user balances which improves performance by 30%.
  • Optimized the “batch-import-user-card-id-numbers” server-command to improve performance when updating large batches of users.
  • Reduced the thread priority of report generation. This ensures that running large reports do not impact on other parts of the system.

Enhancements:

  • Improved reliability of print popup notifications and message delivery to the user client on systems with multiple network interfaces and IP addresses (multi-homed systems).
  • New paper size filter option added to the print logs screen.
  • Option to copy printer color detection settings between printers.
  • Added a new “noquit” command-line and config file option that prevents users closing/quitting the client.
  • Improved audit logging records actions such as when:
    • TopUp/Prepaid card batches are deleted or expired.
    • Configuration settings are changed using the “Config Editor”.
  • Added more filters to the user list screen and reports (e.g. min/max balance, restriction, office, department and notes).
  • Added short-cut keys to the software Release Station which provides improved accessibility to vision impaired users.
  • Intelligently shorten the printer names in the printer usage charts so that long printer names are not truncated.
  • Added improved support for creating TopUp/Prepaid card with Office 2007.
  • Increased the bulk user import file size limit to 100MB, to allow for large imports.
  • Added an option to always use the “Global email suffix”, even when the user record already has an email address defined.
  • Net Control: Improved algorithm for checking if sites are in the ignored domains list. Some customers populated the ignored domains list with 50,000+ hosts and this caused the Internet Control service to run at 100% CPU. The new algorithm can handle this number of hosts with minimal CPU usage.
  • Additional information is displayed in the user client task tray tool tip.
  • Upgraded to the latest version of the internal Apache Derby database. This release improves performance on multi-processor systems and provides improved reliability.
  • Running “db-tools init-db -f” when using the internal database will backup and re-create the database from scratch.
  • Various documentation improvements including more sections to assist administrators with producing their own handouts to educate users about Topup/Prepaid cards, print refunds and using release stations.
  • Updated translations for Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Czech, and Swedish.

Fixes:

  • Improved the display of the user client balance window when the display is configured for “Large Fonts (120 dpi)” on Windows.
  • We have seen a number of cases of duplicate users/printers appearing in the databases. We have made a number of changes to prevent this from occurring. If duplicate users are detected they are handled gracefully and automatically removed.
  • The user client balance window is displayed when the user can select “Shared Accounts” but printing costs are deducted from their personal balance.
  • Fixed problem normalizing usernames that come from external systems like Novell print queues.
  • Fixed error that could occur drawing the user’s balance history graph in some circumstances.
  • Mac: Fixed auto-restart of the user client on OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
  • When the license expires administrators can now access the “Options” section so they can perform limited administration tasks (e.g. backups, reduce user counts, etc).
  • Improved how TopUp/Prepaid card numbers are generated to ensure no “bad” words can be produced.
  • Improved sorting of groups displayed from an external source (like Active Directory). This makes it easier to find groups when there are thousands in the list.
  • When “Print All” is selected in the release station, no jobs will print unless the user has credit for all jobs.
  • Improved compatibility with Opera web browser.
  • Linux: Improved reliability of installation of CUPS integration components.
  • Net Control: Improved Microsoft ISA log processing for SSL/HTTPS traffic. Previously SSL/HTTPS downloads would be charged even if the site was in the “ignored hosts” list.
  • Improved reliability of importing ChargeBack 6.x and earlier account databases.

Printer compatibility improvements:

  • Improved color detection for HP Business Inkjet 1200.
  • Added Apple Mac support for the EPSON Stylus Pro 4880C (and other drivers using the CUPS raster format).
  • Fixed standard mode color detection for the HP Designjet T610.
  • Improved support for the Apple Mac Gutenprint drivers.
  • Improved page size detection for the Xerox Workcentre M24 Postscript drivers for Mac.
  • Improved page count detection for Canon LBP5900 LIPSLX driver.
  • Improved page count detection reported with recent Xerox Phaser 7400DN Postscript drivers when printing from Adobe applications.
PaperCut 8.2 (Build 5777)
April 3, 2008
PaperCut 8.4 (Build 6244)
August 7, 2008