Default printers

A default printer answers one question: where does this come out? It is answered per packing station, per operator, per warehouse, or for any combination of the three, and it is the only way to have two benches share one A4 printer in the corridor while each keeps its own label printer.

Stockly → Operations → Printing → Default printers.

Without a single row the module still prints: it falls through to the device standing at the operator’s bench, and finally to the only active device in the shop. A row is added when that answer is not the required one.

Columns: Applies to, Warehouse, Stock type, Printer.

Conditions

Add default opens New default printer. The conditions work exactly as they do for printing rules: Packing station, Operator and Warehouse, each optional, each empty one meaning any, and the ones that are filled in all have to hold. A row with nothing filled in applies Everywhere; a row leaving the warehouse open shows Every warehouse.

Which row wins

The most specific one that fits. When several match, the module weighs them:

a bench beats an operator, and an operator beats a warehouse, because the bench stays put while the person walks, so the device next to them is the better answer. A row naming both an operator and a bench beats either of those conditions on its own.

Caution

A tie is not resolved by row order. Two equally specific rows that both fit produce no answer at all: the job stops in the queue as No printer assigned instead of printing on one of them. That appears to be a fault but is not: the module is asking which of the two applies.

Stock type

Which kind of job the row answers for. A row naming A4 does not answer for label jobs, so one station can hold a different default for each.

Note

The device’s own stock type is not checked a second time here. A row is an explicit statement of intent, and overriding it would make a deliberate setup unprintable for a reason not visible from the queue. What is still checked is whether the device can understand the data at all, which concerns the format rather than the intent.

The full order

The queue works down this list and stops at the first answer:

1. a printer named on the job itself — but only if it takes this kind of data and carries the right stock; otherwise the job waits rather than wasting a sheet;
2. the default printers — the most specific matching row, as above;
3. the printer at the operator’s packing station;
4. the operator’s own printer;
5. the only active device in the shop that carries the right stock.

Past that there is nothing but guesswork, so the job waits in the queue as a visible question.

Deleting a row

Work in that scope falls back to the next step of the list above. Nothing already queued changes.

Next steps

• Printers — the devices these rows point at.
• Stock types — what makes an A4 row and a label row different answers.
• Automatic printing — the rules that lean on these defaults.
• Print queue — where an unanswered question ends up.