Print Center 4.11 Release Notes

Pharos Print Center updates are cumulative. Print Center 4.11 includes the previously released Print Center 4.8 and various new features and enhancements.

Print Center 4.11 New Features

Summary of new features in Print Center 4.11

  • Support for Chrome Printing
  • New email protocols supported.
  • New Touchless Printing (QR Code Release)
  • New Chrome Print tab
  • Status Check for the IPP Service
  • Office 365 OAuth support for MobilePrint
  • Support for Guest logon when SSO is enabled. This requires Pharos Administrator 9.1.9700.604 or later.
  • Ability to show or hide the Cost column in the Job List tab.
  • Addressed an issue in handling the Access Times values based on the user's user group.
  • Keyboard accessibility improvements

Support for Chrome Printing

In late 2019, Google announced that it will no longer support its cloud-based printing service, Google Cloud Print (GCP) from December 31, 2020. Print Center 4.11 includes the new Pharos Chrome Print to replace the Google Cloud Print solution introduced in Uniprint 9.1.

Key features of the Pharos Chrome Print:

  • It allows users to print from Chromebook or Chrome browser (on Windows, Linux, and )
  • No print drivers or software applications required on users’ machines
  • Documents sent via the Pharos Chrome Print are controlled just like standard Uniprint jobs

Pharos Chrome Print requires the following:

  • Uniprint 9.1 SP3
  • Print Center v4.11
  • MobilePrint 2.3 or later
  • Pharos IPP Service

If you are using Google Cloud Print(GCP) now, you will be able to transition to Pharos Chrome Print anytime between SP3 release and December 2020, when Google shuts GCP off. Installing and setting up SP3 and Pharos Chrome Print do not interfere with your existing GCP solution, so you can make a transition plan that meets your needs. In December, when GCP support ends, all you need to do is to disable the Pharos Google Cloud Print Service.

For more information, refer to the Technote Pharos Chrome Print document.

New Email Protocols Supported

Added support for the following email authentication systems in addition to IMAP.

  • Google Gmail (Gmail API)
  • Microsoft Exchange (EWS)
  • POP3
  • Office 365(OAuth)

Gmail API, EWS, and POP3 require MobilePrint 2.4 or later and Print Center v4.8.6 or later. Office 365(OAuth) requires MobilePrint 2.4.1 and Print Center 4.11.7.

A new setting called Account type has been added to the MobilePrint > Email Server Settings menu. This is where you specify which email system to use.

Starting with Print Center 4.11.7, the Print Center allows configuration of Office 365 OAuth settings, available in MobilePrint 2.4.1 or later.

The Office 365 (OAuth) account type in MobilePrint uses the Microsoft Graph API to list, read, and delete emails. To integrate with Graph API, you will need to register an app (that represents MobilePrint) to Azure AD and declare the required permissions.

Refer to the Technote Configuring MobilePrint with Office 365(OAuth) document in the Pharos Community for information on how to prepare your site for Office 365 integration. After following the instructions in the document, you will be able to gather the Application ID, Tenant ID, and Client Secret required to configure MobilePrint.

New Touchless Printing (QR Code Release)

Uniprint 9.1 SP3 adds the new Touchless QR Code Release feature. Touchless Printing via QR Code Release is simple and fast: users simply walk up to a printer and use the Pharos Print app (iOS and Android) to scan a QR code affixed to the printer. Users can manage the print jobs in their queue and confirm or change job details right from their mobile device—without ever making contact with the printer interface.

The QR code scanner can be found on the upper right-hand side of the mobile app. If the Pharos Print App is not installed, scan the QR Code from the camera app, this will launch the Pharos Print Center via a web browser. After login, the user can release jobs in the same manner as with the Pharos Print App.

New QR Codes tab in Print Center

Print Center includes a new QR Codes section under the Secure tab that allows site administrators to generate and download QR codes to attach to printers.

For information on how to generate and download QR Codes, refer to the QR Codes topic.

Removes support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE11)

Print Center removes support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE11). We recommend you use any of the supported browsers (e.g. Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox).

Support for Guest logon when SSO is enabled

With Pharos Print Center 4.11.7, the Print Center application allows guest users to log on to the Print Center application when SSO authentication is enabled. Guests log on using a separate direct link URL: https://servername/myprintcenter#login. Other user roles can also be given permission to use this direct link instead of logging on via SSO.

Guest logon related settings are configured in the Pharos Administrator (System > System Settings context). This requires Pharos Administrator 9.1.9700.604 or later.

Refer to the Technote Configuring Uniprint with SSO document in the Pharos Community for information on how to allow guest logons with SSO.

Ability to hide or show the Cost column

A new setting called Hide Cost in Job List has been added to the Theme > Visibility tab in Print Center. This setting allows you to show or hide the Cost column in the Job List tab.

Other fixes and improvements

  • Addressed an issue in handling the Access Times values based on the user's user group.
  • Keyboard accessibility improvements. The User facing pages of the Print Center application have been updated to support Keyboard accessibility.

Installing Print Center 4.11

You can upgrade your existing Print Center installation to version 4.11 by installing Service Pack 3. Service Pack 3 consists of consolidated package updates available as a single download. Applying Service Pack 3 brings your Print Center version to 4.11.

For information on how to install the Service Pack, please refer to the Uniprint 9.1 Service Pack 3 Release Notes document.

After installing the Service Pack, check the Installed section to verify that you are running Print Center API and Web Services (4.11).

Updating Print Center on an Application Request Routing (ARR) Setup

When Print Center is deployed using the Microsoft Application Request Routing (ARR) feature of IIS, updating your Print Center consists of two steps:

  • Updating all the Pharos Print Server machines with Print Center 4.11 by installing SP3 on top of Uniprint 9.1 via the Updater Service.
  • Updating the Print Center Web application on the machine where ARR is set up.

Updating Pharos Print Servers to Print Center 4.11

To update Pharos Print Servers with the latest Print Center, download and install Service Pack 3. For information on how to install the Service Pack, please refer to the SP3 Release Notes.

Scroll down to the Installed Packages section and look for Print Center API and Web Services. The version should show 4.11.

Updating Print Center on the ARR Setup

After the Print Center Service is updated and running on all Print Server machines, follow these steps to update the Print Center Web application on the machine with ARR setup.

  1. Log on to any of Pharos Print Server machine that has the 4.11 Print Center Service, and then navigate to the install directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Pharos\Bin).
  2. Copy the PharosPrintCenterSetup.msi installer to your shared network folder.
  3. On the machine with the ARR setup, copy the new PharosPrintCenterSetup.msi to the install path \Pharos\bin directory. This will overwrite the existing Print Center installer.
  4. Execute the installer by double-clicking the PharosPrintCenterSetup.msi file. Follow the on-screen instructions to install Print Center 4.11. Make sure to select the Print Center Web component only, leaving the Print Center Services deselected.

Print Center 4.11 Limitations

  • Grid view to filter Job List and Activity List is not available on mobile devices.
  • Custom links are not available on the mobile version of the Print Center.
  • The following administration screens are not available on mobile devices. Administrators need to run the desktop version of the Print Center to use these screens.
    • Reports
    • Theme
    • Admin
    • Custom Charges
    • MobilePrint
  • Limitations of the Admin feature.
    • Multi-selection of items on the Job List and Activity List is not supported
    • Moving jobs between Queues
  • The Guest Accounts feature is not available on Pharos Android and iOS apps.
  • The following features are not supported on Pharos Print App on iOS
    • Page range printing
    • Print Center customization

Known issues

  • Changing the web browser’s setting (e.g. changing the font size) may cause rendering issues. It’s best to leave the default browser settings.
  • When changing from Credit Card Gateway license to a non-Credit Card Gateway license or vice versa, restarting the License Service will not apply the new license information as expected. You must issue a Change Control (found in the Actions pane of any context) in Pharos Administrator for the new license information to take effect.
  • Print Center installation may fail due to a pending reboot.
  • Before applying 9.1 SP3, make sure that there is no pending reboot from previous update (e.g. Security update, Windows update). A pending system restart can cause your Print Center installation to fail when applying 9.1 SP3. We highly recommend checking your machines for pending reboots and restarting your machines (if required) before applying 9.1 SP3.
  • If you’ve already applied 9.1 SP3 and your Print Center installation failed due to a pending reboot, you can resolve the issue by restarting your machine and then re-applying the Service Pack.
  • If the Print Center installed successfully but the MyPrintCenter page does not load and you encounter the message “The Pharos API service is temporarily offline for maintenance. Please try again later.” Renaming the app_offline to _app_offline will resolve the issue. You can find this file in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\PharosAPI folder of the machine where the Pharos API is installed.
  • The Chrome Print tab in the Print Center was updated in version 4.11.3 to include the Service Status button. This button is used to check the status of the IPP Service. If you run the status check in a Chrome-based browser (i.e. Chrome or new Edge) on the same machine as the Pharos API/IPP Server and the server is significantly under-resourced, the status check fails. The Pharos API/IPP is not usable when this happens. If you come across this issue, you will need to run the service status check on another machine (i.e. launch the Print Center on a machine other than the API/IPP server and then run the service status check).