Searching for Specific Printers in a Domain

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Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide

In addition to enumerating all the printers in a domain, you can search for specific printers. To do this, you simply search for printers that have one or more of the attributes of the printQueue object in Active Directory.

For example, to find all the color printers in the domain, you would search for all printers for which the printsColor attribute is True. To find printers that support stapling, you would search for all printers for which the printStaplingSupported attribute is True.

The printQueue object attributes are shown in Table 13.9.

Table 13.9 Attributes for the printQueue Object

Attribute

Friendly Name

Description

cn

Directory Service Name

Name of the printer as viewed in Active Directory Users and Computers.

uNCName

Network Name

UNC path of the printer. This attribute is populated by the print spooler when the printQueue object is created.

assetNumber

Asset Number

Asset number assigned to the printer. This attribute can be configured by using ADSI.

contactName

Contact

Name of the person to contact regarding the printer. This attribute can be configured by using ADSI.

description

Comment

Description of the printer. This is derived from the printer object at the time the printQueue object is created.

driverName

Model

Model of the printer. This is derived from the printer driver at the time the printQueue object is created.

location

Location

Physical location of the printer. This attribute can be configured by using ADSI.

portName

Port

Name of the port(s) supporting this printer. This attribute is populated by the print spooler when the printQueue object is created.

printBinNames

Input Trays

Input tray names. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printCollate

Supports Collation

Indicates whether or not the printer supports collation. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printColor

Supports Color Printing

Indicates whether or not this is a color device. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printDuplexSupported

Supports Double-sided Printing

Indicates whether or not this device can print on both sides of the paper. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printerName

Name

Name of the printer. This attribute is populated by the print object when the printQueue object is created.

printLanguage

Printer Language

Page description language used by the printer. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printMaxResolutionSupported

Maximum Resolution

Maximum resolution (in DPI). This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printMediaReady

Paper Available

Paper types loaded in the device at the present time. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printMediaSupported

Paper Types Supported

Media types that the printer supports. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printMemory

Installed Memory

Amount of installed memory. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printOwner

Owner Name

Name of the person or group that owns the printer. This attribute can be configured by using ADSI.

printRate

Speed

Speed of the device. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printRateUnit

Speed Units

Units that the printer speed is measured in. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printPagesPerMinute

Pages per Minute

Printer speed normalized to pages per minute. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

printShareName

Share Name

Share name of the printer. This attribute is populated by the print object when the printQueue object is created.

printStaplingSupported

Supports Stapling

Indicates whether or not the device can staple. This attribute is populated by the printer driver when the printQueue object is created.

serverName

Server Name

Name of the server supporting the printer. This attribute is populated by the print spooler when the printQueue object is created.

url

Web Page Address

URL of the printer's Web page. This attribute is populated by the print spooler when the printQueue object is created.

versionNumber

Object Version

Internal version number of the printer object. This attribute is populated by the print spooler when the printQueue object is created.

Scripting Steps

Listing 13.26 contains a script that searches for specific printers in Active Directory. To carry out this task, the script must perform the following steps:

  1. Insert an On Error Resume Next statement. This prevents the script from failing if no printers can be found in Active Directory.

  2. Create a constant named ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE and set the value to 2. This will be used to specify a search that begins in the Active Directory root and proceeds to search all the child containers as well.

  3. Create an instance of the Active Directory connection object (ADODB.Connection).

    The connection object allows you to connect to Active Directory.

  4. Create an instance of the Active Directory command object (ADODB.Command).

    The command object allows you to issue queries and other database commands using the Active Directory connection.

  5. Set the provider property of the connection object to the Active Directory provider (ADsDSOObject). This is the OLE database provider for ADSI.

  6. Set the active connection to the Active Directory connection.

  7. Set the command text for the Active Directory command object to the SQL query that retrieves printer data from fabrikam.com.

    To limit data retrieval to printers with a priority of 2, add the statement "and Priority = 2" to the Where clause. To ensure a quicker search, include only the attributes printerName and serverName in the SQL query.

  8. Specify values for page size, time-out, search scope, and caching.

  9. Run the SQL query.

  10. When the set of printers is returned, use the MoveFirst method to move to the first printer in the recordset.

  11. For each printer in the recordset, echo the printer name and the print server name.

Listing 13.26 Searching for Specific Printers in Active Directory

   
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On Error Resume Next
Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2
Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"
Set objCOmmand.ActiveConnection = objConnection
objCommand.CommandText = "SELECT printerName, serverName FROM " _
 & "'LDAP://DC=fabrikam,DC=com' WHERE objectClass='printQueue' AND " _
 & " Priority = 2 "
objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Timeout") = 30
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
objCommand.Properties("Cache Results") = False
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
objRecordSet.MoveFirst
Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
 Wscript.Echo "Printer Name: " & objRecordSet.Fields("printerName").Value
 Wscript.Echo "Server Name: " & objRecordSet.Fields("serverName").Value
 objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop