YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway

Overview

The Mobile Integration Gateway offers:

  • Support for printing from iOS devices, such as MacBooks, iPhones and iPads, without installing drivers is available through support of Apple AirPrint. For BYOD or company-provided devices, the print queues are automatically broadcasted to all said devices. Users can simply submit print jobs into their secure Print Roaming queue using their laptop/phone/tablet. An IT organization benefits from fewer help desk requests to enable printing because users can print from their mobile devices as they normally do.

  • Support for printing from Android devices without installing drivers is supported through Mopria Print Service. Mopria Print Service is pre-installed as the default print service in Android devices (version 8 Oreo and higher), or can be downloaded from Play Store.

  • A print job gateway for any authenticated IPPS source. The IPPS protocol is a great way to securely deliver print jobs into YSoft SafeQ from any IPPS compatible device. Vendor specific PS or PCL drivers are supported.

Licensing

This feature is part of the YSoft SafeQ Mobile Print module.

Technical Overview

  • AirPrint enables iOS (version 4.2 and newer) and Mac users to print seamlessly.

  • Mopria Print Service enables Android devices (version 4.4 and higher ) to print seamlessly.

  • The Mobile Integration Gateway uses Apple’s Bonjour protocol as a network layer. Bonjour is a zero-configuration protocol that enables the registering and discovering of services on a network without any user configuration. The printing service itself, presented by a printer, is registered via this protocol and any iOS, Mac client or Android device, with Mopria Print service installed, can discover and use it. The YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway uses the IPPS protocol.

  • All print jobs received via driver-less print queues (AirPrint, MOPRIA) are converted into a PDF file and stored into the spooler.

  • All print jobs received via IPPS already processed by a print driver (PS or PCL) are stored into the spooler "as is".

  • The client should verify the MIG server certificate (strongly recommended) and if trusted, establish the connection. The server currently requires 'HTTP Basic Authentication' authentication mechanism as defined in RFC section 5.4.2..

YSoft SafeQ 6 Integration

Integration of AirPrint with YSoft SafeQ 6 is achieved via two services:

  • YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway

  • Bonjour

The YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway uses Bonjour to broadcast information about the print server available to iOS, Mac and Android devices.

YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway must have an IP address from the subnet for the iOS, Mac or Android devices. Otherwise, users will not see the announced service.

Mobile Integration Gateway requires the Mobile Print module to be licensed. The service won't start without a license.

Further reading: YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway - print across multiple subnets

The responsibility of YSoft SafeQ Mobile Integration Gateway is to receive requests from an iOS device, Mac, Android, or any IPPS compatible source, and deliver the print jobs to YSoft SafeQ 6.

Limitations

  • Billing codes cannot be selected when submitting a job to YSoft SafeQ 6 via AirPrint.

  • For driver-less print queues (AirPrint, MOPRIA): MFD must support PDF 1.5 or newer.

    • Some MFD vendors might not support PDF. In such cases, it is recommended to choose a vendor-specific driver on the Mac device.

    • Supported page sizes are Letter, Tabloid, Legal, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6.

  • For iOS 9 and older, once a user submits a job and enters their credentials, the credentials are saved and used for all subsequent print jobs.

  • For Mac OS X 10.10 and older, a sequence number is prepended to print jobs.

  • Mopria Print Service is available for Android devices with version 4.4 Kitkat and higher.