XLPrint are extremely proud and excited to announce Paris Version 5. It is the next step in the evolution of our leading transaction document composition and distribution technology used by thousands of customers across more than 55 countries producing billions of pages a year on production and distributed devices and electronically. Paris Version 5 introduces new features and functionality to help you address your evolving and complex transaction document production needs now and into the future.
Paris modules may run on any 32 or 64 bit multiprocessor system. Paris Spooler users with symmetric multiprocessor, Hyper threaded or dual/triple/quad core systems running ether 32 or 64 bit Windows, can make best use of their resources by running more than one engine at once. They should consider running as many engines simultaneously as they have cores however consideration should be given to other tasks that may be running on that machine. For maximum efficiency, the machine should be dedicated to Paris. They may wish to run more engines than cores if it's likely that engines will spend a lot of time waiting for resources. They may wish to run fewer engines than cores if they don't have enough memory.
It is generally recommended that Paris EDO and Paris Spooler run on separate machines for maximum efficiency however it is possible to run them on the same machine if efficiency is not as vital.
The minimum recommended CPU would be an Intel Core Duo2 2Ghz processor however 3Ghz or higher is better. The minimum recommended RAM would be 2GB however 4GB or more is recommended.
Disk storage requirements will change depending on the number of resources in use (Forms, Environments, Images, Fonts etc). 20GB of free disk space is considered a general minimum. 50GB of free space is generally considered sufficient for “average” users. Consideration should also be given to spooling requirements. There should be ample room to temporarily store all working files such as spooled input data files.
If you install the software on the same drive letter as the operating system, the operating system may start to fail if Paris consumes all the remaining free disk space. Please consider installing Paris on the largest free drive on the PC to allow for file accumulation.
Installing Paris on a network/shared drive or USB drive is not supported.
SVGA 1024x786 is the recommended minimum display for the Paris Designer. A mouse or other pointing device will be required.
Paris modules are compiled as 32 bit applications. Windows and Windows x64 are operating systems. Paris will run on both the 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows. Paris will run normally on a 64-bit operating system however, because Paris is compiled for 32 bit, it will not take advantage of 64 bit features when run on a 64-bit operating system, in particular increased memory access.
Paris and its modules are supported on the following versions of the Windows operating systems (32 and 64 bit):
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2019
Windows Vista
Windows 10
Windows 11
XLPrint customers successfully run Paris and its modules on virtualised platforms from companies such as VMWare and Microsoft. Our software is not designed to interact with this virtualised layer and can run within such environments provided the operating system and software requirements are met. Paris and its modules may require components of Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later. Internet Explorer version 8 or higher is
recommended.
.NET Framework
Paris does not generally require the Microsoft .NET Framework with the exception of the email notification system, EDO Email & Fax module (for InterFax and SendGrid support) and the ReDefine module which both require .NET 4.7.2.
The installers will automatically install the required .NET version if it detects that it is not already installed. Server versions of Windows will require the administrator to manually install the required .NET version via the Service Manager prior to install.
Accessing the Paris Spooler Service remotely via the Paris Web Spooler Console will require any of the following web browsers:
Google Chrome
Firefox 4 or higher
Safari 4 or higher
A network connection may be required if receiving data files from remote machines or printing to remote devices. Network speed should be a consideration. When printing to remote printers, fully formatted print documents can vary greatly in size.
If you are generating large documents consider a LAN connection (100Mb/s+) to the printer rather than over a broadband DSL/Cable link (1Mb/s-24Mb/s). If broadband speeds are the only option consider installing the Spooler at the remote site where the printer is located and configure it to receive files remotely.
Paris EDO Email & Fax will require access to a SMTP Mail Server for email and to Windows Fax for faxing. Windows Fax may not be available on some Windows operating systems or may have to be installed if not already installed and configured. Microsoft Fax must have access to a fax modem and fax line. Paris EDO Archive must have access to one of the documented Document Management Systems (DMS).
Installing as a Service
During the Paris Spooler install, you will be asked if you would like to run the Paris Spooler as a traditional application or as a service. When selecting the service option, you will be asked to provide the User Name and Password to a suitable Windows User Account which will be assigned to the Paris Spooler Service.
In most cases you can leave the User Name and Password fields blank during the Paris install. This will cause the Paris installer to assign the default System account to the Paris Spooler Service. This is generally suitable for Paris configurations which access local printers and resources only.
It is generally only when accessing network resources such as network folders and printers (via UNC naming) that it may be necessary to assign an
alternate User Account with the appropriate privileges. To change the profile at any stage, rerun the Paris installer and specify the new profile details.
Accessing shared network paths from the Paris Spooler Service
Any application running as a service must be running with credentials which allow access to the required shared network folders for input and/or output.
Mapped Drives:
Mapped Drives allow you to map a local or network location to a drive letter in the range A: to Z:. While they are a property of a user profile, they
are only available during logged on sessions and are therefore not available to Windows Services running under the profile. Mapped drives are therefore not recommended unless running the Paris Spooler as an Application. They are not available when running the Paris Spooler as a Service.
UNC Paths:
A Universal Naming Convention (or UNC) path is a way to address or describe a local or networked resource. An example of a UNC path would be: \\server\share\ . UNC paths are the recommended way of addressing network resources (such as input or output destinations) in Paris because they are an explicit address regardless of profiles although the profile must have sufficient access rights to the path.
Symbolic Links:
A Symbolic Link is a file system object which points to another file system object. For example it could be a local directory name pointing to a
network UNC path. A user profile’s Symbolic Links are available to Windows Services and are therefore an ideal way to standardize addresses. It would therefore be possible to remap the Symbolic Link at any stage in the future without having to change definitions in Paris. As with direct UNC addressing, the user profile must be configured with suitable access rights to the underlying UNC resource.
To create a symbolic link use the MKLINK command line command while running under the Administrator account (Run As Administrator). For example: to create a Symbolic Link called C:\Input which points to \\SERVER\INPUT_FILES, start the command prompt As Administrator and issue these commands:
CD C:\
MKLINK /D Input \\SERVER\INPUT_FILE
After issuing these commands you may then navigate to, or otherwise use, the address C:\Input to reference the address \\SERVER\INPUT_FILES on the network. The Symbolic Link may then be used to define a Spooler Job Definition which watches for files in C:\Input rather than \SERVER\INPUT_FILES.
Windows User Accounts and Profiles
Paris supports local and domain user accounts. A user local or domain user account with suitable privileges is required to allow Paris and its components to read/write to/from the root Paris folder and all of its sub-folders as well as have suitable access to all of the necessary local and network shared printer queues and folders.
When running the Paris Designer or Paris Spooler in “Application” mode, be sure to have logged in to the Paris machine using a suitable local or domain user account. When configuring Paris services such as the Paris Spooler (when run as a service) or the EDO service, ensure that they run under the correct user account by providing a suitable user name and password during install.
Local Accounts
Local accounts are accounts which are created on the Paris Server PC and belong to that copy of the Operating System. The Operating System is generally supplied with a default local account called “Administrator”. An additional “Guest” account is sometimes also provided however “Guest” is disabled by default in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 2008 and should generally not be used.
NOTE: Local accounts can be used to access shared printers and folders on other networked systems provided the same account name and password is used on the system sharing it’s resources.
Domain Accounts
Domain accounts are generally only required if Paris or its components require access to network resources such as input and output folders. If no
network resources are required it is generally recommended that you use the local Administrator account or one with equivalent and suitable privileges.
Domain Accounts are created and maintained on a Domain Controller (a server on the network). These accounts can be used on workstations attached to the network running Paris. Domain Accounts must, however, be assigned suitable local and network access rights to ensure the appropriate access to printers and folders.
Domain user names are generally in the form user@domain-name or domain-name\user.
Other Considerations
It is important to note that some local settings, such as GDI printer queue settings, are specific to accounts and may therefore vary by account.
When defining a Windows printer driver in Paris the device settings used at print time will be based on the settings applied by the account the Paris
Spooler service is using. As an example, if the service is using a local account called Account1 and someone has logged in as Account2, The Paris Spooler Service will apply Account1’s default printer settings (e.g. set to colour/monochrome) even when Account2 is currently logged on.
Changing Paris Service Accounts
To change the Paris Spooler and EDO Service accounts or to revert to application mode, run the appropriate Paris installer again and apply the
suitable settings.
When running the Paris Spooler in service mode, by default, any remote browser with access to the Paris Server will have full control over the Paris
Spooler settings and print jobs.
If you wish to restrict access to the Paris Spooler, it is recommended that you define Paris User Profiles. Paris Users are not related to the Local
or Domain accounts mentioned above and must be defined within Paris from the “User Profiles” button under the “List Management” tab of the Paris Web Spooler Console. Users must have “Administrator” level access to manage the User Profile list. Users may be allocated Administrator, Control or View-Only access. Additionally, Users may be restricted to certain Paris Printers.
The Paris Web Spooler Console login screen is enabled once one or more Paris Users have been defined. Users will be required to enter a User Name and Password to access the Web Spooler Console.