Bug 154117

Summary: Better user info when cupstestppd fails
Product: [openSUSE] SUSE Linux 10.1 Reporter: Johannes Meixner <jsmeix>
Component: PrintingAssignee: Michal Zugec <mzugec>
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX QA Contact: Johannes Meixner <jsmeix>
Severity: Enhancement    
Priority: P5 - None    
Version: Beta 3   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: SuSE Linux 10.1   
Whiteboard:
Found By: Customer Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---

Description Johannes Meixner 2006-02-28 14:51:46 UTC
This is an enhancement request.

I picked up the following mail:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 08:33:46 -0500
To: cups@easysw.com
Subject: Re: [cups.general] magicolor 2450, bad ppd file

> Installation of km2450np.ppd file for a magicolor 2450
> under SuSE10.0 was not successfull.
> The message: km2450np.ppd: Fail
>      BAD DefaultKMSimGrayTreatment ComppsiteBlack
>      REF: Page 40, section 4.5.
>      Osolate PPD version 4.0 !
>      REF: Page 42, secton 5.2
>      ShortNickName required by PPD 4.3 spec.
>      REF: Pages 64-65, section 5.3
> Has anyone an idea what is REF: ?
> What kind of Reference ?
> Of Adobe's Postscript Reference ?

All references are to the Adobe PostScript Printer Description File
Format Specification, version 4.3.
"man cupstestppd" for the complete scoop...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I picked up seveal similar customer questions too.

In general customers do not understand what is going on
when YaST refuses to add a PPD to its database because
cupstestppd fails.

When I try to add a broken PPD /tmp/file.ppd
I get the following message in YaST:

The message header is:
"Error: No Suitable PPD File Downloaded"
which is wrong for a local PPD file like /tmp/file.ppd

The message body is like
---------------------------------------------------------
Checking file "./file.ppd"
/tmp/file.ppd: FAIL
      **FAIL**  BAD DefaultPageSize FooBar
                REF: Page 40, section 4.5.

0 files passed
---------------------------------------------------------

A normal user cannot understand what is going on here.
He will understand that something went wrong but he cannot
understand what the actual reason is.

On the one hand I do want to show real hard facts to the user,
in particular the real eror messages must be shown to the user
because otherwise he cannot ask for help outside of Suse, see
for example the mail above: without the real error message
nobody on the cups@easysw.com would have known what went wrong. 

On the other hand, before the actual error message there must
be a meaningful message whcih tells a normal user what is
going on.

Proposal for a better user information when cupstestppd fails:

Header:
Error: PPD File Rejected

Body:
------------------------------------------------------------------
A PPD file was rejected because it is not in compliance
to the Adobe PostScript Printer Description File Format
Specification (version 4.3).

You should ask where you got this PPD file from
for an error-free PPD file.

The PPF file test using "cupstestppd" results:

Checking file "./file.ppd"
/tmp/file.ppd: FAIL
      **FAIL**  BAD DefaultPageSize FooBar
                REF: Page 40, section 4.5.

0 files passed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment 1 Michal Zugec 2006-03-01 13:26:56 UTC
I agree with above, but it's late for code10 because of new strings
Comment 2 Stephan Kulow 2008-06-25 09:36:00 UTC
mass reopening all SuSE Linux bugs that are set to REMIND+LATER to change the resolution to WONTFIX (adapting to new policy)
Comment 3 Stephan Kulow 2008-06-25 09:37:58 UTC
mass reopening all SuSE Linux bugs that are set to REMIND+LATER to change the resolution to WONTFIX (adapting to new policy)
Comment 4 Stephan Kulow 2008-06-25 09:42:19 UTC
mass reopening all SuSE Linux bugs that are set to REMIND+LATER to change the resolution to WONTFIX (adapting to new policy)
Comment 5 Stephan Kulow 2008-06-25 09:53:43 UTC
Closing old LATER+REMIND bugs as WONTFIX - if you still plan to work on it, feel free to reopen and set to ASSIGNED.

In case the report saw repeated reopen comments, it's due to bugzilla timing out on the huge request ;(