Set up validation lists for the IPP print driver

An Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) printer or IPP print server can require user authentication on requests from the iSeries™ IPP print driver. If this is the case, the validation list, specified in the VLDL parameter of the printer device description, is used to look up the password for a given user ID.

A validation list holds pairs of user IDs and passwords. The IPP print driver checks the validation list for an entry in the following order:

1. The iSeries user profile that owns the spooled file
2. The iSeries printer device description name
3. The iSeries system name

If a match is found, the password will be retrieved for that entry and passed in subsequent requests to the printer. You might choose not to include individual user IDs in the list and instead provide the printer device description name or the system name as a generic entry to be used by multiple users.

If a match is not found, then the user authentication cannot be done.

Use the Create Validation List (CRTVLDL) command to create an empty validation list, as shown in the following example:

CRTVLDL VLDL(MYLIB/MYUSRS) AUT(*EXCLUDE) TEXT('My users')

This command creates an empty validation list named MYUSRS in the MYLIB library. The validation list is specified in the VLDL parameter of the printer device description. Use the AUT parameter to limit user access to the validation list.

After you create the validation list to be used by the IPP print driver, you populate the list with entries consisting of a user ID and a password that the system encrypts when the list is stored. You can add, change, and remove entries with the Validation list APIs. See the Validation list APIs, for details.

Use the QsyAddValidationLstEntry() API to add an entry to a validation list. You must specify the QsyEncryptData attribute when adding entries to permit the retrieval of the encrypted password.