Request type Printer/Toner - child request type of each printer in AD?

First time install of WHD and checking Setup > Tickets > Request Types.

Would like Printer/Toner requests to have child type of each printer on the network.

The printers are AD printer shares. Powershell's

Get-Printer -Computer {print-server-name}

returns the list of printers.

Having the printer name appear the same in the ticket as it is in AD would be a great help to ensure the same nomenclature is used to identify the same device. This way people requesting service and the techs providing it use the same name to identify the device.

Granted we're not dealing with hundreds of printers, still a script or lookup that runs periodically and on demand and uses the list from the above powershell to create/update printer entries that are children of the Printer/Toner request type would help everyone be on the same page, re:which printer exactly?, when service for a printer is requested.

And if the script runs on a schedule, all the better to take care of cases where remembering to update WHD's list with printer changes on the print server is overlooked.

I don't see a way through the UI to collect that info and create a printer child type of each printer for the Printer/Toner request type except by manual entry.

Is there a way to "automatically" create and up date the child types without taking a deep dive into programing and APIs? If so, how?

The list I'm referring to is this one below that becomes picklists for the ticket creator.

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percyplant

why don't you enable assets for clients and allow them to attach the asset to their ticket? They (clients) can then not only select the make and model but also the printer itself. You would have either add the printers manually (as the built in WMI doesn't support printers) or to discover all printers using Lansweeper, and bring them in automatically using the Asset Discovery feature within WHD.

aboba

I'm just learning WHD.

I presume you mean Setup > Tickets > Options, the "Client Options" section?

Following that thought I enabled "Asset Number Lookup for Client" in that section, created a "Printer" asset type, a Manufacturer, and a Model, and then opened a ticket with a user account.

It was then possible to select the asset in the model entry box at the bottom of the Help Request form.

So far, so good.

That still leaves populating/maintaining the list. And displaying names that are familiar to users, i.e. the same name the user sees when a printer is selected from the list of available printers. The name is the published name on the print server which does not match the printer model.

Published names are more along the lines, Accounting Bulk Jobs, Accounting, Engineering Plotter, etc.

I think it certainly would work as well as the direction I was going in my post and has the advantage of the printers being in the assets inventory.

I don't see how to present the users with familiar names or how to maintain the list automatically though.

A scheduled Windows job could periodically query AD to produce the familiar names printer list. That would leave importing that list on a recurring basis to update the printer assets.

I don't see anything in the UI to schedule imports nor do I see any .BAT files in the WHD directories that look like they're meant to run an import from the command line (which could then be scheduled).

Any additional thoughts?