JIPP: A Java-compatible IPP library

This project contains:

• jipp-core, the core IPP parser/builder for IPP packets.
• jipp-pdls, which converts raster format docs to common page description languages (PCLm and PWG-Raster).
• jprint, a sample app showing how jipp-core can be used to send a document to a printer.
• jrender, a sample app showing how jipp-pdl can be used to convert a PDF to PCLm or PWG-Raster.

jipp-core features:

• Supports construction of IPP servers, clients, routers, gateways, etc.
• Common operations and attributes are defined and ready to use.
• Can be extended to support new operations and attributes.
• Can be used over any transport (typically HTTP).
• Includes a pretty-printer for human-readable IPP packet display.
• Kotlin users can access a type-safe packet building DSL

What could I do with this?

• Scan and show available printers on your network to your users.
• Implement an Android Print Service.
• Test IPP clients or IPP printers in interesting ways.
• Experiment with alternative IPP transports.
• Implement a cloud-based print server or client.

The API is fully Java-compatible but is actually implemented in Kotlin. JavaDoc is available for the Java-facing API.

Usage

In short:

1. Add the current version of JIPP to your project

dependencies {
    compile 'com.hp.jipp:jipp-core:0.6.19'
    compile 'com.hp.jipp:jipp-pdl:0.6.19' // Only needed if transforming PDLs
}

2. Create an IppClientTransport or IppServerTransport (see example HttpIppClientTransport.java)
3. Use the transport to send and receive IppPacket objects, e.g.:

URI uri = URI.create("http://192.168.1.100:631/ipp/print");
IppPacket printRequest = new IppPacket(Operation.printJob, 123,
        groupOf(operationAttributes,
                attributesCharset.of("utf-8"),
                attributesNaturalLanguage.of("en"),
                printerUri.of(uri),
                requestingUserName.of("user"),
                documentFormat.of("application/octet-stream")));
transport.sendData(uri, new IppPacketData(printRequest, new FileInputStream(inputFile)));

Sample Applications

jprint

A very basic use case is demonstrated by the jprint sample app. To run it:

# build the app
./gradlew jprint:build

# unzip in the current directory
unzip -o ./sample/jprint/build/distributions/jprint-*.zip

# Use IPP to print a file to the supplied HTTP/IPP endpoint.
# (The printer must natively support the file type.)
jprint-*/bin/jprint "ipp://192.168.1.102:631/ipp/print" sample.pdf

jrender

An example of rendering a PDF to PWG-Raster or PCLm. To run it:

# build the app
./gradlew jrender:build

# unzip in the current directory
unzip -o ./sample/jrender/build/distributions/jrender-*.zip

# Convert a PDF-file to PWG-Raster.
jrender-*/bin/jrender sample.pdf sample.pwg

# Convert a PDF-file to PCLm.
jrender-*/bin/jrender sample.pdf sample.pclm

API Maturity

Until 1.0, APIs may still be changed in non-backwards-compatible ways.

See HISTORY.md for more details.

Dependencies

jipp-core's only dependencies are JDK 6+ and the current Kotlin runtime.

Building

./gradlew build

A full build of this project requires python (2.x) and dot to generate dependency graphs

Related projects

• javax.print (JSR6) - Standard Java printing APIs. IPP 1.1 only, client-side only. API is not supported by Android.
• Cups4J - LGPL licensed, with a port to Android.
• JSPI