Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) for Node.js
npm install @polem/ipp
A pure Javascript implementation of the IPP/2.0 protocol that has no dependencies.
The IPP protocol was started in the 90's and is still being worked on today. It is a very indepth protocol that spans many
RFCs- some of which are dead while others were herded into IPP/v2.x.
There are millions of printers that support IPP. If you have one, this module will allow you to send/recieve data to/from
the printer.
To find out if your printer supports IPP:
* Google your printer's specs
* Try: telnet YOUR_PRINTER 631. If it connects, that's a good sign.
* Use the '/examples/findPrinters.js' script.
I have a pretty good starting point here. I created reference files
(attributes, enums, keywords, operations, statusCodes, versions and tags) and tried to include as many
links in the comments to the ref docs as I could.
``bash`
$ npm install @sealsystems/ipp
`javascript
const ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
//make a PDF document
const doc = new PDFDocument({ margin: 0 });
doc.text('.', 0, 780);
doc.output(function(pdf) {
const printer = ipp.Printer('http://NPI977E4E.local.:631/ipp/printer');
const msg = {
'operation-attributes-tag': {
'requesting-user-name': 'William',
'job-name': 'My Test Job',
'document-format': 'application/pdf'
},
data: pdf
};
printer.execute('Print-Job', msg, function(err, res) {
console.log(res);
});
});
`
To interact with a printer, create a Printer object.
> Technically speaking: a Printer object does not need to be an actual printer. According to the IPP spec, it
> could be any endpoint that accepts IPP messages. For example; the IPP object could be persistant media- like a
> CD ROM, hard drive, thumb drive, ...etc.
options:
* charset - Specifies the value for the 'attributes-charset' attribute of requests. Defaults to utf-8.language
* - Specifies the value for the 'attributes-natural-language' attribute of requests. Defaults to en-us.uri
* - Specifies the value for the 'printer-uri' attribute of requests. Defaults to ipp://+url.host+url.path.version
* - Specifies the value for the 'version' attribute of requests. Defaults to 2.0.
Executes an IPP operation on the Printer object.
* 'operation' - There are many operations defined by IPP. See: /lib/enums.js.
* 'message - A javascript object to be serialized into an IPP binary message.
* Add binary data like file content as data property. data may either a buffer or a readable stream.output
* If response should be streamed instead of buffered and parsed (e.g. for response size reason) add a writeable stream as property to message.null
* 'callback(err, response)' - A function to callback with the Printer's response. Response is always in case of an output stream.
Parses a binary IPP message into a javascript object tree.
`javascript
const ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
const data = new Buffer(
'0200' + //version 2.0
'000B' + //Get-Printer-Attributes
'00000001' + //reqid
'01' + //operation-attributes-tag
//blah blah the required bloat of this protocol
'470012617474726962757465732d6368617273657400057574662d3848001b617474726962757465732d6e61747572616c2d6c616e67756167650002656e' +
'03', //end-of-attributes-tag
'hex'
);
const result = ipp.parse(data);
console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
// ta-da!
//{
// "version": "2.0",
// "operation": 11,
// "id": 1,
// "operation-attributes-tag": {
// "attributes-charset": "utf-8",
// "attributes-natural-language": "en"
// }
//}
`
Converts an IPP message object to IPP binary.
See request for example.
Makes an IPP request to a url.
If binary output should be streamed instead of read into a buffer object, call request with the optional writeableStream argument.
Example 1: returning a response object
`javascript
const ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
const uri = 'your_printer';
const data = ipp.serialize({
operation: 'Get-Printer-Attributes',
'operation-attributes-tag': {
'attributes-charset': 'utf-8',
'attributes-natural-language': 'en',
'printer-uri': uri
}
});
ipp.request(uri, data, function(err, res) {
if (err) {
return console.log(err);
}
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});
// ta-da!.. hopefully you'll see a ton of stuff from your printer
`
Example 2: writing into stream
`javascript
const ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
const uri = 'your_printer';
const jobId = 'your job id'
const data = ipp.serialize({
operation: 'Fetch-Document',
'operation-attributes-tag': {
'attributes-charset': 'utf-8',
'attributes-natural-language': 'en',
'printer-uri': uri,
'job-id': jobId
}
});
const myWriteStream = ... // get stream from somewhere
ipp.request(uri, data, myWriteStream, function(err) {
if (err) {
return console.log(err);
}
// res is null, data is piped into myWriteStream
});
`
If you have to connect to an IPP printer or server that requires Basic Authentication you can add auth to the options.
`javascript``
const ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
const uri = 'your_printer';
const opts = parseurl(uri);
opts.auth = 'admin:secr3t';
ipp.request(opts, data, function(err, res) {
if (err) {
return console.log(err);
}
console.log(JSON.stringify(res, null, 2));
});
MIT