Adobe LiveCycle Output generates printer ready document in various formats like ps, pcl etc from a form design (xdp) or pdf. The form design here refers to the combination of a template and the data associated with it. These printer ready documents can be directly streamed to the printer for printing. I will start start with the types of printers first and then examine the Output API to access them.
Printers can be broadly classified into two categories based on the way to access them.
Directly accessible printer
If a printer is installed on the same machine from where it is being accessed (means on the same machine where LiveCycle is installed), it is called directly accessible printer and the machine is called printer host (or print server) machine. These type of printers can be a local printer connected to the machine directly or a remote network printer installed on that machine.
Indirectly Accessible Printer
Now-a-days, there are technologies like LPR/LPD, CUPS etc. available to obviate the need of the printer being installed on the same machine, to use that.
In this model, the printer installed on a machine (print server) is accessed from another machine. This is called indirect access. In this type of access we need to know the print server IP or hostname and the printer’s name.
One Solution to all problem
LC Output has following single API to access all kinds of printers. The user needs to pass the access mechanism, described later in this blog in the API.
void sendToPrinter(Document document, Enum accessMechanism, String printServerUri, String printerName)
where document being the document to be printed, printerName being the printer on which the document to be printed, printServerUri being the print server on which the printerName is installed and accessMechanism being the method to use to direct the document on the printerName.
The LPD service might be listening to the ports different than the standard ports. In that case the caller needs to pass the ip address and port number in x.x.x.x:portNo format.
| Enumeration | Description |
|---|---|
|
SharedPrinter
|
This is used for direct access of the printer. In this case, the user needs to specify only the printerName, The printServerUri argument will be ignored in this case. |
| LPD | If specified, LC will use indirect method to access the printerName via the printServerUri using LPR/LPD technology. |
| CUPS | If specified, LC will use indirect method to access the printServerUri using IPP 1.1 technology. |
|
DirectIP
|
If specified, LC will use the direct ip mechanism to access the printServerUri. The printerName argument, in this case, will be ignored by the API. |
Examples
The following table describes the expected results in case of each accessMechanism that the user can expect:
| accessMechanism | value of sPrintServerUri | value of sPrinterName | Expected result |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SharedPrinter
|
Any | null | Exception : Required Argument sPrinterName cannot be null |
|
SharedPrinter
|
Any | Invalid | Exception : Printer not found |
|
SharedPrinter
|
Any | Valid | Printed Output |
| LPD | null | Any | Exception : Required Argument sPrintServerUri cannot be null |
| LPD | Invalid | null | Exception : Required Argument sPrinterName cannot be null |
| LPD | Invalid | non-null | Exception : sPrintServerUri not found |
| LPD | Valid | Invalid | Exception : Printer Not Found |
| LPD | Valid | Valid | Printed Output |
| CUPS | null | Any | Exception : Required Argument sPrintServerUri cannot be null |
| CUPS | Invalid | Any | Exception : Printer Not Found |
| CUPS | Valid | Any | Printed Output |
|
DirectIP
|
null | Any | Exception : Required Argument sPrintServerUri cannot be null |
|
DirectIP
|
Invalid | Any | Exception : Printer Not Found |
|
DirectIP
|
Valid | Any | Printed Output |
The sPrintServerUri parameter, in case of CUPS will be something like http://<server>:<port>/<path>/<printerName>. If the user wants to use a port other than the default port in case of LPD and DirectIP, he can pass <server>:<port> in the sPrintServerUri argument. Here <port> is strictly a positive integer and <server> is either a valid IP address or a valid hostname. If one passes anything other than the integer in place of <port>, one will get Malformed URI exception.