Printer

Since Camel 2.1

Only producer is supported

The Printer component provides a way to direct payloads on a route to a printer. Obviously the payload has to be a formatted piece of payload in order for the component to appropriately print it. The objective is to be able to direct specific payloads as jobs to a line printer in a camel flow.

This component only supports a camel producer endpoint.

The functionality allows for the payload to be printed on a default printer, named local, remote or wireless linked printer using the javax printing API under the covers.

Maven users will need to add the following dependency to their pom.xml for this component:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.camel</groupId>
    <artifactId>camel-printer</artifactId>
    <version>x.x.x</version>
    <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

URI format

Since the URI scheme for a printer has not been standardized (the nearest thing to a standard being the IETF print standard) and therefore not uniformly applied by vendors, we have chosen "lpr" as the scheme.

lpr://localhost/default[?options]
lpr://remotehost:port/path/to/printer[?options]

You can append query options to the URI in the following format, ?option=value&option=value&…​

Options

The Printer component supports 2 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

lazyStartProducer (producer)

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

Whether the component should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities

false

boolean

The Printer endpoint is configured using URI syntax:

lpr:hostname:port/printername

with the following path and query parameters:

Path Parameters (3 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

hostname

Required Hostname of the printer

String

port

Port number of the printer

int

printername

Name of the printer

String

Query Parameters (13 parameters):

Name Description Default Type

copies (producer)

Number of copies to print

1

int

docFlavor (producer)

Sets DocFlavor to use.

DocFlavor

flavor (producer)

Sets DocFlavor to use.

String

lazyStartProducer (producer)

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

boolean

mediaSize (producer)

Sets the stationary as defined by enumeration names in the javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaSizeName API. The default setting is to use North American Letter sized stationary. The value’s case is ignored, e.g. values of iso_a4 and ISO_A4 may be used.

na-letter

String

mediaTray (producer)

Sets MediaTray supported by the javax.print.DocFlavor API, for example upper,middle etc.

String

mimeType (producer)

Sets mimeTypes supported by the javax.print.DocFlavor API

String

orientation (producer)

Sets the page orientation. The value can be one of: portrait, landscape, reverse-portrait, reverse-landscape

portrait

String

printerPrefix (producer)

Sets the prefix name of the printer, it is useful when the printer name does not start with //hostname/printer

String

sendToPrinter (producer)

etting this option to false prevents sending of the print data to the printer

true

boolean

sides (producer)

Sets one sided or two sided printing based on the javax.print.attribute.standard.Sides API. The value can be one of: one-sided, duplex, tumble, two-sided-short-edge, two-sided-long-edge

one-sided

String

basicPropertyBinding (advanced)

Whether the endpoint should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities

false

boolean

synchronous (advanced)

Sets whether synchronous processing should be strictly used, or Camel is allowed to use asynchronous processing (if supported).

false

boolean

Sending Messages to a Printer

Printer Producer

Sending data to the printer is very straightforward and involves creating a producer endpoint that can be sent message exchanges on in route.

Usage Samples

Example 1: Printing text based payloads on a Default printer using letter stationary and one-sided mode

RouteBuilder builder = new RouteBuilder() {
    public void configure() {
       from(file://inputdir/?delete=true)
       .to("lpr://localhost/default?copies=2" +
           "&flavor=DocFlavor.INPUT_STREAM&" +
           "&mimeType=AUTOSENSE" +
           "&mediaSize=NA_LETTER" +
           "&sides=one-sided")
    }};

Example 2: Printing GIF based payloads on a Remote printer using A4 stationary and one-sided mode

RouteBuilder builder = new RouteBuilder() {
    public void configure() {
       from(file://inputdir/?delete=true)
       .to("lpr://remotehost/sales/salesprinter" +
           "?copies=2&sides=one-sided" +
           "&mimeType=GIF&mediaSize=ISO_A4" +
           "&flavor=DocFlavor.INPUT_STREAM")
   }};

Example 3: Printing JPEG based payloads on a Remote printer using Japanese Postcard stationary and one-sided mode

RouteBuilder builder = new RouteBuilder() {
    public void configure() {
       from(file://inputdir/?delete=true)
       .to("lpr://remotehost/sales/salesprinter" +
           "?copies=2&sides=one-sided" +
           "&mimeType=JPEG" +
           "&mediaSize=JAPANESE_POSTCARD" +
           "&flavor=DocFlavor.INPUT_STREAM")
    }};

Spring Boot Auto-Configuration

When using printer with Spring Boot make sure to use the following Maven dependency to have support for auto configuration:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.camel.springboot</groupId>
  <artifactId>camel-printer-starter</artifactId>
  <version>x.x.x</version>
  <!-- use the same version as your Camel core version -->
</dependency>

The component supports 3 options, which are listed below.

Name Description Default Type

camel.component.lpr.basic-property-binding

Whether the component should use basic property binding (Camel 2.x) or the newer property binding with additional capabilities

false

Boolean

camel.component.lpr.enabled

Whether to enable auto configuration of the lpr component. This is enabled by default.

Boolean

camel.component.lpr.lazy-start-producer

Whether the producer should be started lazy (on the first message). By starting lazy you can use this to allow CamelContext and routes to startup in situations where a producer may otherwise fail during starting and cause the route to fail being started. By deferring this startup to be lazy then the startup failure can be handled during routing messages via Camel’s routing error handlers. Beware that when the first message is processed then creating and starting the producer may take a little time and prolong the total processing time of the processing.

false

Boolean
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