Printer Component

Available as of Camel 2.1

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 wirelessly 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

Name

Default Value

Description

mediaSize

NA_LETTER

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.

copies

1

Sets number of copies based on the javax.print.attribute.standard.Copies API

sides

Sides.ONE_SIDED

Sets one sided or two sided printing based on the javax.print.attribute.standard.Sides API

flavor

DocFlavor.BYTE_ARRAY

Sets DocFlavor based on the javax.print.DocFlavor API

mimeType

AUTOSENSE

Sets mimeTypes supported by the javax.print.DocFlavor API

mediaTray

AUTOSENSE

Since Camel 2.11.x sets MediaTray supported by the javax.print.DocFlavor API

printerPrefix

null

Since Camel 2.11.x sets the prefix name of the printer, it is useful when the printer name does not start with //hostname/printer

sendToPrinter

true

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

orientation

portrait

Since Camel 2.13.x Sets the page orientation. Possible values: portrait, landscape, reverse-portrait or reverse-landscape, based on javax.print.attribute.standard.OrientationRequested

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")
    }};