printer-api

Printer API allows us to use locally installed printers to print documents from a web application. It starts a simple expressjs server which exposes a basic REST API.

Installation

Download the latest release and install it on your local machine.

Usage

Curl & endpoints

Get the current state:

curl localhost:1761/status

Get all printers:

curl localhost:1761/printers

Upload a PDF to the api. This requires the document field to be a PDF:

curl http://localhost:1761/print\?printer\=PRINTERNAME -F "[email protected]"

Print the pdf from a url:

curl -X POST http://localhost:1761/print\?printer\=PRINTERNAME\&url\=http://pdf.com

Javascript

In our Javascript example we assume you can download a pdf from a specific location in your application. We use javascript, as this (probably) allows us to reuse an existing session should the pdf require authentication.

<script>
    function printPdf(url, printer) {
        fetch(url, {method: 'GET'})
            .then(response => response.blob())
            .then((blob) => {
                const data = new FormData()
                data.append('document', blob)

                fetch(`http://localhost:1761/print?printer=${printer}`, {
                    method: 'POST',
                    body: data,
                })
            })
    }
</script>

Tests

Sorry, this code doesn't come with tests yet.

License & support

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Coppertrack does not provide commercial support or paid development.