@sealsystems/ipp - Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) for Node.js

A pure Javascript implementation of the IPP/2.0 protocol.

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.

Install

$ npm install @sealsystems/ipp

Usage

Printer(url [,options])

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.
• agent - Specifies the value for the 'http(s)' agent. Defaults to undefined.
• closeTimeout - Optional object containing options about socket timeout
  • socketCloseTimeout - Mandatory timeout in milliseconds for the socket to close after the request has been sent.
  • socketCloseTimeoutIsError - If set to true, an error will be thrown if the socket does not close within the timeout. Defaults to false.

printer.execute(operation, message, callback)

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.
  • If response should be streamed instead of buffered and parsed (e.g. for response size reason) add a writeable stream as output property to message.
• 'callback(err, response)' - A function to callback with the Printer's response. Response is always null in case of an output stream. If a socketCloseTimeout occurs and socketCloseTimeoutIsError is set to false then the property manuallyAbortedByTimeout is set to true in the response.

ipp.parse(buffer)

Parses a binary IPP message into a javascript object tree.

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"
// }
//}

ipp.serialize(msg)

Converts an IPP message object to IPP binary.

See request for example.

ipp.request(url, data, [writeableStream,] callback)

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

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

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
});

Basic Auth

If you have to connect to an IPP printer or server that requires Basic Authentication you can add auth to the options.

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));
});

License

MIT