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

A pure Javascript implementation of the IPP/2.0 protocol that has no dependencies.

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

Printer(url [,options])

var ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
var PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');

//make a PDF document
var doc = new PDFDocument({ margin: 0 });
doc.text('.', 0, 780);

doc.output(function(pdf) {
  var printer = ipp.Printer('http://NPI977E4E.local.:631/ipp/printer');
  var 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.

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 serealized into an IPP binary message.
• 'callback(err, response)' - A function to callback with the Printer's response.

ipp.parse(buffer)

Parses a binary IPP message into a javascript object tree.

var ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
var 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'
);

var 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, callback)

Makes an IPP request to a url.

var ipp = require('@sealsystems/ipp');
var uri = 'your_printer';
var 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

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