javafx.print

Class PrinterJob

java.lang.Object

javafx.print.PrinterJob

public final class PrinterJob
extends java.lang.Object

PrinterJob is the starting place for JavaFX scenegraph printing.

It includes

• Printer discovery
• Job creation
• Job configuration based on supported printer capabilities
• Page setup
• Rendering of a node hierachy to a page.

Here ia a very simple example, which prints a single node.

 Node node = new Circle(100, 200, 200);
 PrinterJob job = PrinterJob.createPrinterJob();
 if (job != null) {
    boolean success = job.printPage(node);
    if (success) {
        job.endJob();
    }
 }
 

Points to note

In the example above the node was not added to a scene. Since most printing scenarios are printing content that's either not displayed at all, or must be prepared and formatted differently, this is perfectly acceptable.

If content that is currently part of a Scene and is being displayed, is printed, then because printing a job or even a single page of the job may span over multiple screen "pulses" or frames, it is important for the application to ensure that the node being printed is not updated during the printing process, else partial or smeared rendering is probable.

It should be apparent that the same applies even to nodes that are not displayed - updating them concurrent with printing them is not a good idea.

There is no requirement to do printing on the FX application thread. A node may be prepared for printing on any thread, the job may be invoked on any thread. However, minimising the amount of work done on the FX application thread is generally desirable, so as not to affect the responsiveness of the application UI. So the recommendation is to perform printing on a new thread and let the implementation internally schedule any tasks that need to be performed on the FX thread to be run on that thread.

Since:

JavaFX 8.0

Property Summary

Type	Property and Description
<any>	jobStatus A read only object property representing the current JobStatus
<any>	printer Property representing the Printer for this job.

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes

Modifier and Type	Class and Description
static class	PrinterJob.JobStatus An enum class used in reporting status of a print job.

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Field and Description
private PrinterJobImpl	jobImpl
private <any>	jobStatus
private <any>	printer
private JobSettings	settings

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Modifier	Constructor and Description
private	PrinterJob(Printer printer)

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	cancelJob() Cancel the underlying print job at the earliest opportunity.
private PrinterJobImpl	createImplJob(Printer printer, JobSettings settings)
static PrinterJob	createPrinterJob() Factory method to create a job.
static PrinterJob	createPrinterJob(Printer printer) Factory method to create a job for a specified printer.
private <any>	createPrinterProperty(Printer printer)
boolean	endJob() If the job can be successfully spooled to the printer queue this will return true.
JobSettings	getJobSettings() The JobSettings encapsulates all the API supported job configuration options such as number of copies, collation option, duplex option, etc.
PrinterJob.JobStatus	getJobStatus() Obtain the current status of the job.
Printer	getPrinter() Gets the printer currently associated with this job.
(package private) boolean	isJobNew() Updating settings or printer is only allowed on a new job, meaning before you start printing or cancel etc.
<any>	jobStatusProperty() A read only object property representing the current JobStatus
<any>	printerProperty() Property representing the Printer for this job.
boolean	printPage(Node node) Print the specified node.
boolean	printPage(PageLayout pageLayout, Node node) Print the specified node using the specified page layout.
void	setPrinter(Printer printer) Change the printer for this job.
boolean	showPageSetupDialog(Window owner) Displays a Page Setup dialog.
boolean	showPrintDialog(Window owner) Displays a Print Dialog.
java.lang.String	toString()
(package private) PageLayout	validatePageLayout(PageLayout pageLayout) This method can be used to check if a page configuration is possible in the current job configuration.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Property Detail

printer

public final <any> printerProperty

Property representing the Printer for this job.

See Also:

getPrinter(), setPrinter(Printer)

jobStatus

public <any> jobStatusProperty

A read only object property representing the current JobStatus

See Also:

getJobStatus()

Field Detail

jobImpl

private PrinterJobImpl jobImpl

printer

private <any> printer

settings

private JobSettings settings

jobStatus

private <any> jobStatus

Constructor Detail

PrinterJob

private PrinterJob(Printer printer)

Method Detail

createPrinterJob

public static final PrinterJob createPrinterJob()

Factory method to create a job. If there are no printers available, this will return null. Some platforms may provide a pseudo printer, which creates a document. These will be enumerated here so long as the platform also enumerates them as if they are printers.

Returns:

a new PrinterJob instance, or null.

Throws:

java.lang.SecurityException - if a job does not have permission to initiate a printer job.

createPrinterJob

public static final PrinterJob createPrinterJob(Printer printer)

Factory method to create a job for a specified printer.

The printer argument determines the initial printer

Parameters:

printer - to use for the job. If the printer is currently unavailable (eg offline) then this may return null.

Returns:

a new PrinterJob, or null.

Throws:

java.lang.SecurityException - if a job does not have permission to initiate a printer job.

createImplJob

private PrinterJobImpl createImplJob(Printer printer,
                                     JobSettings settings)

isJobNew

boolean isJobNew()

Updating settings or printer is only allowed on a new job, meaning before you start printing or cancel etc. The implementation needs to check this wherever job state updates are received.

createPrinterProperty

private <any> createPrinterProperty(Printer printer)

printerProperty

public final <any> printerProperty()

Property representing the Printer for this job.

See Also:

getPrinter(), setPrinter(Printer)

getPrinter

public Printer getPrinter()

Gets the printer currently associated with this job.

Returns:

printer for the job.

setPrinter

public void setPrinter(Printer printer)

Change the printer for this job. If the new printer does not support the current job settings, (for example if DUPLEX printing is requested but the new printer does not support this), then the values are reset to the default for the new printer, or in some cases a similar value. For example this might mean REVERSE_LANDSCAPE is updated to LANDSCAPE, however this implementation optimisation is allowed, but not required.

The above applies whether the printer is changed by directly calling this method, or as a side-effect of user interaction with a print dialog.

Setting a null value for printer will install the default printer. Setting the current printer has no effect.

Parameters:

printer - to be used for this print job.

getJobSettings

public JobSettings getJobSettings()

The JobSettings encapsulates all the API supported job configuration options such as number of copies, collation option, duplex option, etc. The initial values are based on the current settings for the initial printer.

Returns:

current job settings.

showPrintDialog

public boolean showPrintDialog(Window owner)

Displays a Print Dialog. Allow the user to update job state such as printer and settings. These changes will be available in the appropriate properties after the print dialog has returned. The print dialog is also typically used to confirm the user wants to proceed with printing. This is not binding on the application but generally should be obeyed.

In the case that there is no UI available then this method returns true, with no options changed, as if the user had confirmed to proceed with printing.

If the job is not in a state to display the dialog, such as already printing, cancelled or done, then the dialog will not be displayed and the method will return false.

The window owner may be null, but if it is a visible Window, it will be used as the parent.

This method may be called from any thread. If it is called from the JavaFX application thread, then it must either be called from an input event handler or from the run method of a Runnable passed to Platform.runLater. It must not be called during animation or layout processing.

Parameters:

owner - to which to block input, or null.

Returns:

false if the user opts to cancel printing, or the job is not in the new state. That is if it has already started, has failed, or has been cancelled, or ended.

Throws:

java.lang.IllegalStateException - if this method is called during animation or layout processing.

showPageSetupDialog

public boolean showPageSetupDialog(Window owner)

Displays a Page Setup dialog. A page set up dialog is primarily to allow an end user to configure the layout of a page. Paper size and orientation are the most common and most important components of this.

This will display the most appropriate available dialog for this purpose. However there may be still be access to other settings, including changing the current printer. Therefore a side effect of this dialog display method may be to update that and any other current job settings. The method returns true if the user confirmed the dialog whether or not any changes are made.

If the job is not in a state to display the dialog, such as already printing, cancelled or done, then the dialog will not be displayed and the method will return false.

The window owner may be null, but if it is a visible Window, it will be used as the parent.

This method may be called from any thread. If it is called from the FX application thread, then it must either be called from an input event handler or from the run method of a Runnable passed to Platform.runLater. It must not be called during animation or layout processing.

Parameters:

owner - to block input, or null.

Returns:

false if the user opts to cancel the dialog, or the job is not in the new state. That is if it has already started, has failed, or has been cancelled, or ended.

Throws:

java.lang.IllegalStateException - if this method is called during animation or layout processing.

validatePageLayout

PageLayout validatePageLayout(PageLayout pageLayout)

This method can be used to check if a page configuration is possible in the current job configuration. For example if the specified paper size is supported. If the original PageLayout is supported it will be returned. If not, a new PageLayout will be returned that attempts to honour the supplied PageLayout, but adjusted to match the current job configuration.

This method does not update the job configuration.

Parameters:

pageLayout - to be validated

Returns:

a PageLayout that is supported in the current job configuration.

Throws:

java.lang.NullPointerException - if the pageLayout parameter is null.

printPage

public boolean printPage(PageLayout pageLayout,
                         Node node)

Print the specified node using the specified page layout. The page layout will override the job default for this page only. If the job state is CANCELED, ERROR or DONE, this method will return false.

This method may be called from any thread. If it is called from the FX application thread, then it must either be called from an input event handler or from the run method of a Runnable passed to Platform.runLater. It must not be called during animation or layout processing.

Parameters:

pageLayout - Layout for this page.

node - The node to print.

Returns:

whether rendering was successful.

Throws:

java.lang.NullPointerException - if either parameter is null.

java.lang.IllegalStateException - if this method is called during animation or layout processing.

printPage

public boolean printPage(Node node)

Print the specified node. The page layout is the job default. If the job state is CANCELED, ERROR or DONE, this method will return false.

Parameters:

node - The node to print.

Returns:

whether rendering was successful.

Throws:

java.lang.NullPointerException - if the node parameter is null.

jobStatusProperty

public <any> jobStatusProperty()

A read only object property representing the current JobStatus

See Also:

getJobStatus()

getJobStatus

public PrinterJob.JobStatus getJobStatus()

Obtain the current status of the job.

Returns:

the current JobStatus

cancelJob

public void cancelJob()

Cancel the underlying print job at the earliest opportunity. It may return immediately without waiting for the job cancellation to be complete in case this would block the FX user thread for any period of time. If printing is in process at that time, then typically this means cancellation is after the current page is rendered. The job status is updated to CANCELED only once that has happened. Thus determining that the job is CANCELED requires monitoring the job status.

The call has no effect if the job has already been requested to be CANCELED, or is in the state ERROR or DONE. For example it will not de-queue from the printer a job that has already been spooled for printing. Once a job is cancelled, it is not valid to call any methods which render new content or change job state.

endJob

public boolean endJob()

If the job can be successfully spooled to the printer queue this will return true. Note : this does not mean the job already printed as that could entail waiting for minutes or longer, even where implementable.

A return value of false means the job could not be spooled, or was already completed.

Successful completion will also update job status to DONE, at which point the job can no longer be used.

Calling endJob() on a job for which no pages have been printed is equivalent to calling {code cancelJob()}.

Returns:

true if job is spooled, false if its not, or the job was already in a completed state.

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object