javax.print
Class ServiceUI

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--javax.print.ServiceUI

public class ServiceUI

extends Object

This class is a collection of UI convenience methods which provide a graphical user dialog for browsing print services looked up through the Java Print Service API.

The dialogs follow a standard pattern of acting as a continue/cancel option for a user as well as allowing the user to select the print service to use and specify choices such as paper size and number of copies.

The dialogs are designed to work with pluggable print services though the public APIs of those print services.

If a print service provides any vendor extensions these may be made accessible to the user through a vendor supplied tab panel Component. Such a vendor extension is encouraged to use Swing! and to support its accessibility APIs. The vendor extensions should return the settings as part of the AttributeSet. Applications which want to preserve the user settings should use those settings to specify the print job. Note that this class is not referenced by any other part of the Java Print Service and may not be included in profiles which cannot depend on the presence of the AWT packages.

Constructor Summary

ServiceUI()

Method Summary

static PrintService

printDialog(GraphicsConfiguration gc, int x, int y, PrintService[] services, PrintService defaultService, DocFlavor flavor, PrintRequestAttributeSet attributes) Presents a dialog to the user for selecting a print service (printer).

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

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

Constructor Detail

ServiceUI

public ServiceUI()

Method Detail

printDialog

public static PrintService printDialog(GraphicsConfiguration gc,
                                       int x,
                                       int y,
                                       PrintService[] services,
                                       PrintService defaultService,
                                       DocFlavor flavor,
                                       PrintRequestAttributeSet attributes)
                                throws HeadlessException

Presents a dialog to the user for selecting a print service (printer). It is displayed at the location specified by the application and is modal. If the specification is invalid or would make the dialog not visible it will be displayed at a location determined by the implementation. The dialog blocks its calling thread and is application modal.

The dialog may include a tab panel with custom UI lazily obtained from the PrintService's ServiceUIFactory when the PrintService is browsed. The dialog will attempt to locate a MAIN_UIROLE first as a JComponent, then as a Panel. If there is no ServiceUIFactory or no matching role the custom tab will be empty or not visible.

The dialog returns the print service selected by the user if the user OK's the dialog and null if the user cancels the dialog.

An application must pass in an array of print services to browse. The array must be non-null and non-empty. Typically an application will pass in only PrintServices capable of printing a particular document flavor.

An application may pass in a PrintService to be initially displayed. A non-null parameter must be included in the array of browsable services. If this parameter is null a service is chosen by the implementation.

An application may optionally pass in the flavor to be printed. If this is non-null choices presented to the user can be better validated against those supported by the services. An application must pass in a PrintRequestAttributeSet for returning user choices. On calling the PrintRequestAttributeSet may be empty, or may contain application-specified values.

These are used to set the initial settings for the initially displayed print service. Values which are not supported by the print service are ignored. As the user browses print services, attributes and values are copied to the new display. If a user browses a print service which does not support a particular attribute-value, the default for that service is used as the new value to be copied.

If the user cancels the dialog, the returned attributes will not reflect any changes made by the user. A typical basic usage of this method may be :

 PrintService[] services = PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(
                            DocFlavor.INPUT_STREAM.JPEG, null);
 AttributeSet attributes = new PrintRequestHashAttributeSet();
 PrintService service =  ServiceUI.printDialog(null, 50, 50,
                                               services, null,
                                               attributes);
 if (service != null) {
  ... print ...
 }
 

Parameters:

gc - used to select screen. null means primary or default screen.

x - location of dialog including border in screen coordinates

y - location of dialog including border in screen coordinates

services - to be browsable, must be non-null.

defaultService - - initial PrintService to display.

flavor - - the flavor to be printed, or null.

attributes - on input is the initial application supplied preferences. This cannot be null but may be empty. On output the attributes reflect changes made by the user.

Returns:

print service selected by the user, or null if the user cancelled the dialog.

Throws:

HeadlessException - if GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless() returns true.

IllegalArgumentException - if services is null or empty, or attributes is null, or the initial PrintService is not in the list of browsable services.