jueves, 22 marzo 2007

Choosing a printer programmatically in Jasper Reports

Jasper Reports is in my opinion by far the best report engine available for Java, even more, it's open source! In the project page there is enough information available to build simple and some advanced reports. If you need more help you can buy some guides at the project's owner commercial page JasperSoft There is also technical support available to be purchased.

Today I'll show you how to choose a printer programmatically.

JasperPrint print = JasperFillManager.fillReport( this.class.getResource("/classpath/yourReport.jasper").getPath(), new HashMap(), new yourReportDataSource());
PrinterJob job = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
/* Create an array of PrintServices */
PrintService[] services = PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(null, null);
int selectedService = 0;
/* Scan found services to see if anyone suits our needs */
for(int i = 0; i < services.length;i++){
if(services[i].getName().toUpperCase().contains("Your printer's name")){
/*If the service is named as what we are querying we select it */
selectedService = i;
}
}
job.setPrintService(services[selectedService]);
PrintRequestAttributeSet printRequestAttributeSet = new HashPrintRequestAttributeSet();
MediaSizeName mediaSizeName = MediaSize.findMedia(4,4,MediaPrintableArea.INCH);
printRequestAttributeSet.add(mediaSizeName);
printRequestAttributeSet.add(new Copies(1));
JRPrintServiceExporter exporter;
exporter = new JRPrintServiceExporter();
exporter.setParameter(JRExporterParameter.JASPER_PRINT, print);
/* We set the selected service and pass it as a paramenter */
exporter.setParameter(JRPrintServiceExporterParameter.PRINT_SERVICE, services[selectedService]);
exporter.setParameter(JRPrintServiceExporterParameter.PRINT_SERVICE_ATTRIBUTE_SET, services[selectedService].getAttributes());
exporter.setParameter(JRPrintServiceExporterParameter.PRINT_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTE_SET, printRequestAttributeSet);
exporter.setParameter(JRPrintServiceExporterParameter.DISPLAY_PAGE_DIALOG, Boolean.FALSE);
exporter.setParameter(JRPrintServiceExporterParameter.DISPLAY_PRINT_DIALOG, Boolean.TRUE);
exporter.exportReport();

In the above code you can see how to accomplish our purpose. The first part of all is generating our JasperPrint, this is common to all methods of report printing. Then comes the important part. First we look for the available printServices in the computer. Second, we scan the found services to see if there is anyone that suits our needs. Finally we set the selected print service in the exporter.

You will also find methods to choose the paper output and the number of copies to print.

Technorati Tags: java j2se print report jasper jasperReports printservice printerjob