PrintService.java

/* PrintService.java --
   Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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package javax.print;

import javax.print.attribute.Attribute;
import javax.print.attribute.AttributeSet;
import javax.print.attribute.PrintServiceAttribute;
import javax.print.attribute.PrintServiceAttributeSet;
import javax.print.event.PrintServiceAttributeListener;

/**
 * A <code>PrintService</code> represents a printer available for printing.
 * <p>
 * The print service hereby may be a real physical printer device, a printer
 * group with same capabilities or a logical print service (like for example 
 * a PDF writer). The print service is used to query the capabilities of the
 * represented printer instance. If a suitable print service is found it is
 * used to create a print job for the actual printing process. 
 * </p>
 * @see javax.print.DocPrintJob
 * 
 * @author Michael Koch (konqueror@gmx.de)
 */
public interface PrintService
{
  /**
   * Creates and returns a new print job which is capable to handle all 
   * the document flavors supported by this print service.
   * 
   * @return The created print job object.
   */
  DocPrintJob createPrintJob();
  
  /**
   * Determines if two services refer to the same underlying service.
   * 
   * @param obj the service to check against
   * 
   * @return <code>true</code> if both services refer to the same underlying
   * service, <code>false</code> otherwise.
   */
  boolean equals(Object obj);
  
  /**
   * Returns the value of the single specified attribute.
   * 
   * @param category the category of a <code>PrintServiceAttribute</code>
   * 
   * @return The value of the attribute, or <code>null</code> if the attribute
   * category is not supported by this print service implementation.
   * 
   * @throws NullPointerException if category is <code>null</code>.
   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if category is not a class that
   * implements <code>PrintServiceAttribute</code>.
   */
  PrintServiceAttribute getAttribute(Class category);
  
  /**
   * Returns the attributes describing this print service. The returned 
   * attributes set is unmodifiable and represents the current state of
   * the print service. As some print service attributes may change 
   * (depends on the print service implementation) a subsequent call to
   * this method may return a different set. To monitor changes a 
   * <code>PrintServiceAttributeListener</code> may be registered. 
   * 
   * @return All the description attributes of this print service.
   * @see #addPrintServiceAttributeListener(PrintServiceAttributeListener)
   */
  PrintServiceAttributeSet getAttributes();

  /**
   * Determines and returns the default value for a given attribute category
   * of this print service.
   * <p>
   * A return value of <code>null</code> means either that the print service
   * does not support the attribute category or there is no default value
   * available for this category. To distinguish these two case one can test
   * with {@link #isAttributeCategorySupported(Class)} if the category is 
   * supported.
   * </p>
   * 
   * @param category the category of the attribute
   * 
   * @return The default value, or <code>null</code>.
   * 
   * @throws NullPointerException if <code>category</code> is <code>null</code>
   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if <code>category</code> is a class
   * not implementing <code>Attribute</code> 
   */
  Object getDefaultAttributeValue(Class category);
  
  /**
   * Returns the name of this print service.
   * This may be the value of the <code>PrinterName</code> attribute.
   * 
   * @return The print service name.
   */
  String getName();
  
  /**
   * Returns a factory for UI components if supported by the print service.
   * 
   * @return A factory for UI components or <code>null</code>.
   */
  ServiceUIFactory getServiceUIFactory();
  
  /**
   * Returns all supported attribute categories.
   * 
   * @return The class array of all supported attribute categories.
   */
  Class[] getSupportedAttributeCategories();
  
  /**
   * Determines and returns all supported attribute values of a given 
   * attribute category a client can use when setting up a print job 
   * for this print service. 
   * <p>
   * The returned object may be one of the following types:
   * <ul>
   * <li>A single instance of the attribute category to indicate that any 
   * value will be supported.</li>
   * <li>An array of the same type as the attribute category to test, 
   * containing all the supported values for this category.</li>
   * <li>A single object (of any other type than the attribute category) 
   * which indicates bounds on the supported values.</li> 
   * </ul> 
   * </p>
   * 
   * @param category the attribute category to test
   * @param flavor the document flavor to use, or <code>null</code>
   * @param attributes set of attributes for a supposed job, 
   * or <code>null</code>
   * 
   * @return A object (as defined above) indicating the supported values 
   * for the given attribute category, or <code>null</code> if this print 
   * service doesn't support the given attribute category at all.
   * 
   * @throws NullPointerException if <code>category</code> is null
   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if <code>category</code> is a class not
   * implementing <code>Attribute</code>, or if <code>flavor</code> is not
   * supported
   */
  Object getSupportedAttributeValues(Class category, DocFlavor flavor, AttributeSet attributes);
  
  /**
   * Determines and returns an array of all supported document flavors which
   * can be used to supply print data to this print service. 
   * <p>
   * The supported attribute categories may differ between the supported
   * document flavors. To test for supported attributes one can use the
   * {@link #getUnsupportedAttributes(DocFlavor, AttributeSet)} method with
   * the specific doc flavor and attributes set.
   * </p>
   * 
   * @return The supported document flavors.
   */
  DocFlavor[] getSupportedDocFlavors();
  
  /**
   * Identifies all the unsupported attributes of the given set of attributes
   * in the context of the specified document flavor. 
   * <p>
   * The given flavor has to be supported by the print service (use 
   * {@link #isDocFlavorSupported(DocFlavor)} to verify). The method will 
   * return <code>null</code> if all given attributes are supported. Otherwise
   * a set of unsupported attributes are returned. The attributes in the
   * returned set may be completely unsupported or only the specific requested
   * value. If flavor is <code>null</code> the default document flavor of the 
   * print service is used in the identification process.
   * </p>
   * 
   * @param flavor document flavor to test, or <code>null</code>.
   * @param attributes set of printing attributes for a supposed job
   * 
   * @return <code>null</code> if this print service supports all the given 
   * attributes for the specified doc flavor. Otherwise the set of unsupported
   * attributes are returned.
   * 
   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if <code>flavor</code> is unsupported
   */
  AttributeSet getUnsupportedAttributes(DocFlavor flavor, AttributeSet attributes);

  
  /**
   * Returns a hashcode for this print service.
   * 
   * @return The hashcode.
   */
  int hashCode();
  
  /**
   * Determines a given attribute category is supported by this 
   * print service implementation. This only tests for the category
   * not for any specific values of this category nor in the context
   * of a specific document flavor.
   * 
   * @param category the category to check
   * 
   * @return <code>true</code> if <code>category</code> is supported,
   * <code>false</code> otherwise.
   * 
   * @throws NullPointerException if <code>category</code> is <code>null</code>
   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if <code>category</code> is a class not
   * implementing <code>Attribute</code>.
   */
  boolean isAttributeCategorySupported(Class category);
  
  /**
   * Determines if a given attribute value is supported when creating a print 
   * job for this print service. 
   * <p>
   * If either the document flavor or the provided attributes are 
   * <code>null</code> it is determined if the given attribute value is 
   * supported in some combination of the available document flavors and
   * attributes of the print service. Otherwise it is checked for the
   * specific context of the given document flavor/attributes set.
   * </p>
   * 
   * @param attrval the attribute value to check
   * @param flavor the document flavor to use, or <code>null</code>.
   * @param attributes set of attributes to use, or <code>null</code>.
   * 
   * @return <code>true</code> if the attribute value is supported in the
   * requested context, <code>false</code> otherwise.
   * 
   * @throws NullPointerException if <code>attrval</code> is <code>null</code>.
   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if <code>flavor</code> is not supported
   * by this print service
   */
  boolean isAttributeValueSupported(Attribute attrval, DocFlavor flavor, AttributeSet attributes);
  
  /**
   * Determines if a given document flavor is supported or not.
   * 
   * @param flavor the document flavor to check
   * 
   * @return <code>true</code> if <code>flavor</code> is supported,
   * <code>false</code> otherwise.
   * 
   * @throws NullPointerException if <code>flavor</code> is null.
   */
  boolean isDocFlavorSupported(DocFlavor flavor);
  
  /**
   * Registers a print service attribute listener to this print service.
   * 
   * @param listener the listener to add
   */
  void addPrintServiceAttributeListener(PrintServiceAttributeListener listener);
  
  /**
   * De-registers a print service attribute listener from this print service.
   * 
   * @param listener the listener to remove
   */
  void removePrintServiceAttributeListener(PrintServiceAttributeListener listener);
}