CUPrint

A project to make printing at Columbia University super-duper easy

WISH LIST

• Drag-n-drop!
• Android interface!
• Dynamic re-routing!
• Maybe we could scrape the queue, and figure out if printers get heavily used during certain times
• Display printer availability from Owl Printers
• We can use rate of add to queue/rate of prints from queue/number of computers occupied in a lab to estimate load on a printer
• Autocomplete UNIs? Only 8000 undergrads, prefix sharing should be usefully low
• Geolocate (ish?) to estimate nearest printer
• Pick more than one file
• Pick more than one printer (fits with re-routing)
• Drop-down menu -> buttons

Current Status

• Can specify printer and UNI.
• Can enter # of copies and page ranges.
• Double sided printing
• Can print the following file formats
  • Portable Document Format (.pdf)
  • PostScript (.ps)
  • Open Document Formats (.odt,.odp,ods)
  • Microsoft Office 97-2003 Formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt)
  • Office Open XML Formats (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx)

Dependencies

• Flask (web interface)
• PyCUPS (printing)
• ZeroMQ (message passing)
• PyZMQ (message passing)
• Libreoffice/Openoffice (for file conversion)
• Unoconv (for file conversion)

Usage

• To start the server, use ./manage.py runapp.
• To run the worker, use ./manage.py runworker.