Introduction

This software is designed to fetch printouts from the ALMA API and print them on locally defined printers.

It does not require a user to be logged into the host computer.

This software is based on Alma-print-daemon by ExLibrisGroup

Requirements

• A computer or server running Windows (10/11/server2016/server2019/server2022)
• A recent LTS version of nodejs (18 or higher)
• Network access to ALMA API (direct or via proxy)
• One or more locally defined printers (direct or network printers)

Installation

Installation can be done in multiple ways depending on the network access of the host computer

Variant 1

Requirements

• Git for Windows installed on the host
• NPM (Node Package Manager) installed in the host (comes as part of nodejs install)
• Network access to Git repository (GitHub)
• Network access to NPM repository (https://registry.npmjs.org)

Step by Step

open CMD or Powershell and navigate to the place of installation

git clone this project

cd alma-print-nogui

npm install

Variant 2

If the host computer does not have the required network access Variant 1 can be done on another computer and the resulting folder can be copied to the host.

Variant 3

If Git for Windows is not an option you can download the code as a .zip from GitHub

Setup

Setup consists of 4 steps

Step 1

Edit the config file, see also config/config.sample for inspiration

• "apiPath" : "https://api-**.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/almaws/v1" replace ** with your region (eu,na...)
• "apiKey":"*********************" replace *** with an ALMA API key with read access to /config and read&write access to /tasklist
• "proxy":"http://proxy.contoso.com:8080" OPTIONAL, if set requires protocol(http://) FQDN(proxy.someurl.com) and port (:8080)
• "logTimestampFormat":"YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss" how timestamps should be formated (see winstonjs timestamp format for details)
• "maxLogAgeInDays":30 how long should logs be kept
• "logConfig":[] Array containing log destinations
  • "level":"info" defines what messages should be logged, in this case "info" and above ("warn" & "error") (see winstonjs log levels for details)
  • "type":"console" defines console as output (CMD or Powershell etc.)
  • "format":"text" defines how messages should be formated, "text" is default, "json" is another option
  • "type":"file" defines a file as output, requires "folder", "extension" and "destination" or "rotate" options to be set aswell
  • "rotate":true RECOMMENDED: sets the filename as the current date so it rotates automatically, if this is set "destination" is not required
  • "destination":"test" sets the filename as "test", this option may lead to issues
  • "folder":"log" sets the folder for logfiles as "log/"
  • "extension":".txt" sets the file extension as ".txt"
• "pdfRetention":true defines if the generated PDF's should be kept or deleted immediatly
• "maxPDFAgeInDays":30 how long should PDF's be kept
• "almaPrinterProfiles":[] Array containing printer configurations
  • "almaPrinter":"************" id of an alma Printer with printouts queue, to get these id's run node test-api.js NOTE: to use node test-api.js there should be a config with "apiPath" and "apiKey"
  • "localPrinter":"**************" name of a local Printer, to get these run node test-local.js. NOTE: these strings have a different format than with the original ALMA Print Daemon
  • "orientation":"portrait" or "landscape"
  • "color":"true" or "false"
  • "letterFormat":"A4" or other format supported by your printer
  • "marginTop":"50" margin in pixels
  • "marginBottom":"50" margin in pixels
  • "marginLeft":"50" margin in pixels
  • "marginRight":"50" margin in pixels
  • "copies":1 number of copies that should be printed

Step 2

Test the config by running node test-api.js and node test-local.js node test-api.js should output a list of ALMA printers that the API key has access to node test-local.js should output a list of locally defined printers

now test the script by running node print.js

Step 3

Setup Windows Task Scheduler to run print.js regularly

• Hit the Windows key an type Task Scheduler and hit Enter
• Navigate to Task Scheduler Library in the left pane
• Click Create Task... in the right pane
• In the Tab General Fill out Name and Description and check ````Run wether user is logged on or not```
  • If you choose to use a different user make sure that that user has access to the install location on the disk and that the user has the printers installed (printers are not always installed for all users)
• In the Tab Triggers click on New...
  • in the Begin the Task: dropdown select On a schedule
  • Select Daily or Weekly (Weekly allows to not run the script on certain days of the week)
  • Define a Start: date and time (06:00:00 for example)
  • If you selected Weekly select which days of the week you want the script to run
  • check Repeat task every: and select the interval you want it to run (5 minutes for example, you can also change the value for something that is not in the dropdown by using the keyboard)
  • set for a duration of (16 hours for example)
  • check Stop task if it runs longer than: and set it to a reasonable value (1 hour for example)
  • check Enabled
• In the Tab Actions click on New...
  • Define Action: as Start a program
  • Define Program/script as the install path of nodejs (usually C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe)
  • Define Add arguments as the location of print.js (C:\alma-print-nogui\print.js for example)
  • Define Start in as the location of the script (C:\alma-print-nogui\ for example)
• In the Tab Conditions
  • Uncheck Start the task only if the computer is idle for
  • Uncheck Start the task only if the computer is on AC power
  • OPTIONAL: check Wake the computer to run this task if the host is not a server running 24/7
  • OPTIONAL: check Start only if the following network connection is available and set to Any connection
• In the Tab Settings
  • check Allow task to be run on demand
  • check Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed
  • check If the task fails restart every and set to reasonable value (1 minute)
  • check Attempt to restart up to and set to reasonable value (60) (this will try to restart every minute for an hour)
  • check Stop task if it runs longer than: and set it to a reasonable value (1 hour for example)
  • check If the running tsak does net end when requested, force it to stop
  • in If the task is already running, then the following rule applies set it to Do not start a new instance
• If you press OK the defined users password will be asked, this will also happen everytime you change a setting.
• Right click on the newly created task a select Run
• check the logs if the script ran successfully

Step 4

repeat Step 3 for clean.js to run once a day or once a week to delete old logs/pdf's