Using system-config-printer from D-Bus

One of the new features in system-config-printer-1.3 is that various dialogs are can now be invoked using D-Bus.  The details of this are in the file scp-dbus-service.py but here is a summary.

The general idea is that new instances of the New Printer and Printer Properties dialogs, as well as a single instance of the Job Applet, can be requested, and these are given their own object paths.  Each has its own simple interface.

In this way, it would be fairly easy for an application to present a dialog for adjusting the printer properties for a queue, and also for starting a job applet.

Here are some more details:

Bus name: org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing
Object path: /org/fedoraproject/Config/Printing

Interface: org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing

Method NewPrinterDialog

Creates a new instance of the New Printer dialog and returns its object path.

Method PrinterPropertiesDialog

Creates a new instance of the Printer Properties dialog for a given printer name and returns its object path.

Method JobApplet

If a Job Applet (system tray icon) instance is already active, returns its object path; otherwise creates a new one and returns its object path.

Interface: org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing.NewPrinterDialog

Method NewPrinterFromDevice

Show a dialog for creating a new printer, given a device URI and an IEEE 1284 Device ID.

Method ChangePPD

Show a dialog for changing the PPD for an existing printer.

Signal PrinterAdded

The printer has now been added.

Signal PrinterModified

The PPD has now been changed.

Signal DialogCanceled

The dialog has been cancelled by the user.

Interface: org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing.PrinterPropertiesDialog

Method PrintTestPage

Print a test page to this printer.

Signal Finished

The dialog has now closed.

Interface: org.fedoraproject.Config.Printing.JobViewer

Method Quit

Stops the applet.

Signal Finished

The applet is no longer running.