android.printservice

Provides classes for implementing print services. Print services are plug-in components that know how to talk to printers via some standard protocols. These services serve as a bridge between the system and the printers. Hence, the printer and print protocol specific implementation is factored out of the system and can be independently developed and updated.

A print service implementation should extend PrintService and implement its abstract methods. Also the print service has to follow the contract for managing PrintJob s.

The system is responsible for starting and stopping a print service depending on whether there are active print jobs for the printers managed by the service. The print service should also perform printer discovery in a timely fashion to ensure good user experience. The interaction between the system and the print service during printer discovery is encapsulated by a PrinterDiscoverySession instance created by the print service when requested by the system.