Hi fellow self-hosting lemmings,
In an SME setting, I’m looking for a service to regularly fetch mails from an IMAP server and print incoming mails and attachments on a local network printer based on rules (e.g., only print mails where the subject contains a specific word.)
Does a solution like that exist, ideally with a browser frontend to set it up?
Thank you!
You might use Node Red with this node to obtain the attachments, then send to an IPP printer with this node.
Now this is an idea I like. Thank you so much, I never would have considered Node-RED for this application!
BTW, if you do end up using this method, I’d love to see your implementation some day. Node Red is so useful and intuitive IMO, and people sharing their solutions is valuable.
One deep dive into the IPP protocol, printer drivers, and specific supported formats (“what the hell is an octet-stream?!”) later, I have something functional.
I’m not a JS guy, so I don’t know if it’s a very node-y way to do it. But except for the pages coming out a little scaled this works:
Edit to briefly explain what this does: The mail node ingests unread emails and passes them forward to a function node that checks for pdf attachments. Those are passed forward one by one to a function node that takes care of converting the pdf to pcl (my printer supposedly knows how to handle pdf 1.7 but doesn’t, so I had to resort to this) and passes it to the IPP node as a data buffer .
spoiler
[ { "id": "86082bed0ed29155", "type": "IPPrint", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "Print to Network", "IP": "10.10.0.19:631/ipp/print", "JOB_name": "default_job_name", "authuser": "", "authpassword": "", "authcheck": "", "x": 780, "y": 120, "wires": [ [ "b1a8b92ede8a78a5" ] ] }, { "id": "b1a8b92ede8a78a5", "type": "debug", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "debug 1", "active": true, "tosidebar": true, "console": false, "tostatus": false, "complete": "true", "targetType": "full", "statusVal": "", "statusType": "auto", "x": 960, "y": 120, "wires": [] }, { "id": "1fb7fc3843af8e05", "type": "function", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "Convert PDF to PCL", "func": "const baseOptions = {\n width: 2480,\n height: 3508,\n density: 300,\n preserveAspectRatio: true,\n format: 'PCL'\n};\n\n// prepare conversion function\nconst convert = await pdf2pic.fromBuffer(msg.payload, baseOptions);\n// set additional conversion options\nconvert.setGM\n// bulk convert the whole input buffer to a pcl output buffer\nconvert.bulk(-1, {responseType: \"buffer\"}).then((outputs)=>{\n // pass each page on to the printer\n outputs.forEach((output, index) => {\n msg.payload = output.buffer;\n if(msg.topic){\n let jobname = msg.topic\n }\n msg.JOBName = (msg.topic ? msg.topic : \"Mailjob\").concat(\" \", index+1, \"/\", outputs.length);\n msg.docFormat = \"application/octet-stream\";\n node.send(msg);\n });\n});\n", "outputs": 1, "timeout": 0, "noerr": 0, "initialize": "", "finalize": "", "libs": [ { "var": "pdf2pic", "module": "pdf2pic" } ], "x": 560, "y": 120, "wires": [ [ "86082bed0ed29155" ] ] }, { "id": "224317e794da3cb5", "type": "e-mail in", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "Mail ingest", "protocol": "IMAP", "server": "test.mail.com", "useSSL": false, "autotls": "always", "port": "143", "authtype": "BASIC", "saslformat": true, "token": "oauth2Response.access_token", "box": "INBOX", "disposition": "Read", "criteria": "UNSEEN", "repeat": "300", "fetch": "auto", "inputs": 0, "x": 160, "y": 80, "wires": [ [ "2fedaa18c9394b89" ] ] }, { "id": "2fedaa18c9394b89", "type": "function", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "PDF Filter", "func": "if(msg.attachments.length > 0){\n msg.attachments.forEach(function(attachment) {\n if(attachment.contentType == \"application/pdf\"){\n var newmsg = {};\n newmsg.topic = msg.topic;\n newmsg.filename = attachment.filename;\n newmsg.payload = attachment.content;\n node.send(newmsg);\n }\n });\n}", "outputs": 1, "timeout": 0, "noerr": 0, "initialize": "", "finalize": "", "libs": [], "x": 360, "y": 80, "wires": [ [ "1fb7fc3843af8e05" ] ] }, { "id": "3d8f7ad8e6b56d46", "type": "inject", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "Test print", "props": [ { "p": "payload" }, { "p": "topic", "vt": "str" } ], "repeat": "", "crontab": "", "once": false, "onceDelay": 0.1, "topic": "", "payload": "", "payloadType": "date", "x": 160, "y": 160, "wires": [ [ "683ed6fe7c10540d" ] ] }, { "id": "683ed6fe7c10540d", "type": "file in", "z": "08cc7c15668f2f65", "name": "", "filename": "/data/2517.pdf", "filenameType": "str", "format": "", "chunk": false, "sendError": false, "encoding": "none", "allProps": false, "x": 340, "y": 160, "wires": [ [ "1fb7fc3843af8e05" ] ] } ]I actually use NR to keep an eye on my CUPS print queue for jobs waiting, and it sends a wakeup to a tasmota wall plug to turn on the printer and then turn it off in 5 minutes. This lets me have a network printer always ready, but not using power in idle. This might work in with your project.
spoiler
[{“id”:“6f4056a8.eb32”,“type”:“inject”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:“”,“props”:[{“p”:“payload”},{“p”:“topic”,“vt”:“str”}],“repeat”:“60”,“crontab”:“”,“once”:false,“onceDelay”:0.1,“topic”:“”,“payload”:“”,“payloadType”:“date”,“x”:250,“y”:240,“wires”:[[“5e57130e.32c56c”]]},{“id”:“5a7d9cb9.82e2ac”,“type”:“html”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:“”,“property”:“payload”,“outproperty”:“payload”,“tag”:“.list > tbody:nth-child(2) > tr:nth-child(1) > td:nth-child(1) > a:nth-child(1)”,“ret”:“html”,“as”:“single”,“x”:370,“y”:300,“wires”:[[“667f6421.e13924”]]},{“id”:“5e57130e.32c56c”,“type”:“http request”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:“”,“method”:“GET”,“ret”:“txt”,“paytoqs”:“ignore”,“url”:“http://10.10.251.50:631/jobs?“,“tls”:”“,“persist”:false,“proxy”:”“,“authType”:”“,“x”:420,“y”:240,“wires”:[[“5a7d9cb9.82e2ac”]]},{“id”:“667f6421.e13924”,“type”:“split”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:”“,“splt”:”\\n",“spltType”:“str”,“arraySplt”:1,“arraySpltType”:“len”,“stream”:false,“addname”:“”,“x”:180,“y”:380,“wires”:[[“836d047d.c5a41”]]},{“id”:“836d047d.c5a41”,“type”:“switch”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:“”,“property”:“payload”,“propertyType”:“msg”,“rules”:[{“t”:“eq”,“v”:“HP_LaserJet_4000_Series”,“vt”:“str”},{“t”:“null”}],“checkall”:“true”,“repair”:false,“outputs”:2,“x”:330,“y”:380,“wires”:[[“474b85e1.a317ec”],[]]},{“id”:“be8ec1f.57fad4”,“type”:"Tasmota Switch”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“broker”:“4ba22e0f7edb8148”,“device”:“tasmota_LJ4000”,“name”:“”,“outputs”:1,“uidisabler”:false,“fullTopic”:“”,“cmndPrefix”:“”,“statPrefix”:“”,“telePrefix”:“”,“x”:700,“y”:380,“wires”:[[]]},{“id”:“474b85e1.a317ec”,“type”:“trigger”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:“”,“op1”:“1”,“op2”:“0”,“op1type”:“str”,“op2type”:“str”,“duration”:“5”,“extend”:true,“overrideDelay”:false,“units”:“min”,“reset”:“”,“bytopic”:“all”,“topic”:“topic”,“outputs”:1,“x”:510,“y”:380,“wires”:[[“be8ec1f.57fad4”]]},{“id”:“316b902c.639208”,“type”:“comment”,“z”:“f268801.6c137”,“name”:“LaserJet 4k Wakeup on Print”,“info”:“”,“x”:140,“y”:200,“wires”:[]},{“id”:“4ba22e0f7edb8148”,“type”:“tasmota-mqtt-broker”,“name”:“”,“broker”:“localhost”,“port”:“1883”,“clientid”:“”,“usetls”:false,“keepalive”:“60”,“cleansession”:true}]
I do actually use Node-RED myself for my zigbee home automation. Funny how it never crossed my mind to pick it up for this. It’s perfect as I want a non-programmer to be able to maintain it.
I doubt my solution will be much more than ingest and print, but I’ll report back. Still fighting to get that hp p3015 to do something over IPP…