Limiting/controlling the users ability to print in Java.

Question

I am looking to right an application that limits the number of times a user can print something, its there anything in Java that will allow me to control the printing dialogue to this aim?

Im going to look into these: http://www.wildcrest.com/Software/J2PrinterWorks/documentation/J2Printer14.html

http://www.softframeworks.com/products/products.php

Answer 1

This is probably something you'll need to implement yourself as it is too-specific a requirement to have been included in the JDK's API.

Assuming you've developed a standalone Swing application you could consider using the Preferences class to store the number of times a user has printed a document for a given date. On Windows this translates to storing information in the registry and is therefore "hidden" from the user to a certain extent, but would allow you to reset the value in an emergency using regedit.

The advantage of this approach is that the user cannot circumvent the print-threshold by simply restarting the application.

Answer 2

I decided to go with J2Printer. I allows the suppression of the print dialogue.