Functions defined by print providers

Article
09/16/2022

Warning

Starting with Windows 10, the APIs which support third-party print providers are deprecated. Microsoft does not recommend any investment into third-party print providers. Additionally, on Windows 8 and newer products where the v4 print driver model is available, third-party print providers may not create or manage queues which use v4 print drivers.

This topic lists all of the functions a print provider can supply. Most of these functions are described in the Microsoft Windows SDK documentation. If the function is described in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK), the function name provides a link to the associated reference page.

All print providers must supply pointers for all listed functions. However, most vendor-supplied print providers are "partial providers" which do not need to support many of the operations defined by the functions. Therefore, many of the function pointers can be NULL. For more information about partial print providers, see Writing a Network Print Provider.

In the following function lists, functions that must be supported are labeled "Required".

All print providers must export the initialization function, InitializePrintProvidor. Pointers to all the other functions must be supplied in a PRINTPROVIDOR structure. (Note that these two names are misspelled, but are consistent with the names that appear in the header file, Winsplp.h.)

Functions are divided into groups, and presented in the following sections:

Initialization function
Print queue management functions
Printer driver management functions
Print job creation functions
Print job scheduling functions
Forms management functions
Print processor management functions
Print monitor management functions
Port management functions
Registry management functions
Other functions

Initialization function

Function	Description
InitializePrintProvidor (Required)	Initializes the print provider and returns pointers to supplied functions.

Print queue management functions

Function	Description
AddPrinter	Adds a print queue to the list of those managed by the print provider, and associates a print processor with the print queue.
AddPrinterConnection	Creates a connection to the specified print queue.
ClosePrinter (Required)	Disables caller access to a specified print queue.
DeletePrinter	Deletes a print queue from the list of those managed by the print provider.
DeletePrinterConnection	Removes a connection to the specified print queue.
EnumPrinters (Required)	Enumerates the list of print queues currently managed by the print provider.
FindClosePrinterChangeNotification	Disables printer change notifications that were enabled by FindFirstPrinterChangeNotification.
FindFirstPrinterChangeNotification	Returns a handle to a wait object that the caller can use to wait for specified printer events.
GetPrinter (Required)	Returns current parameter values for a specified print queue.
OpenPrinter (Required)	Enables caller access to a specified print queue.
RefreshPrinterChangeNotification	Called by router if client calls FindNextPrinterChangeNotification with the PRINTER_NOTIFY_OPTIONS_REFRESH flag set.
ResetPrinter	Modifies a print queue's data type or DEVMODEW structure.
SetPrinter (Required)	Sets parameters for a specified print queue.
WaitForPrinterChange	Obsolete.

Printer driver management functions

Function	Description
AddPrinterDriver	Adds a specified printer's driver files to a specified server.
AddPrinterDriverEx	Same as AddPrinterDriver, with additional parameters.
DeletePrinterDriver	Deletes access to a specified printer's driver files, on a specified server.
DeletePrinterDriverEx	Same as DeletePrinterDriver, with additional parameters.
EnumPrinterDrivers	Returns a list of printer drivers that have been added to a specified server by calling AddPrinterDriver or AddPrinterDriverEx.
GetPrinterDriver	Returns information about a printer driver, which the caller can then pass to AddPrinterDriver. (The returned information is typically obtained from an INF file.)
[GetPrinterDriverEx	Same as GetPrinterDriver, with additional parameters.
GetPrinterDriverDirectory	Returns the name of the server's printer driver directory.

Print job creation functions

Function	Description
AbortPrinter (Required)	Attempts to delete the current job from the specified print queue.
AddJob (Required)	Returns a job identifier and spool file path. The caller uses CreateFile and WriteFile to send data to the spool file.
EndDocPrinter (Required)	Performs job completion operations.
EndPagePrinter	Performs page completion operations.
ReadPrinter	Obtains status information from a bidirectional printer.
ScheduleJob (Required)	Informs the provider that a specified job can be scheduled. The job is specified by a job identifier previously returned by AddJob.
StartDocPrinter (Required)	Prepares the print provider to begin spooling a print job.
StartPagePrinter	Prepares the print provider to receive a print job page.
WritePrinter (Required)	Receives a portion of the print job's data stream.

Note

The AddJob...ScheduleJob sequence is an alternative to the StartDocPrinter...EndDocPrinter sequence.

Print job scheduling functions

Function	Description
EnumJobs (Required)	Returns a list of scheduled print jobs.
GetJob (Required)	Returns job parameters.
SetJob (Required)	Cancels, pauses, resumes, or restarts a print job, or sets job parameters.

Forms management functions

Function	Description
AddForm	Adds a specified form to the list of those available for a specified printer.
DeleteForm	Removes a specified form from the list of those available for a specified printer.
EnumForms	Returns a list of forms available for a specified printer.
GetForm	Returns characteristics of a specified form.
SetForm	Modifies characteristics of a specified form.

Print processor management functions

Function	Description
AddPrintProcessor	Installs a print processor on the specified server and adds it to the list of those that the print provider can call.
DeletePrintProcessor	Deletes a print processor from the list of those that the print provider can call.
EnumPrintProcessorDataTypes	Returns a list of the data types supported by the print processors that are callable by the print provider.
EnumPrintProcessors	Returns the list of print processors that the print provider can call.
GetPrintProcessorDirectory	Returns the directory path in which print processor files must be stored.

Print monitor management functions

Function	Description
AddMonitor	Adds a print monitor to the list of those that the print provider can call.
DeleteMonitor	Deletes a print monitor from the list of those that the print provider can call.
EnumMonitors	Returns the list of print monitors that the print provider can call.

Port management functions

Function	Description
AddPort	Adds a printer port to the list of those available, typically by calling the specified port monitor's AddPortUI function.
AddPortEx(/previous-versions/ff545025(v%3dvs.85))	Same as AddPort, with additional parameters.
ConfigurePort (Required)	Configures a printer port, typically by calling the specified port monitor's ConfigurePortUI function.
DeletePort (Required)	Deletes a printer port from the list of those available, typically by calling the specified port monitor's DeletePortUI function.
EnumPorts (Required)	Returns a list of available printer ports.
SetPort	Sets parameters for a specified printer port.

Registry management functions

Function	Description
DeletePrinterData	Deletes the value currently assigned to a specified value name, under the specified printer's PrinterDriverData key.
DeletePrinterDataEx	Same as DeletePrinterData, with additional parameters.
DeletePrinterKey	Deletes a specified key and its subkeys, if they are currently stored in the registry under the specified printer's PrinterDriverData key.
EnumPrinterData	Returns each of the value names and currently assigned values that are stored in the registry under the specified printer's PrinterDriverData key.
EnumPrinterDataEx	Same as EnumPrinterData, with additional parameters.
EnumPrinterKey	Returns a list of subkeys currently contained in the registry under a specified key name.
GetPrinterData	Returns the value currently assigned to a specified value name, which is stored in the registry under the specified printer's PrinterDriverData key.
GetPrinterDataEx	Same as GetPrinterData, with additional parameters.
SetPrinterData	Stores a specified value name and value in the registry, under the specified printer's PrinterDriverData key.
SetPrinterDataEx	Same as SetPrinterData, with additional parameters.

Other functions

Function	Description
XcvData	Provides a communication path between a port monitor UI DLL and a port monitor server DLL.