Getting Started with the PrintOS Print Beat API

PrintOS

HP PrintOS is an operating system for Print Service Providers (PSPs) of all sizes and across all segments to help them improve their operations and profitability, and drive performance and growth. PrintOS is built on industry-leading security and privacy standards, is cloud-based, IT-free, and open. And it's accessible any time, anywhere. 

Not a current user of HP PrintOS? For more information on HP PrintOS and it's capabilities or to sign up for a PrintOS account click this link: Learn More about HP PrintOS

Overview:

The PrintOS Print Beat application has a RESTful API which provides an authenticated method for securely querying historic and current information from Print Beat and it's embedded features like Jobs, Color Beat, OEE etc.

Getting Started:

  1. Visit the Authentication page.
  • Follow the directions for generating a Key/Secret within your PrintOS account.
    • PrintOS Connector Role:
      • Print Beat data access - Allows you to query Print Beat data including historic, near-real time, OEE, and Color Beat* (* requires subscription)
      • Jobs Enquiries - Access Job Print Attempts for supported devices
    • If you are not a current PrintOS user or not working with an existing PrintOS user you can use the request form to request a development account. Provide as much detail as possible about what HP products you are working with, and what you are trying to accomplish with your solution.
  • Look over the documentation regarding the HMAC authentication headers and how to generate them.
  1. Head to the Documentation for information about each API endpoint.
  2. View a list of Properties and their descriptions to see what information is available over the API in various contexts.
  3. Detailed information about the Jobs context Markers and paging
  4. Make API calls against your PrintOS account and see response messages from the API Test Page.
  5. To download code samples of authentication and API usage visit our GitHub repository.

Authentication:

Certain HTTP headers are required to authenticate the API calls. These headers are generated using a current timestamp following the ISO 8601 format and a Key/Secret combination. Without the headers, you will receive an authentication required error. The Key/Secret is generated from within your PrintOS account. For more in-depth information on generating these headers see the Authentication page.

Making API Jobs context Calls:

In order to provide a robust solution to all PrintOS Jobs customers we have designed this API to be optimized for less frequent "bulk" calls. We encourage users to retrieve larger unfiltered sets of jobs with larger time intervals between calls.  This behavior is enforced by limiting how often a user can make calls to the API endpoints, and by limiting the criteria that data can be filtered by.

Users are expected to limit the volume of data they are retrieving by retrieving only the jobs that have been modified since the last API call.  The response data will need to be sorted/filtered on the client side for the data of interest.  This process is outlined in more detail on the documentation page.

Questions / Feedback:

Notice any issues or require assistance? Visit our support forums and ask any questions you have. A forum support member will usually respond within 24 hours to assist you.