[Desktop12.04-Topic] Google Cloud Print Integration

[Till Kamppeter]

Blueprint:

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-p-google-cloud-print-integration

Google Cloud Print allows printing on your local printers from whereever 
you can send jobs to the Google Cloud Print service, especially from 
mobile devices, like smartphones, tablets, and computers running Google 
Chrome OS.

Google itself only offers to either use HP ePrint printers (network 
printers which can receive print jobs by e-mail) or to use the Chromium 
browser as server to share the local printers to Cloud Print. The latter 
is officially only supported under Windows and Mac OS X, but under Linux 
it can be enabled through a secret "Cheat Mode", entering the URL 
"about:Flags" and enabling the “Cloud Print Proxy” entry, then clicking 
the wrench at the upper right and selecting "Preferences" -> "Under The 
Hood" and there will be a "Google Cloud Print" section near the end of 
the list.

So these methods are awkward, running a full-featured browser only to 
make available ones printers or to have to use a printer out of small 
choice of models.

There is also a "cloudprint" package in Universe which is a small 
lightweight command line tool to replace the Cloud Print functionality 
of Chromium, but usual desktop users are not aware of that.

What we would need is something like a capplet in GNOME Control Center 
to (de)activate and configure Google Cloud Print. This GUI needs to be 
designed and it also needs to be decided which user daemon will be used 
to enable Cloud Print, the one of Chromium or the "cloudprint" package.

    Till