Enumate Printers and Switch Default printer(s) on fly

[Gregery D Engle]

I'm wanting to get a list of all currently installed printers in a
users computer and then list them in a listbox and the user selects
the printer and the program will make it the default printer.

I'm doing this because our MRP package now prints to the default
printer and some users have two or more printers installed over a
network.

Thanks

------------------
-Greg

[Semen Matusovski]

Greg --
Somehow I wrote following code.
But honestly in real programs I prefer to use default printer with a possibillity to select another
(using PrintDlg).

   #Compile Exe
   #Register None
   #Dim All
   #Include "WIN32API.INC"

   Function PbMain()
      Local i As Long, dwNeeded As Long, dwReturned As Long, MaxEl As Long
      EnumPrinters %PRINTER_ENUM_LOCAL, ByVal %NULL, 5, _
         ByVal 0, ByVal 0, dwNeeded, dwReturned
      MaxEl = Ceil(dwNeeded / 20) ' 20 is length of Printer_Info_5
      ReDim PInfo5(1 To MaxEl) As Printer_Info_5
      EnumPrinters %PRINTER_ENUM_LOCAL, ByVal %NULL, 5, _
         ByVal VarPtr(PInfo5(1)), dwNeeded, dwNeeded, dwReturned
      For i = 1 To dwReturned
         MsgBox PInfo5(i)[email protected] + "," + PInfo5(i)[email protected], , _
            "Printer" + Str$(i)
      Next
   End Function

------------------
E-MAIL: [email protected]

[Gregery D Engle]

Semen,

Your program lists all the printers and I agree that I prefer to
print to the default printer with a dropdown list of the
remaining printers. Unforuntetly our MRP package doesn't do this
and I don't want the users to have to go into printers and change
it manually.

So does anyone have any code to set the default printer?

Thanks



------------------
-Greg

[Don Dickinson]

This might not be the "microsoft approved" way, but it should work. Use write profile string to make an entry in the win.ini file for the printer.
Use the routine below to obtain a dc for any printer. Once you have the dc, just use StartDoc on that dc, etc and print to it to create the pages.
(note - I use wrappers around Get/WriteProfileString, so you'll have to substitute your own code.)

'- Set the default printer
WriteWinIni("WINDOWS","DEVICE","\\unr_server\don\hp5p")

'- Get the default printer
zPrinter = GetWinIni("WINDOWS", "DEVICE", "")

Note that this code works on my Win2K machine, even though I don't see a [windows] section in the win.ini file. Windows must intercept this call.
--Don


------------------
www.basicguru.com/dickinson

[Semen Matusovski]

Don --
There are problems under Win2000 with this way.
I already posted a code and found problems.

MSDN talks
[quote]
To set the default printer on Windows 2000, call SetDefaultPrinter. To set the default printer to earlier operating systems, call GetProfileString, WriteProfileString, and SendNotifyMessage, as shown in the following code:

// read PrinterPorts section from win.ini
// returned string should be of the form "driver,port,timeout,timeout", i.e. "winspool,LPT1:,15,45".
GetProfileString(TEXT("Windows"),TEXT("Device"),_T(",,,"),m_szName, COUNTOF(m_szName));
WriteProfileString(TEXT("Windows"),TEXT("Device"),pszPrinterName ));
#if WM_WININICHANGE != WM_SETTINGCHANGE
// Old message type; for windows95
SendNotifyMessage(HWND_BROADCAST,WM_WININICHANGE,0,(LPARAM)szWindows);
#endif
// New message type
SendNotifyMessage(HWND_BROADCAST,WM_SETTINGCHANGE,0,(LPARAM)szWindows);
[/code]

I selected "old" way. But it looks that under Win2000 only new way works.
Somebody can test - does old way work on Win98/95/NT4 ?
If works, I'll simply add a new function exactly for Win2000.

------------------
E-MAIL: [email protected]

[Mike Doty]

'Suggestion:
'If using NT use PRINTER_INFO_4 and %PRINTER_ENUM_CONNECTIONS

#DIM ALL         'Place all printer names in PRINTERS.INI
#REGISTER NONE
#COMPILE EXE
$INCLUDE  "win32api.inc"
FUNCTION IsWin95() EXPORT AS LONG
  LOCAL vi AS OSVERSIONINFO
  vi.dwOsVersionInfoSize = SIZEOF(vi)
  GetVersionEx vi
  FUNCTION = (vi.dwPlatformId = %VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_WINDOWS)
END FUNCTION
FUNCTION GetPrinterNames() AS STRING
  DIM Level AS LONG
  DIM Needed AS LONG
  DIM Returned AS LONG
  DIM Element AS LONG
  DIM EntireString AS STRING
  IF IsWin95 THEN Level = 5 ELSE Level = 4  'Printer structure to use
  IF Level = 5 THEN
     'First call to see how big WINDOWS 95 printer_info_5 structure
     CALL EnumPrinters(%PRINTER_ENUM_LOCAL, _
              BYVAL 0, _
              BYVAL Level, _
              BYVAL %NULL, _
              BYVAL 0, _
              needed&, _       'Size of structure in bytes
              returned&)
     DIM PI5(0) AS PRINTER_INFO_5
     REDIM PI5(needed& \ SIZEOF(PI5(0)))
     CALL EnumPrinters(%PRINTER_ENUM_LOCAL, _
              BYVAL 0, _
              BYVAL Level, _
              BYVAL VARPTR(PI5(0)), _
              needed&, _
              needed&, _
              returned&)                    'Number of printers
    FOR Element = 0 TO Returned& - 1
        EntireString = EntireString + PI5(Element)[email protected]+","
    NEXT
    ERASE PI5
  ELSE  '                      Windows NT
    'First call to see how big WINDOWS NT printer_info_4 structure
    CALL EnumPrinters(%PRINTER_ENUM_CONNECTIONS, _
            BYVAL 0, _
            BYVAL Level, _
            BYVAL %NULL, _
            BYVAL 0, _
            needed&, _  'Size of structure returned in needed&
            returned&)
    DIM PI4(0) AS PRINTER_INFO_4
    REDIM PI4(needed& \ SIZEOF(PI4(0)))
    CALL EnumPrinters(%PRINTER_ENUM_CONNECTIONS, _ 'Use CONNECTIONS with NT
            BYVAL 0, _
            BYVAL Level, _
            BYVAL VARPTR(PI4(0)), _
            needed&, _
            needed&, _
            returned&)                      'Number of printers
    FOR Element = 0 TO Returned& - 1
      EntireString = EntireString + PI4(Element)[email protected]+","
    NEXT
    ERASE PI4
  END IF
  GetPrinterNames = LEFT$(EntireString,LEN(EntireString)-1)
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
  DIM PrinterNames AS STRING           'Will hold returned printer names
  DIM Count AS LONG                    'Count number of printer names
  DIM Org AS LONG
  DIM EachPrinter AS STRING
  PrinterNames = GetPrinterNames()     'Assign printer names from function
  Count = PARSECOUNT(PrinterNames)     'Number of concatenated printer names
  IF count THEN
     OPEN "PRINTERS.INI" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
     FOR org = 1 TO Count
       EachPrinter = PARSE$(PrinterNames$,Org)
       PRINT #1,EachPrinter 'comma separated printer names
       'PRINT EachPrinter
     NEXT
     CLOSE #1
  END IF
  'WAITKEY$
END FUNCTION

------------------