PBDLL Print Query

[Alan J Russell]

I would be grateful for any help on the following printing query.

I am trying to print plain text reports, pre-formatted within the program, to a network
printer (Epson SQ1170) in draft mode without using the Windows printing system, by opening
and printing to the print queue as a device. I would prefer not to have to send the data
to a file and then print the file.

The following PB/DLL 6 code will not work at all using a network printer but work perfectly
well using LPT1 with the printer locally attached to the parallel port.

The Visual Basic 6 code however, works perfectly without any problems so am I missing
something here - maybe a missing include file - as there is obviously something in
Visual Basic which is not in PB/DLL?

I have searched through all the back archives in the forums, and it seems that the
code is correct.

I apologise in advance if this has been fully covered and I have missed it, but if
anyone has any suggestions I would be very grateful, as, for printing this type
of report, I would like to keep it as simple as possible without getting into full
Windows printing methods at the moment. I have found numerous code examples, but they
all seem much too complex for what I am trying to achieve.

'==============================================================
'... PB/DLL 6 CODE ...

#Dim All
#Register None
#Compile Exe

#Include"WIN32API.INC"
#Include"COMMCTRL.INC"
#Include"COMDLG32.INC"

Function PbMain() As Long

    Dim i As Long
    Dim strDistribution As String

    strDistribution = "CW,CF,HE,NG,BL,BF,JK,RC"

    Open "\\BATH_PRESS\COMPUTERQ0" For Output As #1
'    OPEN "LPT1:" FOR OUTPUT AS #1

    Print #1, "Date produced:                    " & _
              "BATH PRESS LTD. : DEPARTMENTAL V.O.P REPORT"
    Print #1,
    Print #1, "NUMBER OF DAYS = 5
    Print #1,
    Print #1, "   DEPARTMENT"
    Print #1, "                                                     " & _
              "Hours       V.O.P.        Hours       V.O.P.        " & _
              "Hours       V.O.P."
    Print #1, "                               " & _
              "|---------------------------|-----------|-------------" & _
              "|-----------|-------------|-----------|"
    Print #1,
    Print #1, strDistribution

    For i = 1 To 50
        Print #1, i
    Next i

    PRINT #1, CHR$(12)

    Close #1

End Function                                                

'=========================================================================

'... VISUAL BASIC 6 CODE ...

Option Explicit

Private Sub Form_Load()

Dim i As Long
Dim strDistribution As String

strDistribution = "CW,CF,HE,NG,BL,BF,JK,RC"

Open "\\BATH_PRESS\COMPUTERQ0" For Output As #1

' Open "LPT1" For Output As #1

Print #1, "Date produced: " & _
"BATH PRESS LTD. : DEPARTMENTAL V.O.P REPORT"
Print #1,
Print #1, "NUMBER OF DAYS = 5"
Print #1,
Print #1, " DEPARTMENT"
Print #1, " " & _
"Hours V.O.P. Hours V.O.P. " & _
"Hours V.O.P."
Print #1, " " & _
"|---------------------------|-----------|-------------" & _
"|-----------|-------------|-----------|"
Print #1,
Print #1, "Distribution: " & strDistribution

For i = 1 To 50
Print #1, i
Next i

Print #1, Chr$(12)

Close #1

End Sub

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

[Lance Edmonds]

I just tried your print code with PB/DLL 6.0 and it worked fine for me across my network here to "\\server\ibm" (a Star 9p dotmatrix printer installed as an IBM Proprinter II).

(I do have that printer SHARED on \\SERVER and the driver installed as a network printer on the client machine... I did not try it without the local driver installed, but it should not make any difference (AFAIK anyway).

I'd suggest that you add some error checking code to see if there are any run-time errors (ERR and ERRAPI) when the code runs, such as the OPEN statement failing for some reason.

I hope this helps!


------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Alan J Russell]

Lance

Thank you for your very quick reply.

I have put in some error trapping and am getting an error 51 - Internal
Error when trying to open the printer.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention that this is running on Novell 5.0
and that COMPUTERQ0 is the print queue name

Alan

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

[Lance Edmonds]

Ok, the error 51 means there was an unexpected or unknown error.

The problem here is almost certain to be Novell - I recall problems with PB/CC users using UNC names with LPRINT ATTACH "\\unc\name" *just* on Novell networks.

You can double check it by running the code on a MS network.

Anyone have any suggestions, solutions, or workarounds to offer? I don't have access to a Novell network to test with...


------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Knuth Konrad]

A workaround might be to CAPTURE the print queue to a (local) LPT-Port.

From the command line that would loook like:

CAPTURE /L=<LPT-Port> /S=<Server name> /Q=<Print queue name> N<o>B<anner> N<o>T<ab> TI<meout>=10
i.e.
CAPTURE /L=1 /S=bath_press /Q=computerq0 NB NT TI=10

and then simply print to LPT1

Knuth

------------------
http://www.softAware.de

[Semen Matusovski]

Why do not write to a file and then CopyFile "myfile", "prn" (or lpt1 , %False
Let's Windows works.

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E-MAIL: [email protected]

[Chuck Hicks]

Here's a simple application that is used for printing to about
3,000 POS receipt & thermal transfer printer from a web server.
It sends the printer-native file in RAW mode through the
print spooler, bypassing the graphical rendering engine.

I use Generic / Text Only drivers for these printers, which
are small, and already available on all client PC's. A
custom MIME type is used to call the app. Control info is
added to the printjob file to route portions of the file
to the correct printer.

You will probably only need SpoolPrint function...

'----------------------------------------------------
' Program: Printer Spooler
' Purpose: Send a label or receipt printer file
'          directly to the printer, bypassing
'          the print driver.  Used for files
'          having native printer commands, for
'          Epson ESC/POS and Datamax DPL printers,
'          among others.
' Author:  Charles V. Hicks
' Date:    05/24/2001
'----------------------------------------------------

#COMPILE EXE
#INCLUDE "win32api.inc"

SUB SpoolPrint(PrinterName AS STRING, PrintData AS STRING)

    DIM lhPrinter AS LONG
    DIM lReturn AS LONG
    DIM lpcWritten AS LONG
    DIM pPrinterName AS ASCIIZ * 255
    DIM PrintJobName AS STRING
    DIM pBuf AS ASCIIZ * 1
    DIM MyDocInfo AS DOC_INFO_1
    DIM RecLen AS LONG
    DIM DataType AS STRING
    DIM i AS INTEGER

    DataType = "RAW" & $NUL
    pPrinterName = PrinterName
    PrintJobName = PrinterName

    MyDocInfo.pDocName = STRPTR(PrintJobName)
    MyDocInfo.pDataType = STRPTR(DataType)

    lReturn = OpenPrinter(pPrinterName, lhPrinter, BYVAL 0)
    IF lReturn = 0 THEN
        MSGBOX "Error Opening Printer: '" & pPrinterName & "'" & $CRLF & _
               "Please make sure a printer driver named" & $CRLF & _
               "'" & PrinterName & "' is installed for this printer.", _
               %MB_OK OR %MB_ICONERROR, _
               "Print Error"
        EXIT SUB
    END IF

    lReturn = StartDocPrinter(lhPrinter, 1, MyDocInfo)
    lReturn = StartPagePrinter(lhPrinter)

    FOR i = 1 TO LEN(PrintData)
        pBuf = MID$(PrintData, i, 1)
        lReturn = WritePrinter(lhPrinter, pBuf, 1, lpcWritten)
    NEXT i

    lReturn = EndPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
    lReturn = EndDocPrinter(lhPrinter)
    lReturn = ClosePrinter(lhPrinter)

END SUB

SUB ParseLine(lne AS STRING, cmd AS STRING, parm AS STRING)

    DIM work AS STRING
    DIM delimiter AS STRING * 1

    delimiter = "="
    cmd = ""
    parm = ""

    IF LEFT$(lne, 1) = "[" AND RIGHT$(lne, 1) = "]" THEN
        work = TRIM$(lne, ANY "[]")
        IF PARSECOUNT(work, delimiter) = 2 THEN
            cmd = PARSE$(work, delimiter, 1)
            parm = PARSE$(work, delimiter, 2)
        ELSE
            cmd = work
            parm = $NUL
        END IF
    END IF

END SUB

'-- Program entry point
FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG

    DIM PrintJobName AS STRING
    DIM PrintFileName AS STRING
    DIM PrinterName AS STRING
    DIM PrinterType AS STRING
    DIM Extension AS STRING
    DIM hFile AS INTEGER
    DIM lne AS STRING
    DIM Cmd AS STRING
    DIM Parm AS STRING
    DIM PrintData AS STRING

    '-- Initialize printer name
    PrinterName = $NUL

    '-- Name of file to be printer from command line
    '-- Strip leading and trailing quote characters, if necessary
    PrintFileName = TRIM$(COMMAND$, CHR$(34))
    PrintJobName = PrintFileName

    '-- If the file doesn't exist, notify user and exit
    IF DIR$(PrintFileName) = "" THEN
        MSGBOX "File Not Found: '" & PrintFileName & "'", _
               %MB_OK OR %MB_ICONERROR, _
               "Print Error"

        EXIT FUNCTION
    END IF

    hFile = FREEFILE
    OPEN PrintFileName FOR INPUT SHARED AS #hFile

    DO UNTIL EOF(hFile)
        LINE INPUT #hFile, lne
        CALL ParseLine(lne, cmd, parm)
        SELECT CASE LCASE$(cmd)
            CASE "printjob"

            CASE "version"

            CASE "printertype"
                PrinterType = parm
            CASE "printername"
                PrinterName = parm
            CASE "begin_data"
                PrintData = $NUL
                DO UNTIL EOF(hFile)
                    LINE INPUT #hFile, lne
                    IF LCASE$(lne) = "[end_data]" THEN
                        IF PrinterName <> $NUL AND PrintData <> $NUL THEN
                            CALL SpoolPrint(PrinterName, PrintData)
                        END IF
                        EXIT DO
                    END IF
                    PrintData = PrintData & lne & $CRLF
                LOOP
        END SELECT
    LOOP

    '-- Clean up and exit
    CLOSE
    EXIT FUNCTION

END FUNCTION

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

[Alan J Russell]

Thank you all for your replies

The CAPTURE option works fine - I am using it in the user's login
scripts rather than in the program itself.

I'm sure that I had already tried that originally without success
so I must have done something wrong then.

Thanks again

Alan

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

[Bud Durland]

Just to make a clarification: "LPRINT ATTACH \\server\queue" will work fine in a bindery based network (i.e. Netware 3.x). I've not had any lusk with gettign that format to work with NDS based queues (nw4.x and 5.x). I plug away at it when I have free time, but no real headway yet. I'm going to get some docs from the novell developer's forum and see if there's some wisdom there.



------------------
[email protected]
http://www.northnet.org/bdurland