Good day, I've been trying to upgrade an old Print Program that prints raw pcl directly to the printer. The print program takes a PCL Mask and a PCL Batch Spool File (just pcl with page turn commands, I think) merges them and sends them off to the printer. I'm able to send to the Printer a file stream of PCL but I get mixed results and i do not understand why printing is so difficult under .net. I mean yes there is the PrintDocument class, but to print PCL... Let's just say I'm ready to detach my printer from the network and burn it a live.
Here is my class PrintDirect (rather a hybrid class)
Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
<StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)> _
Public Structure DOCINFO
<MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)> _
Public pDocName As String
<MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)> _
Public pOutputFile As String
<MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)> _
Public pDataType As String
End Structure 'DOCINFO
Public Class PrintDirect
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=False, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function OpenPrinter(ByVal pPrinterName As String, ByRef phPrinter As IntPtr, ByVal pDefault As Integer) As Long
End Function
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=False, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function StartDocPrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr, ByVal Level As Integer, ByRef pDocInfo As DOCINFO) As Long
End Function
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=True, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function StartPagePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Long
End Function
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling:=True, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function WritePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr, ByVal data As String, ByVal buf As Integer, ByRef pcWritten As Integer) As Long
End Function
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=True, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function EndPagePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Long
End Function
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=True, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function EndDocPrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Long
End Function
<DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet:=CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling:=True, CallingConvention:=CallingConvention.StdCall)> _
Public Shared Function ClosePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Long
End Function
'Helps uses to work with the printer
Public Class PrintJob
''' <summary>
''' The address of the printer to print to.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public PrinterName As String = ""
Dim lhPrinter As New System.IntPtr()
''' <summary>
''' The object deriving from the Win32 API, Winspool.drv.
''' Use this object to overide the settings defined in the PrintJob Class.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>Only use this when absolutly nessacary.</remarks>
Public OverideDocInfo As New DOCINFO()
''' <summary>
''' The PCL Control Character or the ascii escape character. \x1b
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>ChrW(27)</remarks>
Public Const PCL_Control_Character As Char = ChrW(27)
''' <summary>
''' Opens a connection to a printer, if false the connection could not be established.
''' </summary>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function OpenPrint() As Boolean
Dim rtn_val As Boolean = False
PrintDirect.OpenPrinter(PrinterName, lhPrinter, 0)
If Not lhPrinter = 0 Then
rtn_val = True
End If
Return rtn_val
End Function
''' <summary>
''' The name of the Print Document.
''' </summary>
''' <value></value>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Property DocumentName As String
Get
Return OverideDocInfo.pDocName
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
OverideDocInfo.pDocName = value
End Set
End Property
''' <summary>
''' The type of Data that will be sent to the printer.
''' </summary>
''' <value>Send the print data type, usually "RAW" or "LPR". To overide use the OverideDocInfo Object</value>
''' <returns>The DataType as it was provided, if it is not part of the enumeration it is set to "UNKNOWN".</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Property DocumentDataType As PrintDataType
Get
Select Case OverideDocInfo.pDataType.ToUpper
Case "RAW"
Return PrintDataType.RAW
Case "LPR"
Return PrintDataType.LPR
Case Else
Return PrintDataType.
UNKOWN
End Select
End Get
Set(ByVal value As PrintDataType)
OverideDocInfo.pDataType = [Enum].GetName(GetType(PrintDataType), value)
End Set
End Property
Public Property DocumentOutputFile As String
Get
Return OverideDocInfo.pOutputFile
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
OverideDocInfo.pOutputFile = value
End Set
End Property
Enum PrintDataType
UNKOWN = 0
RAW = 1
LPR = 2
End Enum
''' <summary>
''' Initializes the printing matrix
''' </summary>
''' <param name="PrintLevel">I have no idea what the hack this is...</param>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Sub OpenDocument(Optional ByVal PrintLevel As Integer = 1)
PrintDirect.StartDocPrinter(lhPrinter, PrintLevel, OverideDocInfo)
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Starts the next page.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Sub StartPage()
PrintDirect.StartPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Writes a string to the printer, can be used to write out a section of the document at a time.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="data">The String to Send out to the Printer.</param>
''' <returns>The pcWritten as an integer, 0 may mean the writter did not write out anything.</returns>
''' <remarks>Warning the buffer is automatically created by the lenegth of the string.</remarks>
Public Function WriteToPrinter(ByVal data As String) As Integer
Dim pcWritten As Integer = 0
PrintDirect.WritePrinter(lhPrinter, data, data.Length - 1, pcWritten)
Return pcWritten
End Function
Public Sub EndPage()
PrintDirect.EndPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
End Sub
Public Sub CloseDocument()
PrintDirect.EndDocPrinter(lhPrinter)
End Sub
Public Sub ClosePrint()
PrintDirect.ClosePrinter(lhPrinter)
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' Opens a connection to a printer and starts a new document.
''' </summary>
''' <returns>If false the connection could not be established. </returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function Open() As Boolean
Dim rtn_val As Boolean = False
rtn_val = OpenPrint()
If rtn_val Then
OpenDocument()
End If
Return rtn_val
End Function
''' <summary>
''' Closes the document and closes the connection to the printer.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Sub Close()
CloseDocument()
ClosePrint()
End Sub
End Class
End Class 'PrintDirect
Here is how I print my file. I'm simple printing the PCL Masks, to show proof of concept. But I can't even do that. I can effectively create PCL and send it the printer without reading the file and it works fine... Plus I get mixed results with different stream reader text encoding as well.
Dim pJob As New PrintDirect.PrintJob
pJob.DocumentName = " test doc"
pJob.DocumentDataType = PrintDirect.PrintJob.PrintDataType.RAW
pJob.PrinterName = sPrinter.GetDevicePath '//This is where you'd stick your device name, sPrinter stands for Selected Printer from a dropdown (combobox).
'pJob.DocumentOutputFile = "C:\temp\test-spool.txt"
If Not pJob.OpenPrint() Then
MsgBox("Unable to connect to " & pJob.PrinterName, MsgBoxStyle.OkOnly, "Print Error")
Exit Sub
End If
pJob.OpenDocument()
pJob.StartPage()
Dim sr As New IO.StreamReader(Me.txtFile.Text, Text.Encoding.ASCII) '//I've got best results with ASCII before, but only mized.
Dim line As String = sr.ReadLine
'Fix for fly code on first run
'If line = 27 Then line = PrintDirect.PrintJob.PCL_Control_Character
Do While (Not line Is Nothing)
pJob.WriteToPrinter(line)
line = sr.ReadLine
Loop
'pJob.WriteToPrinter(ControlChars.FormFeed)
pJob.EndPage()
pJob.CloseDocument()
sr.Close()
sr.Dispose()
sr = Nothing
pJob.Close()
I was able to get to print the mask, in the morning... now I'm getting strange printer characters scattered through 5 pages... I'm totally clueless. I must have changed something or the printer is at fault.
You can access my test Check Mask, here http://kscserver.com/so/chk_mask.zip .
