Printing PCL Direct to Printer

rbuser

Hi,

We are using reportbuilder in our applications, but for one particular
place we are required to print a pre-compiled file (in PCL Format)
directly to the printer.

The file is a file on disk (ie page1.pcl) that we would like to send
through to the printer.

I can do this in a command line prompt using something such as:

type page1.pcl >lpt1:

or
type page1.pcl >\\machine\printer_share_name

I was wondering if there is a way to print this file using reportbuilder?

Thanks & Regards

Adam.

nardmoseley

You can use the Report.OnPrinterDeviceStateChange event and the
Report.Printer.SendEscape method to send PCL commands directly to the
printer. Check out the RBuilder help topic for the TppProducer
OnPrinterDeviceStateChange event, it contains some sample code (Producer is
an ancestor to Report). The SendEscape method accepts a command string, you
can use TStringList to load the .pcl file. Currently the command string is
limited to 256 characters in length. For RB 15.01 I will enhance it to
accept any length.


-
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nard,


Thanks for your reply...

I will wait until RB 15.01 before implementing as the file is rather
large, and I would like to be able to load it in one hit.

In the mean time, I have stumbled across the following that will let me
work. Unfortunately it doesn't use reportbuilder, but will let me
through for the time being.

Thanks again for your help, and I'll await 15.01.

Best Regards

Adam.

uses
Printers, Winspool;

function SpoolFile(const FileName, PrinterName: string): Integer;
var
Buffer: record
JobInfo: record // ADDJOB_INFO_1
Path: PChar;
JobID: DWORD;
end;
PathBuffer: array[0..255] of Char;
end;
SizeNeeded: DWORD;
Handle: THandle;
PrtName: string;
ok: Boolean;
begin
// Flush job to printer
PrtName := PrinterName;
if PrtName = '' then
PrtName := Printer.Printers[Printer.PrinterIndex]; // Default
printer name
ok := False;
if OpenPrinter(PChar(PrtName), Handle, nil) then
if AddJob(Handle, 1, @Buffer, SizeOf(Buffer), SizeNeeded) then
if CopyFile(PChar(FileName), Buffer.JobInfo.Path, True) then
if ScheduleJob(Handle, Buffer.JobInfo.JobID) then
ok := True;
if not ok then Result := GetLastError
else
Result := 0;
end;


procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
if SpoolFile('c:\test.prn', Printer.Printers[0]) = 0 then
ShowMessage('No error...');
end;