Dear All,

I would like to retrieve the status of an USB printer under Windows XP
so that it be possible to know *before* printing whether the printer is
operational.

I had a look at the Microsoft article "How To Get the Status of a
Printer and a Print Job" Q160129 but it is not what I require as the
actual status of the printer is refreshed only during the despool of
print jobs (i.e. after printing).

Thus, I figured out that I had to:

- Communicate directly to the printer driver (bypassing the spooler)
using the "USB Device Class for Printing Devices". (DDK usbprint.h
header file.)

- Request the ieee 1284-like device id (probably using
IOCTL_USBPRINT_GET_1284_ID request).

- Retrieve the printer status information from the printer device id.

I used DDK to retrieve the USB devices (using SetupDiGetClassDevs with
GUID_DEVINTERFACE_USB_DEVICE guid), to find device interfaces (using
SetupDiGetInterfaceDevice) and to find the printer's device path (using
SetupDiGetInterfaceDetails). Then I tried to open the USB device using
CreateFile as follow:

HANDLE hUsbDevice = CreateFile(
DeviceInterfaceDetailData->DevicePath,
GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,
FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
(LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES)NULL,
OPEN_EXISTING,
0,
NULL);

But this failed returning "A device attached to the system is not
functioning." (Which is weird as the printer is connected and
works...).

- Did I follow the right method? Does Windows provide easier method to
retrieve the actual printer status? How to use the
IOCTL_USBPRINT_GET_1284_ID function included in the usbprint.h?

- How to use CreateFile to open my device? Can someone provide me with
sample code?

What am I missing? Please help! I am stuck for days on this issue.
Thanking you in advance,

Guillaume.

Guillaume you need to develop a Language Monitor for this purpose.
To start with you can take a look at DDK's pjlmon.
You need to modify all the code related to your printer.
e.g. delete all PJL code if you have a raster printer, etc.
\Manfred

"Guillaume" <guillaume.gerard@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1112798530.942669.111780@l41g2000cwc.googlegr oups.com...

Thanks a lot Manfred! I'll have a look at DDK's pjlmon.

Guillaume.

Manfred Wilner wrote:

Thanks again for your answer.

I had a look to the sample. But, supposing I develop a language
monitor, how can I use it from an application? For instance, how can I
send PJL commands to a printer (via pjlmon) and get an answer from an
application?

You aren't unless you want to build a custom function into your Language
Monitor.
The Language Monitor has to have a read thread where it reads the feedback
from the printer.
This you can store in the registry and then you provide a customized
GetPrinterDataFromPort function in you Language Monitor and then you can get
these registry entries with GetPrinterData.
\Manfred


"Guillaume" <guillaume.gerard@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1112869731.387707.159930@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...

Once again, thank you for your answer.

My point is now how to manage to send/receive PJL request to/from a
printer in a Language Monitor?

Guillaume.

Once again, thanks for your reply.

Have you ever try to use the GDI Bidi Communication Support? Can I
avoid developing a Language Monitor if I use this with a PJL printer?

I managed to send PJL data to a specific USB Lexmark E321 printer
following thoses steps:

=> Get device ID from printer name. (using GDI)

* using OpenPrinter and GetPrinterDataEx to obtain
DeviceInstanceId value of the PnPData registry key.

=> Get printer symbolic path from device ID. (using Setupapi)

* using SetupDiOpenDeviceInfo to retrieve SP_DEVINFO_DATA
struct from device ID

* then using SetupDiGetClassDevs and
SetupDiEnumDeviceInterfaces to retrieve USB device interfaces. The
right USB device is retrieved comparing device ID.

* the SetupDiGetDeviceInterfaceDetail provides the symbolic
path.

=> Open the device and write/read data to/from it.

* This is performed using CreateFile / ReadFile / WriteFile
from communication API.

This works well with the USB Lexmark printer.

The CreateFile fails when trying to use my program with a USB HP
Laserjet 1320. (Error: ERROR_GEN_FAILURE "A device attached to the
system is not functioning.")

Any idea?