Check if network printer available

Keywords:    network printer available

Question:

I have written a great program to install printers from a NT Print Server. Winbatch has done great things for what I want to accomplish. However, the last thing I am trying to do is have the script check to see if the server is even there or not.
I am generating a list of printers on the fly and using Con2Prt.exe install the printers with great ease, but no error is return when the server is not even there.

Is there a way to check to see if the server is even there or if the printer is available on that server and return something to use for error handling?

Answer:

NOTE: See the Printer Control Extender function pGetPrtInfo(17) to get the staus of a printer.

Here is another way to check if a server is available.....


AddExtender("WWWNT34I.DLL")

ErrorMode(@OFF)

wntServerInfo( "\\Myserver", 1)

ErrorMode(@CANCEL)

If LastError()==524

   Message("Check Server","Server Does not exist")

Else

  Message("Check Server","Server Does exist")

Endif

exit

Question #2

GREAT info. Thanks. This pointed me to use this line of code:

wntShareInfo("\\Server", "Printername", 2, -1)

As a side comment on that line of code: I had to use the Share-type of 2 for device instead of 1 for printer. When I tried to use 1, it always failed with an error message "Unable to Access specified printer". Am I doing something wrong? This comes back and tells me @true if the printer is on that server or not.

Now that I know if the printer is on that server or not, lets get more specific. On the NT Print Server, if you bring up the printer folder, it has a column for "Status". When I take a printer offline, it shows in that column that it IS offline. is there a way to retrieve that information?

Answer #2

Here is some code using DllCall that should do it.

;typedef struct _PRINTER_INFO_2 { // pri2 
;
;0     LPTSTR    pServerName; 
;4     LPTSTR    pPrinterName; 
;8     LPTSTR    pShareName; 
;12    LPTSTR    pPortName; 
;16    LPTSTR    pDriverName; 
;20    LPTSTR    pComment; 
;24    LPTSTR    pLocation; 
;28    LPDEVMODE pDevMode; 
;32    LPTSTR    pSepFile; 
;36    LPTSTR    pPrintProcessor; 
;40    LPTSTR    pDatatype; 
;44    LPTSTR    pParameters; 
;48    PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR pSecurityDescriptor; 
;52    DWORD     Attributes; 
;56    DWORD     Priority; 
;60    DWORD     DefaultPriority; 
;64    DWORD     StartTime; 
;
;68    DWORD     UntilTime; 
;72    DWORD     Status; 
;76    DWORD     cJobs; 
;80    DWORD     AveragePPM; 
; total length = 294 ???
;} PRINTER_INFO_2; 


;BOOL OpenPrinter(
;
;    LPTSTR  pPrinterName,      // address of printer or server name 
;    LPHANDLE  phPrinter,       // address of printer or server handle 
;    LPPRINTER_DEFAULTS  pDefault       // address of printer defaults structure  
;   );  

;BOOL ClosePrinter(
;
;    HANDLE  hPrinter   // handle of printer object 
;   );  


;BOOL GetPrinter(
;
;    HANDLE  hPrinter,  // handle to printer of interest 
;    DWORD  Level,      // version of printer info data structure 
;    LPBYTE  pPrinter,  // pointer to array of bytes that receives printer info. structure 
;    DWORD  cbBuf,      // size, in bytes, of array of bytes 
;    LPDWORD  pcbNeeded         // pointer to variable with count of bytes retrieved (or required) 
;   );  

;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PAUSED            0x00000001
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_ERROR             0x00000002
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PENDING_DELETION  0x00000004
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PAPER_JAM         0x00000008
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PAPER_OUT         0x00000010
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_MANUAL_FEED       0x00000020
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PAPER_PROBLEM     0x00000040
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_OFFLINE           0x00000080
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_IO_ACTIVE         0x00000100
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_BUSY              0x00000200
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PRINTING          0x00000400
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_OUTPUT_BIN_FULL   0x00000800
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_NOT_AVAILABLE     0x00001000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_WAITING           0x00002000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PROCESSING        0x00004000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_INITIALIZING      0x00008000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_WARMING_UP        0x00010000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_TONER_LOW         0x00020000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_NO_TONER          0x00040000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_PAGE_PUNT         0x00080000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_USER_INTERVENTION 0x00100000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_OUT_OF_MEMORY     0x00200000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_DOOR_OPEN         0x00400000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_SERVER_UNKNOWN    0x00800000
;#define PRINTER_STATUS_POWER_SAVE        0x01000000


statusoffset=72
printer_status_offline = 128 ; 0x80
status= -1


dllname=StrCat(DirWindows(1),"winspool.drv")
dllhandle=DllLoad(dllname)
printername="\\TESTTECH\LASER5"
;printername="\\NAN\HP 660"
bbhPrinter=BinaryAlloc(4)
BinaryPoke4(bbhPrinter,0,0)
bbPrinter2=BinaryAlloc(10000) ; alloc way too much
BinaryEODSet(bbPrinter2,10000)
bbP2Size=BinaryAlloc(4)
BinaryPoke4(bbP2Size,0,0)

rslt1=DllCall(dllhandle,LONG:"OpenPrinterA",lpstr:printername,lpbinary:bbhPrinter,lpnull)
if rslt1 == 1
    hPrinter=BinaryPeek4(bbhPrinter,0)
    
    
    rslt2=DllCall(dllhandle,long:"GetPrinterA",long:hPrinter,long:2,lpbinary:bbPrinter2,long:10000,lpbinary:bbP2Size)
    if rslt2 == 1
        p2Size=BinaryPeek4(bbP2size,0)
        status=BinaryPeek4(bbPrinter2,statusoffset)
    endif
    rslt3=DllCall(dllhandle,LONG:"ClosePrinter",long:hPrinter)
endif
BinaryFree(bbhPrinter)
BinaryFree(bbP2Size)
BinaryFree(bbPrinter2)
DllFree(dllhandle)

Message("status",status)
if status == -1
   Message(printername,"Can't locate printer")
else
    if status & printer_status_offline
       Message(printername,"offline")
    else
       Message(printername,"online")
    endif
endif

Article ID:   W14483

Filename:   Check if network printer available.txt

File Created: 2002:02:18:13:00:24

Last Updated: 2002:02:18:13:00:24

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Check if network printer available

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