I managed to resolve the issue by changing my approach entirely. Initially, I was using System.Drawing.Printing
, but this caused problems when running the application through Task Scheduler on a server without a graphical environment. Instead, I switched to using native Windows API functions to send the file directly to the printer in RAW mode, bypassing the need for a graphical interface:
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool OpenPrinter(string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pd);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter")]
public static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, int level, ref DOCINFOA pDocInfo);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter")]
public static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter")]
public static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter")]
public static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pBytes, int dwCount, out int dwWritten);
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct DOCINFOA
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public string pDocName;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public string pOutputFile;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public string pDataType;
}
public static bool QueueDocument(string printerName, string filePath)
{
bool result = false;
IntPtr pBytes = IntPtr.Zero; // Pointer to the data to send to the printer
byte[] fileBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(filePath);
if (OpenPrinter(printerName, out var hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
{
var docInfo = new DOCINFOA
{
pDocName = Path.GetFileName(filePath),
pOutputFile = null,
pDataType = "RAW"
};
try
{
if (StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, ref docInfo) && StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
{
pBytes = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(fileBytes.Length);
Marshal.Copy(fileBytes, 0, pBytes, fileBytes.Length);
result = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, fileBytes.Length, out _);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
SentrySdk.CaptureException(ex);
}
finally
{
if (pBytes != IntPtr.Zero)
{
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(pBytes);
}
EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
}
}
else
{
SentrySdk.CaptureMessage("Printer connection error", SentryLevel.Error);
}
return result;
}
This approach bypasses the issues I faced with System.Drawing.Printing
and works smoothly with Task Scheduler, as it doesn’t rely on a graphical interface.
Note: While this solution works well for the current case, there may still be room for optimization in terms of code readability and performance. For now, it works fine, but I may revisit it later to improve its efficiency and clarity.
Hope this helps anyone else facing similar issues!