PRB: PRINTER_INFO_2 Incorrectly Defined in Visual Basic API Text Viewer (201714)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API)
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 6.0
This article was previously published under Q201714

SYMPTOMS

When you are using Win32 API functions that accept PRINTER_INFO_2 structures from Visual Basic, the API calls fail.

CAUSE

The Visual Basic API Text Viewer incorrectly defines two of the fields in the PRINTER_INFO_2 structure. Both the LPDEVMODE and the PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR fields should be declared as Long rather than with their full structure definitions.

RESOLUTION

The following is the proper declaration of a PRINTER_INFO_2 structure in Visual Basic: 
Public Type PRINTER_INFO_2

        pServerName As String
        pPrinterName As String
        pShareName As String
        pPortName As String
        pDriverName As String
        pComment As String
        pLocation As String
        pDevMode As Long              ' LPDEVMODE
        pSepFile As String
        pPrintProcessor As String
        pDatatype As String
        pParameters As String
        pSecurityDescriptor As Long   ' PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR
        Attributes As Long
        Priority As Long
        DefaultPriority As Long
        StartTime As Long
        UntilTime As Long
        Status As Long
        cJobs As Long
        AveragePPM As Long

End Type
For most uses, both pDevMode and pSecurityDescriptor should be assigned a value of 0 (zero) to indicate that they are not being used.

MORE INFORMATION

Note that if these two fields are declared as Longs, they must be assigned the value 0 (zero) to indicate that they are NULL pointers.

For example, the new declaration for the PRINTER_INFO_2 structure would appear as: 
Public Type PRINTER_INFO_2

        pServerName As String
        pPrinterName As String
        pShareName As String
        pPortName As String
        pDriverName As String
        pComment As String
        pLocation As String
        pDevMode As Long
        pSepFile As String
        pPrintProcessor As String
        pDatatype As String
        pParameters As String
        pSecurityDescriptor As Long
        Attributes As Long
        Priority As Long
        DefaultPriority As Long
        StartTime As Long
        UntilTime As Long
        Status As Long
        cJobs As Long
        AveragePPM As Long

End Type
Note that the same problem also affects the PSECURITY_DESCRIPTOR field of the PRINTER_INFO_3 structure.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:4/3/2006
Keywords:kbDSWGDI2003Swept kbGDI kbprb KB201714
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