C# =>PRINT PDF FILES IN FOLDER

Ekona Pikin

Hi MVPS and other members in C# Corners
I am very happy to find this site.
I am building a desktop application in c#
and my boss wants a print macro
There a .pdf files in a folder C drive and
in m y application I have items in a listviews
these items are in this form BAR5678SG.pdf and all
I want to be able tolook through each line
in listview and goto that folder and any file that matches
BAR5678SG.pdf send to defaul printer for printing.
Giving there are different items say BAR5645DF.pdf, RE3421.pdf
Please what is the best approach to tackle this, my biggest challenege is
figuring an algorithm that would loop through each distinc item and goto
the said folder and check if a fileexist a the item send to printer.
please any advise is welcome.
Thanks for your advise in adavnce .

11 Replies

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Anil Kumar11y ago
Accepted answer
As per my understanding of the requirement, You want to do something like below :-
1) You have listbox with all the file names
2) You have files (PDF extension) in a particular folder in c drive
3) on click of some event say "button" click you want to check the matching name in the folder and send the files to the printer

If above is want to achieve, Here comes the solution :-

step 1 : - Loop through all the items in the list box
step 2 :- get the matching file name from the folder. You can try something like this.

string[] dirs = Directory.GetFiles(@"c:\", "* + listbox.item.value + "*.PDF");

foreach (string dir in dirs)
{
    Pdf.PrintPDFs(file);
}
step 3 :- Sent the files to the printer. You can try below method to achieve this. I used this code in one of my project so it is tried n tested

public static Boolean PrintPDFs(string pdfFileName)
{
try
{
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
proc.StartInfo.Verb = "print";

//Define location of adobe reader/command line
//switches to launch adobe in "print" mode
proc.StartInfo.FileName =
@"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format(@"/p /h {0}", pdfFileName);
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;

proc.Start();
proc.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
if (proc.HasExited == false)
{
proc.WaitForExit(10000);
}

proc.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

proc.Close();
                 //For whatever reason, sometimes adobe likes to be a stage 5 clinger.
          //So here we kill it with fire.
KillAdobe("AcroRd32");
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}

private static bool KillAdobe(string name)
{
foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses().Where(
clsProcess => clsProcess.ProcessName.StartsWith(name)))
{
clsProcess.Kill();
return true;
}
return false;
}
Ekona Pikin11y ago
Ok thanks Anil , I just want to be able to have like a pop up message that says print jobs is complete,say there were 100 files to print and when the last file is printed message.show("blabla")
Anil Kumar11y ago
Hi Ekona - using counter is the simplest and the best solution for this.. Check you code and let me know what exact problem you are facing with it.. Thanks - Anil
Anil Kumar11y ago
Hi Ekona - using counter is the simplest and the best solution for this.. Check you code and let me know what exact problem you are facing with it.. Thanks - Anil
Ekona Pikin11y ago
Hi Anil , is there anyway I could embed some kind of code in here that would determined when all my print job is done I get like a message ? I have tried putting somekind of counter but I cant succeed any ideas?
Anil Kumar11y ago
Its always good to see your ideas working.. Thanks Ekona for the implementation.. It was nice working with you..
Ekona Pikin11y ago
I got up and running i used some of your code and embeded into mine is working like charm ,I really appreciate your help.
Anil Kumar11y ago
Hi Ekona - Yes! I like Hindi movies and Anil Kapoor is favourites of all of us. Do let me know if you face any issue either architecture level or development level in developing this..I would like the see the final application generated.. Thanks - Anil
Ekona Pikin11y ago
Thank you very much Anil:)) ==> hope you watch Hindie movies because I like Anil Kapoor
Anil Kumar11y ago
Hi - Button_Click was just an example you can do the same thing on click of any event. To use button click event - just drag a button in your designer from the toolbox and double click on it. This will create the event in your code file. Just make sure your listbox is loaded before you execute the solution
Ekona Pikin11y ago
Thanks Anil Verma
appreciate your help.
But how do use button_clicks