I'm creating a service that will monitor a specific folder and print any file that is put in this folder. I'm having difficulties with the various file types that could be sent to the folder to be printed.
My first attempt is with Microsoft Office files. What I'm trying to do is start the office to print the file. It's more like a catch, I'm not really using a library or anything like it.
So far this approach would work, but when no Office application has ever started on the machine the Office asks for the user initials. So, in this case my application would just not work, since I'm doing this programatically.
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo(myDocumentsPath);
info.Verb = "Print";
info.CreateNoWindow = true;
info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process.Start(info);
Right now I am trying with Microsoft Office files, but I will apply the same approach for other types as well.
There is anyway to get around the Initials required by the first Office run?
Or any better approach to my problem?
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.
There's not really anything that you can do; for the application which will print each type of file that you're going to support, you need to make sure the application is configured correctly.
This means that for office (since it is run as an out-of-process COM server) you should run it under the account that is performing the printing so you can enter the initials and won't be prompted for it when the server attempts to print it.
The same for every other application (assuming the application is executed to print it), it needs to be run as the account the process is going to be run under and configured correctly.
Use Winternals's regmon registry activity monitor to figure out where Office stores the initials in the windows registry, then write these keys prior to printing.
Related
In my ASP .Net application, I am using 'PDFTron 6.6.0.38591'.
We are using following code to convert Office documents to XOD:
string fileName = Path.GetFileName(pdfTronServiceRequest.FilePath);
fileName = ConstructConvertionFileName(fileName);
outFileName = Path.Combine(outputPath, fileName);
pdftron.PDF.Convert.ToXod(pdfTronServiceRequest.FilePath, outFileName);
response.Result = outFileName;
This code works well for filetypes like docx, xlsx, however for Powerpoint files, no response is returned(request timed out).
On checking the Task Manager window, we can see that a process for 'POWERPNT.exe' is started. However, this process never ends up itself(unlike that in case of word, excel upload).
Also, if I manually ends up this process, the conversion to XOD is successful and response is coming out correctly.
Also, please note that we are facing this issue only when we deploy the code on our test environments. Locally, PPT upload is working fine.
Let me know if you need any other information.
First, you should be running a licensed version of PowerPoint, not a trial/eval one. In particular, the account (including a Service/App Pool account) needs to have accepted the MS office licensing to make sure Office is a fully licensed product.
Also, is this happening with any ppt file or only certain ones? If certain ones, then try using one of the following two flags.
pdftron.PDF.Convert.Printer.SetMode(mode)
e_printer_only
e_interop_only
Finally, switch to the latest version. Which at the very least should provide a lot more debugging info in the exception message.
I work with emergency services and they have an application that uses map files to let them know where they need to go and it uses GPS to let them know where they are. We have to update the map files as things change and before I started here they were being done through VB scripts which started to fail. I decided to code my own app in C# to do this which works fine.
I created a package in SCCM 2012 that caches all of the files locally and then it compares the files in the cache to what is on the machine and then replaces any older files. This all works fine but the application they use called MobileCAD locks the files so I have to kill this process and then do the file copy and start the application again. We never know when an emergency happens so this update may start when they are on the road so it is important that it starts the application again as soon as possible. If it does not start the application then the emergency services people may try to do so manually but if core files are being updated then it may not start or cause issues.
I coded my application which uses an app manifest to force it to run as an administrator for the file copy. This application is run through SCCM which uses the local 'System' account to do all of the work and killing MobileCAD and copying files which works great. What I originally found was that it does start MobileCAD but it does so under the System account and the process would be there but it was not visible. I think this is the same problem they were originally having so the emergency services people would need to reboot the computer and wait for it to log back in and then start the wireless service so they could get back into MobileCAD.
To address this issue I did research and found that I could use the ProcessStartInfo in .NET and force it to use another account. As we use an automatic logon for these machines the users name, password, and domain are all in the registry so it was easy to pull it out and inject it into the code. Awesome, looks like it is easy enough so I code it up and sure enough it works perfectly when run under my admin account. In my basic testing everything worked perfectly until I try the same in SCCM, now it fails with the following error message.
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): Access is denied
at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithCreateProcess(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at UpdateFDM.Program.StartProcess(String processName)
I am sorry for all of the words but I believe it helps if you have a good understanding of the issue and what I am trying to do. I have also hard coded the user information into the code instead of pulling it from the registry but I get the same error. Again, this works fine under my admin account but fails when it is pushed through SCCM and it is only launching MobileCAD that fails.
This is the code I am using for launching MobleCAD, do you see where my issue may lie? I know SCCM confuses it but SCCM basically runs things just as you would from the command line but it uses the local System account.
Thanks for any help.
// Declares the new start instance
ProcessStartInfo process = new ProcessStartInfo();
// Gets the process to start
process.FileName = processName;
// Maximizes the process windows at start-up
process.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized;
// Gets the user name from the autologon information
process.UserName = GetDefaultUserInfo("DefaultUserName");
// Gets the domain for the user
process.Domain = GetDefaultUserInfo("DefaultDomainName");
// Holds the password for the default user
SecureString password = new SecureString();
// Gets the raw password from the registry
string rawPassword = GetDefaultUserInfo("DefaultPassword");
// Copies the password in a secure string
foreach (char ch in rawPassword)
{
password.AppendChar(ch);
}
// Sets the password
process.Password = password;
// Needed to launch the app as the logged on user
process.LoadUserProfile = true;
process.UseShellExecute = false;
// Starts the process
Process.Start(process);
// Process started, return true
return true;
I have a c# application that needs to do some things as an admin (some installation stuff) and then it needs to run another process as a non-admin. I haven't done anything with UAC before, but I assume there must be a way to do this, right?
This also needs to be automated, so assume that the c# app is started with admin credentials.
Basically the program will need to do something like this:
// MUST run this process as admin
Process adminInstall = new Process();
adminInstall.StartInfo.FileName = "install.bat";
adminInstall.Start();
adminInstall.WaitForExit();
// CANNOT run this process as admin
Process nonAdminProcess = new Process();
nonAdminProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "runner.cmd";
nonAdminProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
nonAdminProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
nonAdminProcess.OutputDataReceived += new DataReceivedEventHandler(myHandler);
nonAdminProcess.Start();
nonAdminProcess.BeginOutputReadLine();
nonAdminProcess.WaitForExit();
You can embed a manifest in the executable using MT.exe (manifest tool) in the platform SDK after the binary is compiled, but before it is signed. You also have the option of using a custom manifest within your project properties. Open the project properties, then go to the application tab, then change the manifest option from default manifest, to custom manifest. Visual Studio will add a manifest to your project where you can specify "requireAdministrator" privleges. When your app runs, it will provide a UAC prompt, or ask for credentials if logged on as user. There is a good chance sub process will start as admin as well. Otherwise you will need to launch them with the "runas" verb which is undocumented.
Process.Start parameters has one for Username. See Process.Start reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sxf2saat.aspx
There does not appear to be a nice way of doing this using the .Net classes. However, Process.Start with different credentials with UAC on explains a way of doing it using CreateProcessAsUserW after stealing a handle from another process.
If the aforementioned methods aren't viable, then you can try my method. But its ugly; you need to get a handle to a non admin process, then use DuplicateTokenEx (p/invoke) to copy its (non admin) privileges, then pass that into CreateProcessAsUser. You first need to identify a non admin process though, there may not be any. The newly created process will be spawned with whatever privileges the token you copied contained, not the token of the parent process.
This is most likely not an easy one but here is the situation:
I have written a C# command line application which:
creates a PDF using ITextSharp
writes it to disk
uses Acrord32.exe (this is Acrobat Reader) via System.Diagnostics.Process in order to silently print the generated PDF
If I build my solution and double click the pdfGen.exe, it works as expected. The PDF is created and printed.
Now, my app has to be deployed on a internal server with Windows Vista running IIS 7. This server has some PHP webapp running. And it will be called via PHP using shell_exec() so that the resulting PDF will be printed on the printer attached to the server.
So my PHP page looks basically like this:
shell_exec('/path/to/pdfGen.exe');
But here things go wrong. What happens is according to task manager etc.:
pdfGen.exe starts
the PDF is created
Acrord32.exe starts
pdfGen.exe hangs forever (and so does the PHP script) and nothing is printed
I am pretty sure it is some permission related problem. I already gave IIS_IUSRS access to the default printer, and to the directory where Acrord32.exe is located. But still, no printing. However, if I start my pdfGen.exe manually it works.
Any idea what I am missing?
EDIT:
I am not bound to use Acrobat Reader in order to print the PDF. If there is another way in order to silently print the created PDF serverside, I would not mind at all.
In order to check what is going on, try to run
the process monitor from Sysinternals and filter the events to the adobe acrobat process. You will see the system calls of acrobat and it will allow you to know more or less what is going wrong.
I know a small improvement to your solution: SumatraPDF has a nice command-line interface that can be used to auto-close Sumatra after printing.
I used PHP "system" or "exec" functions to execute a batch file to open SumatraPDF:
sumatrapdf.exe -print-to-default -exit-on-print <path_to_PDF_file>
(you can also specify the printer name to print on)
that's an interesting program.
IIS_IUSRS
seems to have no permission to print, try adding IIS_IUSRS to Print Operators Group / grant Print permission to the user.
Shell_exec() is almost intended for shell commands (ls/dir, cp, etc.)
Have you tried to use exec() instead of shell_exec() ?
Thanks all for your comments. Unfortunately this "php start printjob" thing was part of a larger project that was cancelled today because of, well... I dont know... political reasons. Guess the project is pretty much dead.
Anyway, I tried myself a few more times in the last days and could not get it to work with IIS. My solution that I implemented and tested already: remove IIS, install a XAMPP or WAMPP package with a local apache and PHP that runs with admin access rights.
This did the trick. I used pclose(popen('...command...', 'r')); in PHP in order to start the .exe and so that PHP does not wait until the PDF is finished. It all worked great.
Here is my C# code which starts the print job using Acrobat Reader
public void Print(string pathname, string acrobatDirectory)
{
var proc = new Process
{
StartInfo =
{
Arguments = String.Format("/t \"{0}\"", pathname),
FileName = acrobatDirectory,
UseShellExecute = false,
CreateNoWindow = true,
RedirectStandardOutput = false,
RedirectStandardError = false,
}
};
proc.Start();
}
The first argument is the path to the PDF that should be printed, the second parameter is the absolute path to the AcroRd32.exe.
The only problem left was that AcroRd32.exe was started, printed and never got closed again. So every printjob started a new instance of AcroRd32.exe (I am using Acrobat Reader 9.0). So if you printed 10 times, 10 acrobat reader instances were created.
What I did was starting the print job, then waiting X seconds, hoping that the printer was finished and then killing all AcroRd32.exe instances:
public void Print(string pathname, string acrobatDirectory)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Printing...");
Printer.Print(pathname, acrobatDirectory);
Thread.Sleep(30000);
try
{
Debug.WriteLine("Trying to kill runnung AcroRd32.exe's ");
FindAndKillProcess("AcroRd32");
}
catch (Exception)
{
Debug.WriteLine("AcroRd32.exe could not be killed...");
}
}
private bool FindAndKillProcess(string name)
{
foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses())
{
if (clsProcess.ProcessName.StartsWith(name))
{
clsProcess.Kill();
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
This worked out quite well.
Note that the above (killing all AcroRd32.exe and running PHP with admin privilegs) was only doable because: The whole thing is only used by one user at a time and has a very limited area of use.
It should be used on a touchscreen application deployed at the clients POS. A salesman would use the PHP app in order to configure a product, and then PHP would call my .exe which would create and print a PDF in the background. The printed document is then handed to the client. So security etc. was not really a concern in this case.
If anyone has a solution in order to use it with IIS, I am still willing to accept it as an answer.
I have a developer tool that I want to run from an internal site. It scans source code of a project and stores the information in a DB. I want user to be able to go to the site, chose their project, and hit run.
I don't want the code to be uploaded to the site because the projects can be large. I want to be able to run my assembly locally on their machine. Is there an easy way to do this?
EDIT: I should note, for the time being, this needs to be accomplished in VS2005.
EDIT 2: I am looking for similar functionality to TrendMicro's Housecall. I want the scan to run locally, but the result to be displayed in the web page
You could use a ClickOnce project (winform/wpf) - essentially a regular client app, deployed via a web-server. At the client, it can do whatever it needs. VS2005/VS2008 have this (for winform/wpf) as "Publish" - and results in a ".application" file that is recognised by the browser (or at least, some browsers ;-p).
You might be able to do the same with Silverlight, but that has a stricter sandbox, etc. It would also need to ask the web-server to do all the db work on its behalf.
I want to be able to run my assembly
locally on their machine
Sounds like you want them to download the tool and run it from their local machine, does that work for you?
Any code can scan files given the location and permissions. For a website to open an exe on a different machine and permit that to run and get access to the files contained on the web server would require a horrifically low level of security that would mean the entire system is practically completely open to attack. If your system is completely behind a firewall and hence protected from outside intererance then you want to look more at the permissions and less at the code.
To run an exe on a machine try following notepad example, though you may have to use a specified directory as well
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("notepad.exe");
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process p = new Process();
p.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
p.Exited += new EventHandler(ExitHandlerToKillProcess);
p.StartInfo = psi;
p.Start();
and when done dont forget to kill the Process. Alternately use javascript. Either way watch the security permissions and remember the risks of doing this.
I would probably write some sort of command line tool or service that does the processing and extraction of project data. Then I would use a page to update/register projects that the web server and the command line tool both have common access to. then at specified times either manually or via cron or similar mechanisms extract the data to your database. once you have this, you just use the website to display last extraction times and the extracted data.
if the projects/end users are on a different subnet etc, then you will need the end users to run the tool and then have it post the data into the database.