ULTRA URGENT! Please help

[Amon Ra]

I need to write my own functons to work with a common parallel port. I have been using a dll from the web up to now, but i want to write mine now. Please, could you help me? I appreciate

[Amon Ra]

BTW, if you only know the code in c++, it does not matter. i will try to figure it out. Thx

[alex_read]

Not sure, but would the ENUMPORTS API call help for this ?

Private Type PORT_INFO_2
    pPortName As String
    pMonitorName As String
    pDescription As String
    fPortType As Long
    Reserved As Long
End Type
Private Type API_PORT_INFO_2
    pPortName As Long
    pMonitorName As Long
    pDescription As Long
    fPortType As Long
    Reserved As Long
End Type
Private Declare Function EnumPorts Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "EnumPortsA" (ByVal pName As String, ByVal Level As Long, ByVal lpbPorts As Long, ByVal cbBuf As Long, pcbNeeded As Long, pcReturned As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function lstrlenW Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub CopyMem Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (pTo As Any, uFrom As Any, ByVal lSize As Long)
Private Declare Function HeapAlloc Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHeap As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetProcessHeap Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Function HeapFree Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHeap As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long, lpMem As Any) As Long
Dim Ports(0 To 100) As PORT_INFO_2
Public Function TrimStr(strName As String) As String
    'Finds a null then trims the string
    Dim x As Integer
    x = InStr(strName, vbNullChar)
    If x > 0 Then TrimStr = Left(strName, x - 1) Else TrimStr = strName
End Function
Public Function LPSTRtoSTRING(ByVal lngPointer As Long) As String
    Dim lngLength As Long
    'Get number of characters in string
    lngLength = lstrlenW(lngPointer) * 2
    'Initialize string so we have something to copy the string into
    LPSTRtoSTRING = String(lngLength, 0)
    'Copy the string
    CopyMem ByVal StrPtr(LPSTRtoSTRING), ByVal lngPointer, lngLength
    'Convert to Unicode
    LPSTRtoSTRING = TrimStr(StrConv(LPSTRtoSTRING, vbUnicode))
End Function
'Use ServerName to specify the name of a Remote Workstation i.e. "//WIN95WKST"
'or leave it blank "" to get the ports of the local Machine
Public Function GetAvailablePorts(ServerName As String) As Long
    Dim ret As Long
    Dim PortsStruct(0 To 100) As API_PORT_INFO_2
    Dim pcbNeeded As Long
    Dim pcReturned As Long
    Dim TempBuff As Long
    Dim i As Integer
    'Get the amount of bytes needed to contain the data returned by the API call
    ret = EnumPorts(ServerName, 2, TempBuff, 0, pcbNeeded, pcReturned)
    'Allocate the Buffer
    TempBuff = HeapAlloc(GetProcessHeap(), 0, pcbNeeded)
    ret = EnumPorts(ServerName, 2, TempBuff, pcbNeeded, pcbNeeded, pcReturned)
    If ret Then
        'Convert the returned String Pointer Values to VB String Type
        CopyMem PortsStruct(0), ByVal TempBuff, pcbNeeded
        For i = 0 To pcReturned - 1
            Ports(i).pDescription = LPSTRtoSTRING(PortsStruct(i).pDescription)
            Ports(i).pPortName = LPSTRtoSTRING(PortsStruct(i).pPortName)
            Ports(i).pMonitorName = LPSTRtoSTRING(PortsStruct(i).pMonitorName)
            Ports(i).fPortType = PortsStruct(i).fPortType
        Next
    End If
    GetAvailablePorts = pcReturned
    'Free the Heap Space allocated for the Buffer
    If TempBuff Then HeapFree GetProcessHeap(), 0, TempBuff
End Function
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'KPD-Team 2000
    'URL: http://www.allapi.net/
    'E-Mail: [email protected]
    Dim NumPorts As Long
    Dim i As Integer
    'Get the Numbers of Ports in the System
    'and Fill the Ports Structure
    NumPorts = GetAvailablePorts("")
    'Show the available Ports
    Me.AutoRedraw = True
    For i = 0 To NumPorts - 1
        Me.Print Ports(i).pPortName
    Next
End Sub

Or there's an ENUMPRINTERS API call here ... which could help you maybe.