Printing from a Web Method

[=?Utf-8?B?TWFyazYyNA==?=]

I have a web method that renders a SQL Reporting Services report and prints
it to a network printer using the System.Drawing and System.Drawing. Printing
namespaces in .Net 2.0. This method has been working without issues in
production at several client sites but now I've started seeing memory errors
when trying to print. The only way to resolve the errors has been to do an
IISReset on the web server hosting the web service. I tried calling
Microsoft support for assistance in troubleshooting the issue and found out
that using System.Drawing in an ASP.Net application, ASP.Net Web Service and
in a Windows Service is not supported. Does anyone have any alternative ways
to print from a web service to a network printer? I'm trying to find a
managed code way of doing this but I'm not finding anything but
System.Drawing. Printing.

Thanks for the help.

Mark

[John Saunders [MVP]]

Re: Printing from a Web Method

"Mark624" <Mark624@discus sions.microsoft .comwrote in message
news:6BA1F804-2E52-4B1D-A578-FE73137CFBCF@mi crosoft.com...

>I have a web method that renders a SQL Reporting Services report and prints
it to a network printer using the System.Drawing and
System.Drawing. Printing
namespaces in .Net 2.0. This method has been working without issues in
production at several client sites but now I've started seeing memory
errors
when trying to print. The only way to resolve the errors has been to do
an
IISReset on the web server hosting the web service. I tried calling
Microsoft support for assistance in troubleshooting the issue and found
out
that using System.Drawing in an ASP.Net application, ASP.Net Web Service
and
in a Windows Service is not supported. Does anyone have any alternative
ways
to print from a web service to a network printer? I'm trying to find a
managed code way of doing this but I'm not finding anything but
System.Drawing. Printing.

My suggestion would be to not print from a Web Service! Instead, write a
Windows Service, and queue the request to the Windows Service.

Unless you are printing asynchronously, you are tying up a worker thread for
as long as it takes to print the file over the network. I hope you don't get
too many simultaneous requests!
--
John Saunders [MVP]

[=?Utf-8?B?TWFyazYyNA==?=]

Re: Printing from a Web Method

Hi John,

Thanks for the response! The thought of using a Windows Service crossed my
mind too as an alternate but that is not supported either. Any other
thoughts? My only other idea so far is to write a console application that
does the printing and have my web method start the console app with the
appropriate parameters. It just seems like there has to be a better way.

Thanks for any ideas!

Mark

[John Saunders [MVP]]

Re: Printing from a Web Method

"Mark624" <Mark624@discus sions.microsoft .comwrote in message
news:3F9E4149-7D8C-41B9-8827-1B98980B5B9D@mi crosoft.com...

Hi John,
>
Thanks for the response! The thought of using a Windows Service crossed
my
mind too as an alternate but that is not supported either. Any other
thoughts? My only other idea so far is to write a console application
that
does the printing and have my web method start the console app with the
appropriate parameters. It just seems like there has to be a better way.

Another set of alternatives would be to use either .NET Remoting or Windows
Communications Framework (WCF) to talk to a "Windowless " Windows Forms
application. This would be a normal Winforms application except that it
would not display its form. Both Remoting and WCF can be hosted in this sort
of application.

The question for your Microsoft contacts is whether or not the window is
required for printing to be supported, or if it only needs to be in a
Windows Forms application.
--
John Saunders [MVP]