Calling a DLL . NET C# method from a Classic ASP application

Question

I have a web system in ASP that does the storage management (WMS). The system works and is already in use in some companies.

Recently there was the need to work with labels that will be pasted in the order volumes. The printer I’m using is a Zebra Thermal.

I have a DLL and its source in C# that I already use in windows systems (VB) and works very well. However my problem is in making the methods of this same DLL recognized by my system ASP (IIS).

I can instantiate the DLL object with the following command in ASP Server.Createobject("Printzebra.Rawprinterhelper") without any mistake. But when trying to access the method that will send the strings to the Zebra printer, IIS returns That the objZebra Object does not support the method Sendstringtoprinter.

The C# code I used to compile the DLL is below:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.IO;

//[assembly: ComVisible(true)]
//[assembly: Guid("6c87161d-1e02-40ef-8512-82f30bc1ae3e")]
namespace PrintZebra
{
    //[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)]
    /// <summary>
    /// Classe 
    /// </summary>
    public class RawPrinterHelper

    {
        // Structure and API declarions:
        /// <summary>
        /// 
        /// </summary>
        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
        public class DOCINFOA
        {
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] public string pDocName;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] public string pOutputFile;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] public string pDataType;
        }
        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool OpenPrinter([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pd);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, Int32 level, [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] DOCINFOA di);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount, out Int32 dwWritten);

        // SendBytesToPrinter()
        // When the function is given a printer name and an unmanaged array
        // of bytes, the function sends those bytes to the print queue.
        // Returns true on success, false on failure.
        public static bool SendBytesToPrinter(string szPrinterName, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount)
        {
            Int32 dwError = 0, dwWritten = 0;
            IntPtr hPrinter = new IntPtr(0);
            DOCINFOA di = new DOCINFOA();
            bool bSuccess = false; // Assume failure unless you specifically succeed.

            di.pDocName = ".NET RAW Document";
            di.pDataType = "RAW";

            // Open the printer.
            if (OpenPrinter(szPrinterName.Normalize(), out hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
            {
                // Start a document.
                if (StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, di))
                {
                    // Start a page.
                    if (StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
                    {
                        // Write your bytes.
                        bSuccess = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, out dwWritten);
                        EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
                    }
                    EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
                }
                ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
            }
            // If you did not succeed, GetLastError may give more information
            // about why not.
            if (bSuccess == false)
            {
                dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
            }
            return bSuccess;
        }

        public static bool SendFileToPrinter(string szPrinterName, string szFileName)
        {
            // Open the file.
            FileStream fs = new FileStream(szFileName, FileMode.Open);
            // Create a BinaryReader on the file.
            BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs);
            // Dim an array of bytes big enough to hold the file's contents.
            Byte[] bytes = new Byte[fs.Length];
            bool bSuccess = false;
            // Your unmanaged pointer.
            IntPtr pUnmanagedBytes = new IntPtr(0);
            int nLength;

            nLength = Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length);
            // Read the contents of the file into the array.
            bytes = br.ReadBytes(nLength);
            // Allocate some unmanaged memory for those bytes.
            pUnmanagedBytes = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(nLength);
            // Copy the managed byte array into the unmanaged array.
            Marshal.Copy(bytes, 0, pUnmanagedBytes, nLength);
            // Send the unmanaged bytes to the printer.
            bSuccess = SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pUnmanagedBytes, nLength);
            // Free the unmanaged memory that you allocated earlier.
            Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pUnmanagedBytes);
            return bSuccess;
        }

        public static Int32 SendStringToPrinter(string szPrinterName, string szString)
        {
            IntPtr pBytes;
            Int32 dwCount;
            // How many characters are in the string?
            //dwCount = szString.Length;joao
            dwCount = (szString.Length + 1) * Marshal.SystemMaxDBCSCharSize;
            // Assume that the printer is expecting ANSI text, and then convert
            // the string to ANSI text.
            pBytes = Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(szString);
            // Send the converted ANSI string to the printer.
            bool bSuccess = SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pBytes, dwCount);
            Int32 dwError = 0;
            if (bSuccess == false)
               {
                  dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
               }
               Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pBytes);
            return dwError;
        }            

    }
}

In ASP I use the following code to instantiate the object and try to access the method:

Dim objZebra    
set objZebra = Server.CreateObject("Opus127Etiquetas.RawPrinterHelper")

objZebra.SendStringToPrinter

It is important to say that all DLL permissions are OK, so much so that I can access your methods in a new project in VS 2015 by adding it as a reference.

I have researched many forums, read articles and the answers I found is that my methods are set as static and so COM Interop can’t recognize them.

The point is, I don’t know how to turn these static methods into nonstatic methods, and this is why I’m opening up this topic here at Stackoverflow.

Someone’s been through it and would know to give me a north to try to solve the problem?