VpeSetupPrinter - Migrate to VPE7.1

[ds-hanau]

Hello VPE Team

We haved used VPE 6.0 for several years right now and we want to migrate to VPE7.1.
We made some experiences that if we load the PRS files with version VPE7.1, which are initially stored by VPE6.0, our system crashes (sometimes immediate, sometimes after a while).
Do we have to delete all PRS files during migration?

Do you have implemented a funtion which can determine with which version a PRS file was saved? In order to delete the old PRS file at runtime ..

Thanks for your support
Andrej

[IDEAL Software Support]

The PRS file format has not changed since v3.x. As written in the manual, the PRS files store private printer-driver data. If you change the printer-driver version or the platform (i.e. 32-bit vs. 64-bit), this may cause that the private data is no longer compatible with the driver, thus resulting in a GPF.

[ds-hanau]

Thanks for reply.
Is there a possibility to check if a prs file still fits to s specific printer?
Because sometimes we do not notice if a printer driver has changed and therefor our application crashes when reading the prs file ...
Unfortunately sometimes the crash happens seconds or minutes after reading the prs file and then we do not event know the reason for the crash.

It would be easier if we could avoid a systemcrash

Thanks
Andrej

[IDEAL Software Support]

See the section "Printer Setup" in our manual / help file titled "Programmer's Manual". There, the structure of the PRS file is documented. The last part of the PRS file holds a DEVMODE structure, which contains printer driver information. It belongs to the Windows API, therefore it is documented by Microsoft.

To ensure compatibility, we recommend to check the following four members of the DEVMODE structure:
WORD dmSpecVersion;
WORD dmDriverVersion;
WORD dmSize;
WORD dmDriverExtra;

In addition you should check the following two members, which are part of the PRS file.
DWORD Version;
WORD Platform;

If Version is changed, you need to abort reading the PRS file and consult the latest version of the "Programmer's Manual", to understand the new PRS file structure. It is not going to change in the foreseeable future.

If Platform is not compatible to the operating system, you should also abort reading the PRS file.