Open a pdf file in a form using new process

Question

I'm very new to c# and for a project I've downloaded some code Authored by tixiv from https://www.das-labor.org/trac/browser/microcontroller/src-atmel/laserExposer/PC_Frontend?order=name

I'm trying to open a pdf file within a form.

The error I'm getting is:

An exception of type 'System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception' occurred in System.dll but was not handled in user code Additional information: The system cannot find the file specified If there is a handler for this exception, the program may be safely continued.

Question 1.
I am confused by the line:

p.StartInfo.FileName = "E:/Test/test2.pdf";

can I use an empty string or do I need to define a specific file and location as above?

Question 2. What do the switches (-f 1 -l 1 -r 600) in the following statement mean?

p.StartInfo.Arguments = "-mono -f 1 -l 1 -r 600 " + openPdfDialog.FileName + " E:/Documents/Eagle Projects/Testing/";

Question 3. What is the correct way to catch this exception?

private void openFileDialog1_FileOk(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
    Process p = new Process();
    // Redirect the output stream of the child process.
    // StartInfo Gets or sets the properties to pass to the Start method of the Process.
    p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;                    // UseShellExecute Setting this property to false enables you to redirect input, output, and error streams.
    p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;              // true if output should be written to Process.StandardOutput;
    p.StartInfo.FileName = "E:/Test/test2.pdf";             // The default is an empty string.
    p.StartInfo.Arguments = "-mono -f 1 -l 1 -r 600 " + openPdfDialog.FileName + " E:/Documents/Eagle Projects/Testing/";
    p.Start();
    // Do not wait for the child process to exit before
    // reading to the end of its redirected stream.

    // Read the output stream first and then wait.
    string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
    p.WaitForExit();


    FileInfo f = new FileInfo("c:\\Windows\\Temp\\-000001.pbm");
    StreamReader s = f.OpenText();
    ...

is this running on a local machine .. try changing the path for the filename to something like this `p.StartInfo.FileName = @"E:\Test\test2.pdf";` do you know what this `@` means? it's string Literal if you are not familiar do a quick google search — MethodMan, Feb 09 '16 at 21:00
added @"E:\Test\test2.pdf and it changed the error info **Additional information: The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform.** I'm not sure if this is an improvement or not? @MethodMan — rwvb, Feb 09 '16 at 21:42
take a look at this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1423922/open-a-pdf-file-programmatically-at-a-named-destination — terbubbs, Feb 09 '16 at 21:52
I have read the post so I can see that you can pass parameters to the open command using the /A switch but what is the meaning of the switches in the above code i.e. -f 1 -l 1 -r 600. Does this still apply when inside the form container? @terbubbs — rwvb, Feb 09 '16 at 22:13

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '16 at 14:35

0

You may want to check out the link C# System.diagnostics.process.startinfo . But regarding you questions:

1) It seems strange that the input is E:\Test\test2.pdf, rather it should be the process to be executed, like the linked example for HelloWorld.exe. I looked at the repository of your post and it was pdftoppm instead.

2) It's actually input parameter for the pdftoppm, you can find info at pdftoppm linux man page

answered Feb 10 '16 at 14:35

yluo_Datalogics

22
8

Thank you! You are quite correct, the input should be an exequtable file.That explains a lot... – rwvb Feb 11 '16 at 04:12

Open a pdf file in a form using new process

1 Answers1