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Resolved Error calling external function

  1. How-to
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  1. Tracy Lamb
    Tracy Lamb
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Wednesday, 7 June 2023 15:18 PM UTC

Hi all,

I have a custom user object I designed 20+ years ago to communicate with a serial port, uo_comport.   The object has several local external functions defined.  All of the functions are from the Windows user.exe library.  Here's an example of one of the function declarations:

FUNCTION int OpenComm(string IpcomName,int wInQue, int wOutQue) LIBRARY "user.exe" alias for "OpenComm;Ansi"

I'm trying to just import the object from PB2019 into my PB2021 app. It regenerates fine, and I can open it and look at the code.  But keep getting the following error when I'm running the application from the IDE:

uf_open, Line 14 is:

ii_ComID = OpenComm(as_com_port,ai_InBuffer_Size,ai_OutBuffer_Size)

I'm wondering if I should be using a different library? Maybe "user32.dll" ?  I really don't want to re-write all the code if I can avoid it.

I'm using PB2021, Build 1509 and Windows 10.

TIA,

~~~Tracy

  1. PowerBuilder (Appeon)
Computed fields in groups
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Accepted Answer
Tracy Lamb
Tracy Lamb Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 9 June 2023 11:37 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # Permalink

Thank you Roland, Chris and John,

Chris, I found the 2 examples provided in the link especially helpful.  It turns out, my customer hasn't used the built-in worksheets in many years!  It's been a very long time since I've upgraded this customer's software, and when I asked the customer which "worksheets" they were using, she told me the Pin Gages and the Gage Blocks, so I was trying to update both of those worksheets.  Turns out they're using the ACPs I wrote in LabView almost 20 years ago, Pin Gage ACP and Gage Block ACP, not the worksheets. Tragically funny miscommunication!!!  In the meantime, I will save the examples I got in the unlikely event I need to try to resurrect something that uses the Serial portin the future.

~~~Tracy

 

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Roland Smith
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 7 June 2023 17:49 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

User.exe is 16bit so Windows 98 timeframe.

Take a look at this:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/nf-winbase-opencommport

It is also possible to communicate with COMM ports with the built-in file functions.

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Chris Pollach @Appeon
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Thursday, 8 June 2023 02:18 AM UTC
Hi Tracy;



You can read the datum directly from a Com Port via PowerScript.



https://community.appeon.com/index.php/qna/q-a/accessing-com-port-from-datawindow



HTH

Regards ... Chris
  1. Helpful 1
Roland Smith
  1. Roland Smith
  2. Thursday, 8 June 2023 12:40 PM UTC
What device is on the port? There is a good chance the data will be Ansi so you may need to read it into a blob and then convert it to a string using EncodingANSI! as the second argument.
  1. Helpful 1
Tracy Lamb
  1. Tracy Lamb
  2. Thursday, 8 June 2023 16:20 PM UTC
Roland,

There are several different devices that use the Serial Port. The devices are measurement machines for measuring gage blocks, pin gages, coordinate measurment machine, etc.
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John Fauss
John Fauss Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 7 June 2023 16:30 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

Hi, Tracy - 

I can find nothing in any Win32 API documentation for an API function named "OpenComm".

"user.exe" was, I believe, the pre-cursor to user32.dll in Windows 3.11 and earlier. This leads me to believe that OpenComm is a Win16 API function, and Win16 documentation is very hard to find nearly 30 years after the fact.

I suspect you will have to recode this functionality from scratch using Win32 interfaces/techniques.

Best regards, John

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