clsPrint

clsPrint is the xPression protocol/transport gateway for this library: it owns endpoint resolution against the SAIF Environment API, request assembly for preview/print/distribute operations, the synchronous-versus-MSMQ- queued dispatch decision, and the MSMQ transaction lifecycle. It is constructed either from an injected EnvironmentServiceBase or, via the parameterless constructor, from the ambient AppGlobal.EnvironmentService. It depends on SAIF.Services.Imaging.Import.clsImageImport as the imaging index payload carried on ImportInfo and CompositeRequestClass.Importinfo, and is consumed directly by presentation/business callers such as LegalMaintenance/frmPrintPreview.aspx.vb and by ReportBase as the underlying print/preview client for a report's lifecycle.

Purpose

• Resolve the xPression documentGeneratorServiceUrl endpoint and the documentMSMQPath MSMQ queue path from the Environment API at construction time
• Provide preview, print, and distribute operations against the xPression clsGenerate SOAP service
• Select between a synchronous SOAP distribute call and a transactional MSMQ-queued distribute request based on the Asynchronous flag (BR-PRT-003)
• Manage the MSMQ transaction lifecycle so multiple distribute calls can be batched into one unit of work (BR-PRT-004)

Context

• Namespace: SAIF.Services.Printing
• Assembly/package: SAIF.Services.Printing (embedded library, project reference)

Public members

Member	Signature	Purpose
IDMEnvs	Public Enum IDMEnvs {Dev, Test, QA, Prod, NonImaged}	Declares imaging-environment tokens; not referenced by any code in this library**
CompositeRequestClass	<Serializable()> Public Class (nested)	MSMQ message payload aggregating package, XML, printer, plex/scale/copies, format, output profile, clsImageImport, email/fax/deferred info, IDM path, and paper tray; ToString renders a labelled multi-line diagnostic dump
Application	Public Property As String	xPression calling-application token sent on every service call; defaults to "xPression Design"
Asynchronous	Public Property As Boolean	Selects the MSMQ queue path instead of the direct SOAP call for distributeDocument (BR-PRT-003)
Copies	Public Property As Int16	Print copy count sent to xPression; defaults to 1
Environment	Public ReadOnly Property As String	Two-valued environment label ("Prod"/"Dev") derived once in the constructor from EnvironmentServiceBase.IsProduction (BR-PRT-002)
Format	Public Property As String	Requested output format placed on a queued distribution request; defaults to "PDF"
ImportInfo	Public Property As clsImageImport	Imaging index metadata carried with the distribution; lazily instantiated on first read
OutputProfile	Public Property As String	xPression output profile name; defaults to "PDF"
Package	Public Property As String	xPression package (document) name; the setter strips a trailing .pkg extension (BR-PRT-001)
PlexMode	Public Property As xpresso.PlexMode	Simplex/duplex selection; defaults to Simplex
Printer	Public Property As String	Target printer queue name
ScaleMode	Public Property As xpresso.ScaleMode	Page scaling selection; defaults to None
XML	Public Property As String	xPression data XML supplied to the composition engine
FaxInfo	Public Property As FaxInfoClass	Fax delivery detail block; lazily instantiated on read
EmailInfo	Public Property As EmailInfoClass	E-mail delivery detail block; lazily instantiated on read
DeferredInfo	Public Property As DeferredPrintInfoClass	Deferred-print delivery detail block; lazily instantiated on read
IDMPath	Public ReadOnly Property As String	Imaging drop path read live from the Environment API key idmFilePath on each access
New()	Public Sub New()	Resolves the environment service from the ambient AppGlobal.EnvironmentService and delegates to the parameterised constructor
New(envSvc)	Public Sub New(envSvc As EnvironmentServiceBase)	Creates the xPression proxy, sets its Url from documentGeneratorServiceUrl, reads the MSMQ path from documentMSMQPath, and sets the Environment label
previewPDF	Function previewPDF(inPackage As String, inXML As String) As Byte()	Returns rendered PDF bytes from xPression previewPDF under the literal "xPression Design" application token
previewDocument	Function previewDocument(inPackage As String, inXML As String) As Byte() / (inPackage As String, inXML As String, inOutputProfile As String) As Byte()	Returns rendered document bytes for the package/XML using the current or supplied output profile; used by the print-preview screen
printPDF	Function printPDF(inFile As Byte()) As Boolean	Sends already-rendered bytes to xPression for physical printing with the current printer/plex/copies/scale; always returns True (BR-PRT-013)
distributeDocument	Function distributeDocument(inPackage As String, inXML As String) As Boolean	Entry point for full document distribution (queue or direct); always returns True (BR-PRT-013)
StartMQTransaction	Public Sub StartMQTransaction()	Begins an MSMQ transaction if one is not already open (idempotent)
EndMQTransaction	Public Sub EndMQTransaction(inAction As Boolean)	Commits when True, aborts when False, then disposes and clears the transaction in a Finally block
xpublishDocument	Function xpublishDocument(inPackage As String, inXML As String, inDestination As String, inLabel As String) As Boolean	Publishes the package/XML to the named xPression destination using the current application token
xpreviewHTML	Function xpreviewHTML(inPackage As String, inXML As String, inOutputProfile As String) As String	Returns the rendered HTML preview for a package/XML under the selected output profile
xpublishAndReturnDocument	Function xpublishAndReturnDocument(inPackage As String, inXML As String, inDestination As String, inLabel As String) As Byte()	Publishes the package/XML and returns the generated document bytes instead of only a success flag
xdocumentsForCategory	Function xdocumentsForCategory(inCategory As String) As String()	Returns the xPression document names available within the requested category
xoutputProfilesForDocument	Function xoutputProfilesForDocument(inPackage As String) As String()	Returns the available xPression output profiles for the specified package
xcategoriesForUser	Function xcategoriesForUser(inUser As String) As String()	Returns the xPression document categories visible to the supplied user name

Behavioral notes

• distributeDocument branches on Asynchronous: when true, it lazily creates a transactional MessageQueue(m_MessagePath), builds a CompositeRequestClass, sends it with BinaryMessageFormatter, and commits (starting a transaction itself if the caller had not); a failure rolls back and re-throws (BR-PRT-004, BR-PRT-005). When false, it calls the xPression distributeDocument SOAP operation directly with paper tray hard-coded to Tray2 (BR-PRT-006).
• The queued CompositeRequestClass does not carry a paper tray value — Tray is left at its default, unlike the synchronous path's hard-coded Tray2.*
• Reading ImportInfo lazily instantiates a clsImageImport, but the private helper that builds the synchronous distribute call reads ImportInfoString instead, which returns "" when no ImportInfo was explicitly set — it does not trigger the lazy instantiation.*
• previewPDF always passes the literal "xPression Design" application token rather than the configurable Application property.*

Constraints and usage notes

• The parameterised constructor is Public, so the environment service can be substituted for testing; the parameterless constructor couples construction to the ambient static AppGlobal.EnvironmentService.
• Callers batching multiple asynchronous distributions should call StartMQTransaction before the first distributeDocument call and EndMQTransaction after the last, since distributeDocument will otherwise start and commit its own single-message transaction.

Note: Statements marked with * were inferred from code structure, naming conventions, or contextual evidence where direct confirmation was not available in source artifacts. Statements marked with ** could not be confirmed; treat as unknown until verified.

Sources

• SAIF.Services.Printing/clsPrint.vb