measuring print job time programmatically - vbscript

Question

I need to measure print job time, which means time between 'send print command' and 'print job disappear from the print queue'
so I am trying to do these things by script
search all pdf files
print a file
get the print time (as above)
go to next file and do all above for all files
this is my work so far(i omit some parts)
For Each file In objFolder.Items
' check for the extension
if objFSO.GetExtensionName(file.name) = "pdf" then
' invoke to print
file.InvokeVerbEx( "Print" )
' select print jobs
Set Printers = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * from Win32_PrintJob")
For Each objPrinter in Printers
DateTime.Value = objPrinter.TimeSubmitted
TimeinQueue = DateDiff("n", actualTime, Now)
Wscript.Echo TimeinQueue
Next
end if
next
mainly i need to ask how can i get the time when print job disappear from the print queue.
And I need to keep next job till one print job ends.
any ideas ?

Answer 1

There's no simple way to obtain that information from inside your script, because when the job is removed from the print queue it's gone. You could set up an event monitor for the print spooler like this:
Set wmi = GetObject("winmgmts://./root/cimv2")
Set wbemDateTime = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")
qry = "SELECT * FROM __InstanceOperationEvent WITHIN 1 " & _
"WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_PrintJob'"
Set mon = wmi.ExecNotificationQuery(qry)
Do
Set evt = mon.NextEvent
If evt.Path_.Class = "__InstanceDeletionEvent" Then
wbemDateTime.Value = evt.TargetInstance.TimeSubmitted
WScript.Echo evt.TargetInstance.Document & ": " & _
DateDiff("n", wbemDateTime.GetVarDate, Now)
End If
Loop
However, you'd have to run that from a different script, because VBScript doesn't support multi-threading (i.e. running things in parallel), so the event handler loop would block the rest of your script operations.
If you want a rough value from within your script, you could try something like this, but don't expect queue times to be very accurate:
'singleton SWbemDateTime instance for time conversions
Set wbemDateTime = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")
'global list to keep track of printing documents
'MUST NOT BE MODIFIED FROM ANYWHERE EXCEPT CheckPrintQueue!
Set printingDocs = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Function CheckPrintQueue
Set printJobs = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_PrintJob")
Set currentDocs = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
'get currently printing jobs from queue
For Each job In printJobs
currentDocs.Add job.Document, job.TimeSubmitted
Next
'compare global list to current list, print the queue time for documents
'that are no longer queued, and remove them from the global list
For Each doc In printingDocs.Keys
If Not currentDocs.Exists(doc) Then
wbemDateTime.Value = printingDocs(doc)
WScript.Echo doc & ": " & DateDiff("n", wbemDateTime.GetVarDate, Now)
printingDocs.Remove doc
End If
Next
'add new documents to global list
For Each doc In currentDocs.Keys
If Not printingDocs.Exists(doc) Then printingDocs.Add doc, currentDocs(doc)
Next
CheckPrintQueue = printJobs.Count
End Function
For Each file In objFolder.Items
If objFSO.GetExtensionName(file.name) = "pdf" Then
file.InvokeVerbEx "Print"
CheckPrintQueue
End If
Next
'wait until all jobs finished printing
Do While CheckPrintQueue > 0
WScript.Sleep 100
Loop

Answer 2

I was looking for exact thing and I simply summurized ansgar's script to get what I want.
its take every pdf files and print 5 times each(so i can get a avarage which better) while getting the time.finally print them in to a csv file. and untill one going to desapear from the print queue others wait waits. Not 100% acuurate but enough for the perfomance comparision
may be it may usefull (please correct my mistakes if any)
Dim objFSO, outFile
const forAppending = 8
const useDefault = -2
'Output File name
fileName = ".\output.csv"
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set outFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(fileName, forAppending, true, useDefault)
'write heading to output file
outFile.WriteLine("Filename,1,2,3,4,5")
'get current Folder
strFolder = Replace(wscript.scriptfullname,wscript.scriptname,".\")
strFolder = objFSO.getFolder(strFolder)
'Open the Shell Folders object
Set objShell = CreateObject( "Shell.Application" )
'Create an object for the specified file's parent folder
Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace( strFolder )
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
For Each file In objFolder.Items
If objFSO.GetExtensionName(file.name) = "pdf" Then
'write in to out file
outFile.write(file.name)
outFile.writeLine ""
'outer loop for 5 times per each file
index = 0
do while index < 5
'if already doing a printing do not start a new one
if CheckPrintQueue() = 0 then
file.InvokeVerbEx "Print"
startTime = timer
waitTostart
'if first time on outer loop it should be empty queue
else
if index = 0 then
wscript.echo "queue doesnt empty"
finish
end if
end if
'wait until all jobs finished printing
waitToEnd
'count time
ellapsTime = timer - startTime
'write in to out file
outFile.write(",")
outFile.Write(ellapsTime)
index = index + 1
loop
End If
Next
outFile.Close
'----------------function CheckPrintQueue-----------------------
Function CheckPrintQueue()
Set printJobs = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_PrintJob")
Set currentDocs = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
CheckPrintQueue = printJobs.Count
End Function
'----------------end of function-----------------
sub waitTostart
Do
WScript.Sleep 100
'check print queue
printJobCount = CheckPrintQueue()
Loop until printJobCount > 0
end sub
sub waitToEnd
Do
WScript.Sleep 100
'check print queue
printJobCount = CheckPrintQueue()
Loop until printJobCount = 0
end sub
sub finish
outFile.Close
objFSO = nothing
objFolder = nothing
objShell = nothing
objWMIService = nothing
wscript.quit 1
end sub