ShellExecuteEx doing nothing on deployment machine.

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Hi all,

I'm having a strange issue and I hope someone could help me on this one.

In the following C++ code sample:

C++

OFLOG_INFO(logger, "Auto open PDF report feature enabled. Launching pdf viewer for file: " + rData.getPDFFileName());

// It is apparently recommended... See MSDN references.
CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED | COINIT_DISABLE_OLE1DDE); 

SHELLEXECUTEINFO ShExecInfo;
ShExecInfo.cbSize = sizeof(ShExecInfo);
ShExecInfo.fMask = NULL;
ShExecInfo.hwnd = NULL;
ShExecInfo.lpVerb = (LPCSTR)"open";

// a small trick to cast from string to LPCSTR
char fileNameCast[MAX_PATH]; 
sprintf_s(fileNameCast, "\"%s\"", rData.getPDFFileName().c_str()); 

ShExecInfo.lpFile = (LPCSTR)fileNameCast;
ShExecInfo.lpParameters = NULL;
ShExecInfo.lpDirectory = NULL;
ShExecInfo.nShow = SW_SHOWDEFAULT;
ShExecInfo.hInstApp = NULL;

if(! ShellExecuteEx(&ShExecInfo))
{
	OFLOG_ERROR(logger, "Error during pdf auto-opening. Error Code: " +  int(ShExecInfo.hInstApp));
	OFLOG_ERROR(logger, GetLastError());
	somethingWrong = true;
}

I try to automatically open a PDF file with the default PDF reader.

This code works like a charm on my development computer but as soon as I deploy my application on a test machine, nothing happens. I can see from the logs that the code is executed without any error but just nothing...

I'm debugging this for a couple of days now and I'm pretty sure I'm missing something stupid. I hope someone can see it. See MSDN reference here.

Note the test machine has a pdf reader (Adobe Reader) installed and set as default. Running OS is Windows 7 on both development and deployment machine. I also tried with the simpler function ShellExecute with exactly the same result.

Thanks in advance for your help. I really appreciate.
Yass.

Posted 8-May-13 5:31am

YassJD

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Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-May-13 11:41am

You can never guarantee that a PDF reader is available in the target system... Yes, I got it: you have it in this case.
—SA

YassJD 8-May-13 14:35pm

True... But this will be imposed as a prerequisite. Thanks for the remark :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-May-13 15:17pm

Sure.
—SA

Style-7 8-May-13 12:03pm

Do you use full path?
Try it: ShellExecute( hWnd, "open", "", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);

YassJD 8-May-13 14:39pm

Hi,
Yes... I was actually using the ShellExecute in the beginning but I switched to ShellExecuteEx to get an accurate error code.

I did some tests and if the file name/path is not correct, the error code ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND or ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND is logged during the GetLastError call...

Thanks !

Jochen Arndt 8-May-13 13:15pm

Maybe a stupid question:
Is the file opened when double clicking on it in the Explorer?

YassJD 8-May-13 14:41pm

Hi Jochen,

Yes the PDF file is correctly opened by Adobe Reader and also when just typing the full path of the PDF file in the usual run window.

Thanks !

Richard MacCutchan 8-May-13 13:23pm

You should print the path of the file that gets stored into fileNameCast before the call to ShellExecuteEx(). You might also like to try it without the surrounding quotes.

YassJD 8-May-13 14:45pm

Hi Richard,

Smart one.

True, the cast was not correct in the beginning. That's why I used the sprintf trick...
I used the Visual Studio debugger to stop and check if the cast is correctly done. It is ok. The PDF file name logged is also fine. The quotes are inserted to avoid the usual blank space issue but even without quotes the issue is not solved.

Thank you for suggestions ! :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-May-13 15:18pm

You can post this as a formal solution, I think.
—SA

YassJD 8-May-13 15:20pm

It still does not work on the target machine... I will do some deeper tests and let you know...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 8-May-13 15:29pm

"Note the test machine has a pdf reader (Adobe Reader) installed and set as default."
I would check it up, just in case. On the target machine, run CMD.EXE and type the PDF file name. Will it be loaded?
—SA

YassJD 10-May-13 6:01am

Yes it works with the CMD. I just copied/Paste from the log file to the CMD and it is launched in Adobe Reader.

Really strange...

André Kraak 8-May-13 16:42pm

What happens if you try ShExecInfo.lpVerb = NULL?

YassJD 10-May-13 6:01am

I just tried and the same...

Don't hesitate if any other ideas...

Thank you.

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YassJD · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-10T04:04:00

Okay. I finally found what happened.

As you might imagine, the issue is not caused by the code itself. It was actually running under a Windows service (Local System), and thus in another environment. The PDF viewer was launched in the virtual user SYSTEM environment and not visible for the current user.

I am planning to use the CreateProcessAsUser function to make it run in the environment of the current user.

Thank you all for your help ! :)

Regards,
Yass