After reinstall problem with new build executables

[RedLion]

Hi,

I'm developing with VFP 6 SP 5 (06.00.8961.00) for years now, last week mine Vista development computer crashed and I had to reinstall the whole bunch. Now an old customer wanted to have something changed in their application so I made the changes and recompiled the whole bunch into a new executable. Send the new executable to the customer who had to replace the old one.

Now they came with the complaint that after starting the program the VFP file open "Do" dialogbox appears and asks to select a .fpx or .exe
When selecting .exe (because all .prg and other source files are included within the .exe) it says that it is not a VFP executable?!? btw normally you shouldn't have to select anything!

While this al worked fine for me locally, I took another computer where Vista was installed on copied some old vfp6r.dll, vfp6renu.dll and vfp6run.exe on it because vfp was not installed on this system. And placed the executable in this map and started it, everything went allright. Started a second program that I had not changed on the fress installed computer for the same customer, from the same map and I got the open dialog again, the same the customer got. Only they got it from the changed application...
When I start this old application from my development computer everythings go alright???

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Charl

 

[SnyAc]

I think Vista does it's registry keys a little differently. I would suggest putting the VFP6 runtime dlls in the installation folder instead of the windows system folder. I haven't been using VFP6 for a number of years and my VFP8 installation sequence (using the Installshield Lite generator that comes packaged with VFP8) has worked properly under Vista.

Andy Snyder
SnyAc Software Services

http://www.snysoft.com

Hyperware Inc.
AmTech Software Inc.

 

[RedLion]

Thanks for your quick response Andy!

With the test on mine second computer I did copy the VFP6 runtimes into the same folder as the executable, but this didn't make a difference. And I know VFP6 SP5 runs fine on Vista, I'm running it for over a year. Only now I reinstalled my computer the problems arise. And I don't have a clue why????

 

[SnyAc]

It could also be a control (activex or other) that isn't installed and registered properly anymore.... I've had that happen to me recently and had to search for an alternative control since the setup file from the vendor for one I had used in an app I needed to edit is now infected with a trojan....



Andy Snyder
SnyAc Software Services

http://www.snysoft.com

Hyperware Inc.
AmTech Software Inc.

 

[RedLion]

There aren't any activex control in this project.

I've been testing, used ProcMon from the SysinternalsSuite from MS to find out what file would be called, couldn't find any thing interested...

What I found out, the first line of code in my main.prg I put the code messagebox("main"), and still I get the dialog box "Do" asking for a "Program(*.fxp)"...
Very very strange!!!!

Then I found out that the file c:\program files\microsoft visual studio\vfp98\ffc\setobjrf.prg is included in the project!!! When I remove it from the project, it returns after a total rebuild of the project! What the hell does this file in mine project?!? Never been there!

What's going on here??? Something corrupt or...?

<<almost bouncing my head to the monitor...becoming crazy>>

 

[RedLion]

After all this shit, I created a fresh project called testproject. This project has one file called main.prg

content of main.prg: messagebox("hello world!")

Build an executable .exe

Runs good on the development computer.

Copied it with vfp6r.dll, vfp6renu.dll and vfp6run.exe to the test machine, and the "Do" dialog comes up again, and no messagebox to see...
While this "Do" dialog was up, I tried to change the name of vfp6r.dll what wasn't possible because the file was in use. So I can conclude that testproject.exe was using the runtime files that were placed in the same folder.

What is happening here, and what to do now!!!

 

[corgette]

I've had this problem a few times. What helped me was switching to Instalshield Express and selecting "Static Scanning" from the:

Installation designer
Item 3
Dependencies

and adding all of them to the app.

Good luck.

 

[Mike Lewis]

RedLion,

Copied it with vfp6r.dll, vfp6renu.dll and vfp6run.exe to the test machine,

With VFP 6.0, it's not enough just to copy those files to the target system. One or all of them have to be registered. The best way to achieve that is to use the Setup Wizard to create a setup program that you run on the target machine.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[PieroF62]

We use VFP7 for years and have hundred application installed, but we have never registered the vfp7xxxx.dll in the target system. We copy them in the same folder with all file of our program (EXE-DBF-FRX...) and all works fine.
it is wrong ?

Peter

 

[Mike Lewis]

Peter,

We use VFP7 for years and have hundred application installed, but we have never registered the vfp7xxxx.dll in the target system.

Yes, but you are using VFP 7.0, and RedLion's question (and my reply) was for VFP 6.0.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[RedLion]

First of all, thanks for all help!

Lets rephrase it simpler:

I have an app with a build from 10-May-2008 called myapp-may.exe
I have the same app with a build from 7-Oct-2008 called myapp-oct.exe

I put both applications on a fresh installed computer into the folder c:\myApp together with vfp6r.dll, vfp6renu.dll and vfp6run.exe

I execute myapp-may.exe and it works. I execute myapp-oct.exe and I get the VFP "do"-dialog to select a .fxp

This application was developed in 2003 and updated two times a year. Never installed the files, and it always worked great except today builds. The older ones are still working.

Not to offend you Mike, because your help is always great to me, but it seems to me that it is possible without any problems to run applications without registering them if they are located in the same folder. Because otherwise it should have gone wrong in the past, and it should go wrong with myapp-may.exe

I reinstalled VS 6 on my development system, but nothing changed...

 

[SnyAc]

Sounds to me like something was added to the app between the May and Oct updates....

Andy Snyder
SnyAc Software Services

http://www.snysoft.com

Hyperware Inc.
AmTech Software Inc.

 

[Mike Lewis]

RedLion,

Not to offend you Mike ....

No offence taken, I assure you.

I get the VFP "do"-dialog to select a .fxp

What happens after you cancel the dialogue? Do you get a run-time error? If so, can you trap the line number where the error is occurring?

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[RedLion]

There were no big changes in the software yet, even if I recompiled the same version of the software the problem occurred.

After clicking the cancel button the application terminates immediately. That's the big problem I can't find out at what place in the source code the problem occurs. So I placed a messagebox("hello world!") on the first line of the main.prg file. And even this messagebox doesn't pop-up, I always get the "do"-dialog at first...

As written above in this thread I also made a new project with one file with one line of code messagebox("hello world!") in a start.prg file, and the same error occurs...

In the mean while I am installing VS6 on a different computer, let see what happens after that...

 

[Dan Freeman]

So I placed a messagebox("hello world!") on the first line of the main.prg file. And even this messagebox doesn't pop-up, I always get the "do"-dialog at first...

This would tell me you don't have the program set as main in the PJX that you think is set. Except your second test, if accurately described, nixes that.

There may be some dependency (i.e. VC++ runtime dll, etc.) that is missing. VFP6 *is* old enough that there may be requirements that no longer ship with Windows.