Task Pane Manager - updated

[RobSpencer]

I know that a lot of VFP programmers don't use the Task Pane Manager but I do and I've discovered a bug recently, which I've fixed. Actually, there are two fixes.

1. The XML DOM parser is specified as MSXML2.DOMDocument.4.0, which doesn't exist on my Windows 10 system (nor did it exist on Windows 8.x or I think Windows 7). I've replaced the four places where the object is created with a simple call to an object factory where it works backwards through more modern versions, all wrapped in try-catches.
2. The contents of a memo field in panecontentdefault.dbf has been adjusted so that the pane.xml file that is generated each time you visit the Environment Manager tab has valid contents (the Data memo field for one of the Environment Manager records had an invalid xml:stylesheet line rather than an xml-stylesheet line).

This last bug only showed up because I'm trying to use a more modern version of the web control rendering than IE V7 and to debug, had to turn that on for vfp9.exe as well. (See Rick Strahl's blog for details)

My question is this - what is the best way now of sharing these fixes with the rest of the VFP community? Building the taskpane.app is not super easy since it relies on xsource and the ffc classes. Also, the fix for someone with VFP already in use requires updates to the contents of a database file buried in the users AppData folder tree.

I'm happy to share the pre-built taskpane.app with anyone who wants it but is there something better that I should do?

Rob Spencer
Caliptor Pty Ltd

http://www.caliptor.com.au/

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Go to codeplex VFPX and talk with some project owners there, eg Tamar Granor also often reads here and contributes Thor. VFPX would be a good place to host some changes, it already hosts the Sedna add ons, which eg also upgrade the Upsizing Wizard.

Anyway, one ccomment on Fix #1: The sepcific XML classes VFP uses are not only encoded in the task pane. Native commands like XMLTOCURSOR make use of a specific MSXML version, also some methods and parameterizations used may not be downward compatible. I'm sure you tested your fixes, but MSXML gladly installs side by side in several versions and there are still security fixes for MSXML3, too (I think).

What's really buggy is the prerequisites installer is not checking for the specific MSXML versions used, it's satisfied by any newer version, which makes the initial install of VFP9's task pane fail in the section using the webbrowser to further display many things. Also the deprecation of gotdotnet.com causes the task pane to load slowly, one of the reasons some may rather turn it off and not use it at all, but that can be fixed by deleting some rows of PaneContent.dbf:

*-- Open the TaskPane content table
USE ADDBS(justpath(_foxtask))+'TaskPane\PaneContent'

*-- Move problematic web links to OptionPage memo
REPLACE OptionPage WITH Data FOR DatSrc = 'U' AND 'gotdotnet.com' $ LOWER(Data)
REPLACE Data WITH ' FOR DatSrc = 'U' AND 'gotdotnet.com' $ LOWER(Data)

USE

That's a fix provided by Pavel Celba.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[RobSpencer]

Thanks Olaf

Rob Spencer
Caliptor Pty Ltd

http://www.caliptor.com.au/

 

[DougHennig]

Hi Rob.

If you send me the source changes you made (dhennig@stonefield.com, or just show the places where you made the changes here), I'll incorporate them into the XSource source code on VFPX, giving you full credit for the fixes, of course.

Doug