Buggy Report Writer

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Tom

Thanks for the post. I agree with Phil that this appears a combination of high memory use and some memory leaks. Unless Alpha can see the problem in action, it would be difficult for them to isolate the problem and determine the source.

The only point I was trying to make is that this is still a common problem in Windows in any action in any program that is memory intensive. Whn you are editing a layout, it is in memory. If you make a lot of edits, they are in memory. At some point, you have to take some action to consolidate or clear the memory or you hit some buffer limits. The questions for Alpha are - is there a memory leak, or can buffer sizes be increased.

A common solution in graphics programs is to create a separate swap file for the high usage, since buffer size is limited. Adobe for example, uses swap files, which are only limited by disk size. They still have memory problems from time to time, and the programs have to be closed and reopened.

Jerry

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Here is a report that I can produce a "buggy" effect at will. I zipped the set, with the options to include layouts, etc.

To make it work, if you want to "print" it - go to interactive and enter labnum="L03036780"

to produce the effect I mentioned, in the report "Travelers", in design, 'open' one of the subreports, and them close it, and then view the screen. Mine goes buggy the first time, every time.

Now while this is only one of many things that occur with the editor, for me, this may at least let someone who has not had problems test to see if they have problems on their machine.

I am running a PIV 3.2, 1 gig ram, nvidia gforce, XP

[Pat Bremkamp]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

I have been doing a lot of forms design lately, and I find that the most common time to have problems is when changing properties on a field, especially related to the font tab of the field properties.

I have found that I can avoid many problems by opening properties, changing one property only, say size, then closing the properties form, then reopening it again to change, say color.

My guess is that it is related to the automatic flyover effects routine. I think that has a problem.

Also, has anyone else noticed that the embedded browse default font is not assigned properly? Every time I create and embedded browse, I have to set the font.

Pat

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Martin

When I follow your instruction, I get two errors on Print Preview

Error 1 Message

gpc not found Error occured at line 2 in script OnPrintInit

Error 2 Message

Invalid report filter expression labnum = var-"labnum

If I set create labnum as a global variable and set a value, I get a different second error.

Error 2 message

Error occured parsing CALC-"splits expression
gpn2 not found

"Split" + alltrim(str(gpn1)) + " of "+ alltrim(str(gpn2))

If you are getting script errors, it is likely to cause problems. These need corrected first. These appear to be variables that are not defined. I get the same errors in the subreports when they are run individually.

Jerry

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Jerry, just open the report in design, and then open one of the subreports, and then close it, and see if the screen goes haywire. I forgot about some of the other events that have to occur before the report prints, like some global variables. But the report works perfectly. Its the design that we're talking about.

[BRANDI MARQUINA]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

A memory leak yes. I agree.

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Martin

I first dimmed the variables as global to stop the errors. I was able to open the report, follow your instructions, and have no problem. I went in and edited a number of objects on the layout, ran preview without saving, and still have no problem. I can open and close the subreports, edit the subreports, etc and still no problems.

Just as a test, I left a number of other programs open, opened the script editor in background, and basically tried to crash it by editing the report as much as possible. One time I got an unhanded exception the first time I tried to print preview the report before dimming the variables, but I have been unable to duplicate it.

The report looks rather typical and doesn't have a lot of calculations. I also checked if compact had any effect, but the file sizes didn't change, so that had no effect.

Just as a test, I restored your files again, dimmed the variables, and repeated the test. I even sent the report to the pdf writer. Still no problems.

I am using an IBM 1.4ghz Penitum 4, ATI Radeon 7000 Video, 1 ghz ram running Win2000 Pro. Alpha build 1506-1058

Maybe someone else may have different results with a different configuration

Jerry

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Okay, here is a complete database, that will let you optionally print the report.

But to test for the report going a little wierd or not, just open the report "Travelers", open one of the subreports, close it, and look at the bottom of the screen.

If it looks wrong, then it demonstrates a point. If it doesn't, then maybe it is related to other issures.

This is, again, just an attempt to see if it occurs on all computers, regardless of hardware. The initial problems that you will see are minor, compared to what will happen if you stay in it and continue to modify things.

[DaveM]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Martin,

win2000 - 1.7mghz - 128meg mem - amd chip -

No problems to report as you gave directions for


Dave

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Well, it is obviously related to some hardware issue, then. I included below another zip, that contains what you need to print it, but that doesn't really relate to the "design" mode. But maybe others will test it, and we can isolate the problem.

I am running 1058, too, and my development computer is almost always state-of-the-art.

On my system, I can open the app fresh, go straight to the control panel, striaght to design mode for the report, open one of the sub reports, and when I close it, the bottom half of the screen goes odd, hiding the bottom half.

Again, this is only intended for test purposes, as many problems tend to occur on almost all reports, especially if I stay in them long enough.

Thanks for testing it.

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

interesting - Jerry is running 2000, too. It may relate to XP.

[DaveM]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Martin,

I have had problems with the report writer, but it takes a lot more than this scenario. Mine drastically slows down and finally fails or tosses me out. I have no set sequence though.


Dave

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Mine will almost always go haywire if I stay in it a while, regardless of the report, or its complexity. But some are worse than others.

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Martin

I did run into a serious problem with your report. If I just opened the database and tried to preview the report after the autoexec ran, I would get an unhandled exception every time. After considerable testing, I think I found the problem. You have a number of objects with the same names "labnum", "labnum1", etc The same name is used as a field in one table, and index name, and a variable name. This apparently caused a conflict when the variable was dimmed. The solution was to assign a value to the globals after they were dimmed. The unhandled exception when away.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the other problem, but mixing names can be confusing in code. Alpha typically does a good job resolving names, but in this case it apparently didn't know the name was actually a variable until a value was assigned. The name was used in a number of expressions in different contexts, which may have caused the expression to fail when evaluated. One of the reasons many developers use naming conventions is to avoid name conflicts.

Jerry

[martinwcole]

RE: Buggy Report Writer

Jerry, you have to run the report from the form, "Travelers." You get the unhandeled exception because it is addressing something that doesn't exist until you run it from the form.

But the problem we're addressing, that many of us are having difficulty with, is the report editor. The report works perfectly, its just that with that or any report, I have problems with the report editor going south.