Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

[nigeldude]

I have a Layout-Table report that excels beautifully on some PCs but on others I get the following error, then it does not export.

"Error occurred parsing filter expression"
"Field is not recognized"

I'm assuming it cannot be an A5 error, since it works on some Pcs, then, there is a PC where it used to work at first, but now it doesn't anymore.

When the export works properly, the resulting Excel file looks identical to the A5 report, colors and all.
Attached is an image of the error taken from a PC where it does not work.


IMG_20150402_160028.jpg

[DaveM]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

I would have never thought of exporting a form to exel.

products->locat_id1 is missing? That is what the error is saying. Check that local machine and be sure that field is there? In your image, the field appears to be used in a filter?
speed of the computer?
memory available at the time?
I would bet it is not an alpha error.

[MoGrace]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

Dave,
I don't think he said it was form but a layout table report that when previewed can be exported to Excel.

Nigel - could you show us the whole filter expression?

[nigeldude]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

That is correct Robbin, It is a Layout-Table report.

I have a Sales Summary form (Image Attached), this form is the result of combining multiple tables together: Sales, Expenses, purchases, and inventory snapshots taken at the start of each cashier's shift. On this form, the user can apply a query using options in the "Query" box. This is the only query being applied, after applying the query of choice, you can then click on the "Report" button to generate the previously mentioned report, the report always look and work correct, but when the built in Excel option is used, on some computers it works well, on others I get that error.
The form and report are based on the same set, the "Report" button is set to open currently selected records, and the report is set to "Base on currently selected records".

One of the puzzling thing which also indicate its not an A5 error, is that, even if no query is applied after the form is open, I still get that error.

[DaveM]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

Just a shot Nigel, but do all the users have excel installed?, same version?, same windows version?
is there a different virus program on some?
I have never done this, but emails using outlook seem to error if outlook is already open with a MAPI type. Is it the same with excel?

[MoGrace]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

Hi Nigel,
May I ask why you open this report in Excel? What do your users do there that they can't do in Alpha? If you are sending it - have you tried as a PDF?

[nigeldude]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

Dave:
There are different versions of Windows being used, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
All the PCs are using Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
But remember, I have a case where one PC use to work but now it doesn't, neither the windows nor the Office was re installed.

Robbin:
The client has a special love for Excel and periodically exports the data to that and do further processing there.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

neither the windows nor the Office was re installed.

Ah, but the neverending updates..........

[nigeldude]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

That sounds like it might the cause. I'm not near those PCs right now, but, Whats the best way to get Office back to its original state?

[DaveM]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

You might try undoing any updates on those computers that have office updates? I am not real experienced with that.

Trying to completely uninstall office 2007 is a pure pain because it is so dug into windows. The reinstall is the same as before.


My win7 and win8 computers are on auto update as well.

Please clarify if the user is previewing and then sending to excel? Would it be possible to create the report to go directly to excel without the preview? In other words, to csv or to export to excel file format?

[nigeldude]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

I will do the uninstallation when I get the opportunity to, then report back.

Yes, the users are previewing the report 1st then exporting to Excel after. If I was to export the records without 1st going to a report, would I still have control over the formatting of the resulting Excel file? Right now, on the PCs where it works well, the Excel file looks identical to my report, as you can see, it is strongly formatted. columns, columns titles, colors, numeric fields etc. it comes out perfectly formatted when exported from the report, I really don't want to loose that.

[DaveM]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

Nigel, I don't know the answer to that.
It would take some experimentation.
I do know for some reports going to word, I have to print to pdf and then do a conversion to word due to a mess when going straight to word. Final is great but direct to word is a mess.

[DaveM]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

Just tried it here with 0.00 success on several complex reports to word and to excel going direct.

[MoGrace]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

What about having another user email the report to the one where it doesn't work...just curious if it would make a difference once the report was converted.

[nigeldude]

Re: Why Does My Report Excel On Some PCs But Not Others

OK guys, The solution is in. Maybe someone else could elaborate on what exactly happened and how to avoid it, but basically, I found the issue and was lucky enough to rectify it, unfortunately, I cant tell why it went bad in the 1st place.

After an embarrassingly long time I realized that the error message was identifying my table fields as variable, then it would say that the variable cannot be found. This happened whether or not I put Products_Id or Products->Product_Id

Then, I noticed that the stations weren't going through the "update" process whenever I update the app on the server, however, they would always have the latest version. So I placed the following code in my menu bar under "Tools" to identify each PC's server/station status, and It began to dawn on me.

dim Master_name as C
Master_name = a5.Get_Master_Name()
if (Master_name = "") then
ui_msg_box("Server", "This is the server.." +crlf(2)+ "App Path: " + Var->vApp_Path, UI_STOP_SYMBOL+UI_OK)
else
ui_msg_box("Station", "This is a station.." +crlf(2)+ "App Path: " + Var->vApp_Path, UI_STOP_SYMBOL+UI_OK)
END
End if

every computer was identified as the server. So I now saw what I suspected to be a legit issue that may be causing the failed export.

When I created the "Bootstrap app", I had one that installed both the app and run time, then another that installed only the app, the run time was installed manually in a separate installation. I believe the latter was the one being used. So I deleted my app folder, then re install the one with the run time built in with the app, I ran the server/station test and it was finally identified as a station. Now, my beautiful report exports to a beautiful Excel file, it works with or without a query applied to the form or report. And the series of operations that cross tab about 5 different tables to create that report went from taking 2.5 minutes to taking about .5 minute. It works perfectly, and, on all stations.

Conclusion
The stations were misinformed and wrongfully thought there were servers, I assume, though they were pulling the data from the real server, they were in some ways trying to operate independently.

Question
Alpha recommends installing the app and run time separately for PCs with Windows Vista and above. So, why did that end up with all the stations thinking that they are servers?