Hi,
as a newbie to FormsPlayer I tried to install the current version. Impossible.
I allow the ActiveX installer plugin to run. But then nothing happens. No version number is displayed. No install happens. Well, quite frustrating.
As I could not find a similar entry in the forum I put a little more confidence in your work. Tried an older Version. And well, going back to the oldest 1.4.1.1009 worked. So things looked somewhat better. Still, it was not possible to install 1.5.4.1018 afterwards. So a did it sequentially using 1.5.1.1018 and 1.5.3.1001. Finnally I made it to 1.5.4.1018.
Hmm, long way to go for just having a short view on this thing.
So, could it be that there are dependencies of the most current version from older versions which prevent it from being installed? At least it seems so to me.
System Info: First trying on XP SP2, fully patched with IE7 (I did not check yet, whether the full procedure works here as well)
retried with XP SP2 and IE6 - this one finally worked with procedure described above
There were no Windows updates running in between, so it seems to be unlikely it's an issue with OS or browser. But you never know.
If you need more info, I'm ready to help. Would be a shame to prevent people trying this nice part of software due to an installation issue ...
regards
uwe
more testing ...
I was curious, whether I could get a bit closer to the root cause of the issue. Tried with the machine without the installation (XP SP2, IE7):
1) Try installing latest (1.5.4.1018): Activating install control. Waiting. No install.
2) Trying 1.5.4.1001 from history: Activating install control. Installer starts. Aborting. (I want to find the first version where it does not install)
3) Trying 1.5.4.1004 from history: Installer starts. Aborting.
4) Trying 1.5.4.1005 from history: Installer starts. Aborting.
5) Trying 1.5.4.1010 from history: Installer starts. Aborting.
6) Trying 1.5.4.1015 from history: Installer starts. Aborting.
7) Trying 1.5.4.1018 from history: Installer starts. Aborting. ?? !! (What the heck? That's the damn version that did not run at the beginning.)
8) Trying latest (1.5.4.1018): Installer starts!!!!
Now I'm relly confused. Issue seems to be related to former installer actions?
uwe
It's probably MSXML4
Hi,
Thanks for all your help.
A few versions ago we upgraded the XML parser support to MSXML 6 instead of MSXML 4. Since we no longer distribute version 4 with formsPlayer, the problem you are seeing could well be that we have left a stray reference to MSXML 4 somewhere. That would certainly explain why going up through the versions resolves the problem, and why it hasn't come to light until now.
Thanks again for all your hard work on this, and we'll keep you posted as to whether this is actually the problem, and when a fix is available.
Regards,
Mark
--
Mark Birbeck, formsPlayer
http://www.formsPlayer.com | http://internet-apps.blogspot.com
standards. innovation.
Stray MSXML 4 reference
I have discovered and updated a reference to MSXML4 in one of the components. I believe that 1.5.4.1027 should fix the problem.
I'm impressed. You're fast.
I'm impressed. You're fast.
Unfortunatly 1.5.4.1027 does not seem to fix the problem. That issue is really tricky to pin down. I found one more machine for a test (XP SP2, IE6). No install possible either. Same as before. Activating Install Control. Confirming the install dialog. But then, nothing happens ...
I enabled installer debugging as described somewhere her in the forum, but this dot not help much, as no log file is written for this.
Fortunatly I also enabled installer debugging on the other machine before I started the procedure above. Could be handy now. When I installed 1.5.4.1001, an according log file was created. But just 4 seconds before there is another log file with msxml6.msi installation. As I did not manually start that I assume the FormsPlayer install launched that.
Is it possible that this dependency from msxml6.msi somehow got lost or inactive in the newer revisions?
uwe
The installation process in detail
Hi,
It might help if I explain what is happening during an install, since we're not 100% certain where you are seeing your problem.
The first thing is that you navigate to an installation page. At the top of the page is a reference to a script which manages installing, upgrading and/or invoking formsPlayer.
The script first checks to see whether you have formsPlayer installed already; the same script can be used in ordinary forms, not just installer forms, so if you have written a form for your users and they have fP installed already, there is no point in downloading it again. This is the default behaviour of the script, but when it is used in the installer page we set a flag to force an upgrade to the requested version.
Next, an
objecttag is created in the document which references the formsPlayer control. IE supports a mechanism whereby a control can be installed if it doesn't already exist, and it is this feature that we are using to get the control down to you. So the settings that were established in the first step--whether to install, upgrade or just invoke formsPlayer--are then used to determine what properties to set on thisobjecttag.If installation or upgrade is required, then IE should pull our CAB file down from our server. Unfortunately, at this point there is a pause and IE doesn't really give you any indication of what is happening, so network speed does affect the user experience. If you want to be really certain that the file is coming down then a tool like Fiddler will show that it is. However, it sounds from your description that this part is working ok.
Once the CAB file is down, IE will unpack it and run it. Depending on your security settings you might get prompted about whether to do this, and if you do get a prompt you should see a reference to the fact that the installer is digitally signed by x-port.net. As you've seen, the first thing that happens is that MSXML 6 is installed, although this happens silently. After that, the formsPlayer installer is run, and this gives the usual installer prompts.
You said "Confirming the install dialog", and I'm not completely clear on whether the prompt you are confirming is the one that has the x-port digital certificate in, or whether you mean the prompts that you get from MSI.
Once installation is complete we pop back up the stack and formsPlayer is invoked in the form--since the whole thing is happening because of the
objecttag. The form should run, and in the case of the installation page, you'll simply see formsPlayer's version number.Note that the MSXML 4 problem wouldn't actually arise until the form tries to run--i.e., once installation is complete--so if you are getting a problem earlier, the whole issue might have been a red herring!
Since we're unable to reproduce the problem here, the other thing that might be worth checking is whether there are any security settings on the machines you are looking at that might be causing a problem?
Thanks again for your help.
Mark
--
Mark Birbeck, formsPlayer
http://www.formsPlayer.com | http://internet-apps.blogspot.com
standards. innovation.