VFP 6 / VFP 9 incompatibilities? 1

[grahamrhind]

I have a standalone application (exe) written in VFP 6, which works without problem on most PCs. However, a customer has reported that they have installed/upgraded to VFP 9 on their machine, and now they cannot run the application - the error message is "API Library not found" when double clicking the application's icon. Does anybody have any idea if / how VFP 9 on a machine can cause a problem with a VFP 6 exe application?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

If the error shows up at the begining, this would indicate that the program is attemping to access a DLL (or an FLL - perhaps FoxTools) that is no longer located where it is suppose to be, or it got overwritten. If ouy have access to the code, look in the main program and see if it is try to access a DLL.
Perhaps a line like
SET LIBRARY TO FOXTOOLS.FLL



Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[grahamrhind]

Thanks Mike. This was the first thing that we checked. The user swears that all the library files (FLLs and DLLs) are in the correct locations.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Do you have access to the uncompiled code? If so, can you step through and see for yourself?


Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[grahamrhind]

Hi Mike,

Yes, I wrote the code and have access to it. I probably need to be clearer. The program works fine on my machine and on every other customers' machine and, up until yesterday, also without problem on the machine of the customer with the problem now. The customer claims that the libraries are in the right place, and the clean install checked this because it re-installs everything to where it should be. We know that the code is correct. The only thing we have been able to pin down as a potential issue is that the customer recently upgraded his version of VFP to version 9. I don't have version 9 so I was wondering if anybody knew if there were any compatibility issues, as we think that the new install is affecting the VFP 6 exe is some way. That's the only idea we've got left - everything else has been checked.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

I have on my system FPW2.6, VFP3,VFP5,VFP6,VFP7,VFP8 and VFP9 (The Retail version), and I don't see any incompatibilities with any of them.


Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[grahamrhind]

Thanks Mike. I can't believe myself that there could be any interference between versions, but I need to check all possibilities!

 

[rgbean]

Mike,
While you've got one version that I gave up real quick - VFP 3.0! - I've also got the other VFPs and FP 2.0, FPD&W 2.5b and FPD&W 2.6a! Never any conflicts as long as you don't try to share CONFIG.FPW or FOXUSER.DBF files.

Note: I did keep the help file for VFP 3.0 installed though.

Rick

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Rick

While you've got one version that I gave up real quick - VFP 3.0! -

I also have a never installed VFP4.0 (beta), someone sent to me to test, but VFP5.0 came out soon after.

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[rgbean]

Ah yes, 4.0 the version that never really was! For those that need a history lesson, this was when it was decided to put VFP into Visual Studio, and MS wanted all the various pieces to all have the same version number - 5.0! (Of course it was called VS 97!)

Rick

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Hmm,

have they uninstalled vfp6 before installing vfp9?
If the runtimes are not there anymore, I wouldn't be surprised, if the old exe doesn't run any more...

Bye, Olaf.

 

[grahamrhind]

Hi Olaf,

Time for more clarity. The VFP 6 program I am talking about is a distributed program - it's an .exe and the user does not have, or need to have, VFP 6 or any VFP version installed. In this user's case, he now has VFP 9 installed (obviously not in the same directory) and he's getting the problems. Therefore, the question is whether a VFP 9 installation can affect a VFP 6 distributed exe file in a different place on a disk.

Graham

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Therefore, the question is whether a VFP 9 installation can affect a VFP 6 distributed exe file in a different place on a disk.

As you may have judged by the responses here, the answer is still "Not that we know of". There must be something else at play.



Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[KoenPiller]

Hi Grahamerhind,

As far as your original problem "API Libary not found" Maybe the procedure APICALLS written by Boudewijn is something for you.
Go to Foxite and look in download section for apicalls.zip

Hope this could solve your problem.

Regards,

Koen

 

[craigsboyd]

I also have a never installed VFP4.0 (beta)...

You lucky dog. That's gotta be a rare collector's item for sure.

grahamrhind,

OK, so given the error... where are your SET LIBRARY TO calls in the program and what are they (rhetorical question)? Can you compile a special version of the EXE with some simple diagnostic code in it to help you narrow down the problem (this is assuming multiple calls to SET LIBRARY TO are in your program, if you have only one then you already know what the problem line of code is and which library is unable to be located)? Something as simple as...

if !File("C:\MyLib.FLL")
    Messagebox("MyLib.Fll cannot be located contact grahamrhind at 555-555-5555")
Set Library to C:\MyLib.FLL
endif

...would be sufficient to provide more information. Other things, is your app relying on VFP to search the PATH for the fll or is the fullpath for the library being provided in code? If it is, then perhaps your user has somehow overwritten the PATH environment variable in windows which no longer allows VFP to find the lib. Other possibilities are that even though the user has the lib in the proper place and all looks right, maybe there is a permissions problem with the profile the app is running under so that the app cannot actually see or access that directory.

When all else fails play a little battle ship and perhaps a solution, and thereby the cause, will present itself. Get on the phone with the user and have them copy that lib all over the place until VFP can see it (into the app root folder, into the system32 dir, the windows dir, the shared vfp common directory, etc.).

Not a solution I'm afraid, but perhaps some out of the box thinking and ideas that may lead you to the solution. Good luck.

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[grahamrhind]

Just to close this topic off, we have located the problem. The user had quite simply incorrectly added a shortcut to the start menu with incorrect properties, so it was giving errors on startup. Double-clicking the .exe file in Explorer worked.

So there we are - these things are sent to try us! I can now buy VFP 9 with a clear mind ......

Graham