Blank files showing up in installer Source Files from auto-populating folder

[asbo]

Here's a head scratcher for you. I'm building an installer in LV2011 SP1 which will exist to only copy some files to a specific location and set some registry keys. In my project, I have three auto-populating folders to be included in the installer. Immediately after making the folders auto-populating, the build looks fine and dandy:

However, when I go to build the installer, it craps out and gives me an error. Here's what the Build Errors dialog tells me (angle brackets added for whitespace emphasis:

> The following file(s) are not found on the system:

>

>

>

>

You can see there *should* be filenames here...

> Visit the Request Support page at ni.com/ask to learn more about resolving this problem. Use the following information as a reference:

>

> CDK_Build_Invoke.vi.ProxyCaller >> CDK_Build_Invoke.vi >> CDK_Engine_Main.vi >> IB_MSI.lvclass:Build.vi >> IB_MSI.lvclass:Engine_PreBuild.vi >> CDK_Engine_FileExists.vi

>

>

Going back to the build properties, I now have two "blank" files in one of my auto-populating folders! I can select these files just like anything else, but the item label is completely blank.

I don't know what makes this auto-populating folder different than the other two. There are no hidden files of any kind in the folder. The folder is versioned in SVN, but I'm using 1.7+ so the .svn directory is only in the root folder. If I make the folder non-auto-populating and then re-auto-populating, I can repeat this cycle ad nauseam. As a non-auto-populating folder, I can only add files from the Code folder to the build, I would have to build the directory structure by hand, which is exactly the reason auto-populating folders can be used in builds.

I don't know how else to troubleshoot this issue. I've tried re-creating the build from scratch without any luck. Has anyone seen this before or have some ideas about how to figure out what's going on?

[Yair]

As a non-auto-populating folder, ... I would have to build the directory structure by hand

Or you could add it as a snapshot. True, it won't update if you add more files, but it will save you from manual selection of the files.

[asbo]

Ahh, interesting idea, I didn't know about snapshots. I'll give that a try.

[asbo]

Checking back in... Unfortunately, the add button on the Source Files pane is disabled for snapshot'ed folders - per the help, "You can add only auto-populating folders, but you can add multiple files at the same time."

I also tried using a Source Distribution, since an installer can have those added as well. I enabled the "preserve directory structure" setting because my sequence is set up to use relative paths. However, when I do this, LabVIEW preserves the *whole* directory structure, when my Code/etc folders are already 5 directories deep. What a pain.

My next step to try creating a new project and seeing if that resolves the blank file issue. Short of that, I guess I need to pack it up and have NI tell me what's going on.

[asbo]

Here's the answer: I had two GIF files buried in an LVLIB inside of an LLB. I'm not sure how it happened, but the GIF files were missing from the LVLIB - presumably because you can't include GIF files in an LLB. Two GIF files, two blank items in my build, 0 warnings from anything but the build. I did end up passing the project code on to NI, I'll report back if there's a CAR for this.

[asbo]

Two CARs resulted from this issue:

CAR #366530: The Build Error lists blank spaces for the files that could not be found in the system

CAR #366472: The Source Files page lists two empty spaces instead of file names

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to identify the source of the blank files if you have this happen. What I did was remove everything from my Code folder and add directories back one by one until the build broke again. Repeat ad nauseum to isolate the source of the problem and hopefully something jumps out at you.