Application Builder Fails with error 1003

[Louis Manfredi]

Hi Folks:

Here's one that is really getting me a little scared, any suggestions would be much appreciated:

I went back to version 7.1.1 'cause of some problems with 8.0.1

Built my application as an .exe, worked fine for me, sent to my client worked fine on his machine which already had run time engine installed from another project. Worked fine for him too.

But he needs to be able to install it on new machines in the normal sort of way, so I tried to build an installer using the 7.1.1 app. builder, and problems began...

Got the following error message when I tried the build:

So, per NI support's suggestion, I tried building a really simple vi from scratch in 7.1.1: While loop with a stop button, a 1000 ms wait, and an indicator hooked to index-- This also failed to build an installer with the same message.

Then I tried to re-install just the app builder per NI support's suggestion-- same problem.

Then I uninstalled LV 7.1.1 completely, rebooted, reinstalled LV 7.1.1 completely, rebooted, tried again:

Same problem...

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any Ideas?

A little beyond frustrated, to just plain scared any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Best Regards, Louis

[Jim Kring]

Try using the MSI Installer Builder from OpenG. This will allow you to build an installer in LabVIEW 7.1 from anything.. yes, anything.

[Louis Manfredi]

Try using the MSI Installer Builder from OpenG. This will allow you to build an installer in LabVIEW 7.1 from anything.. yes, anything.

Hi Jim:

Thanks, that sounded like a really good suggestion to me, and I tried it.

Unfortunately:

Ah well, not sure where to go next, do you think there's any point in getting rid of my present copy of open G stuff and trying again? (I tried doing a mass compile on the directory containing OpenG MSI Installer Builder.vi, I got a while big log file of "bad.vi" messages and then no better success when I tried running the builder again. For some reason, can't seem to open the builder.vi for edits, nor is it obvious to me where the offending sub-vi resides.)

At any rate, much thanks for your help so far & open to any other suggestions.

Best Regards, Louis

[kennoncotton]

Louis,

It looks like the portion of App Builder that builds the installer is broken for some reason. The main App Builder dialog launches calls that by reference since it is only valid for Windows, and that is why you are getting the 1003 error about an Open VI Reference.

So I doubt you have modified anything inside of <lv7.1dir>\project\wininstall.llb or inside <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\NiMsiDistKit.llb, so the only thing I can think of is the DLL that is called during the installer build process is missing or has been modified. Do you have <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\NiMsiDistKit.dll on your system and is it version 7.0.5? Also do you have <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\MergeMod.dll on your system version 1.10.1029.1? You need to have those 2 files which are installed by the App Builder / LV PDS installer, if you don't have them try to repair your installation. You could also try opening <lv7.1dir>\project\wininstall.llb\Win Install Create.vi to see why it is broken. It is password protected so it might not tell you much.

Kennon

[Irene_he]

In worst case if you still can't get it work directly using LabVIEW installer, maybe you can try to use a third party install builder. I usually only build *.EXE file in LabViEW, then use third party installer to include all necessary files. I also include a *.bat file which that I can use to launch automatically after the installer exit. (there is a setting in the third party installer will allow you do this). Inside this *.bat file, I add the LabVIEW runtime engine installation program and others like usb drivers, so that everything will be installed at the end. This has always worked for me. The third party install builder that I use is called "Install Creator". They even have a freeware which you can still use, just have an advertisement at the end.

http://www.clickteam.com/English/install_creator.htm

Irene

[Louis Manfredi]

Louis,

It looks like the portion of App Builder that builds the installer is broken for some reason. The main App Builder dialog launches calls that by reference since it is only valid for Windows, and that is why you are getting the 1003 error about an Open VI Reference.

So I doubt you have modified anything inside of <lv7.1dir>\project\wininstall.llb or inside <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\NiMsiDistKit.llb, so the only thing I can think of is the DLL that is called during the installer build process is missing or has been modified. Do you have <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\NiMsiDistKit.dll on your system and is it version 7.0.5? Also do you have <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\MergeMod.dll on your system version 1.10.1029.1? You need to have those 2 files which are installed by the App Builder / LV PDS installer, if you don't have them try to repair your installation. You could also try opening <lv7.1dir>\project\wininstall.llb\Win Install Create.vi to see why it is broken. It is password protected so it might not tell you much.

Kennon

Hi Kennon:

Been tied up for a while on another project, but I've finally got back to this issue, and I think your post gets us pointed in the right direction! Many thanks!

I checked the versions on the llb and the dll as you suggested, but both were present and appear to be of the correct version. So next, I opened up <lv7.1dir>\applibs\distkit\NiMsiDistKit.llb. I was able to open (front panel only-- locked diagrams) most of the vi's without error. However, two vi's flagged errors when I tried to open them:

"Install copy redistribution files.vi"

"Install create.vi"

Attempting to open each, a number of their sub-vi's flagged "Error Code 9 Vi Version (8.0) is newer than LabView Version (7.1.1)" The same sub-vis flagged the error for both of the broken vis:

"Open Config Data.vi"

"Config Data Refnum"

"Config Data Modify.vi"

"Config Data Modify functions.ctl"

"Close Config Data.vi"

Interestingly, when I try to place "Open Config Data.vi" on a diagram (it is in the file menu-- I use it occasionally, but not for this particular project) I also get the newer version error message.

So, I think we're onto something. Not sure why LV 8.0 modified these vis rather than using its own copies. Also not sure why LV 7.1.1 didn't reinstall its own versions of these vis when I uninstalled it completely and reinstalled it. Finally, I'm not sure how I can repair the damage. But I do have hopes (I'm terminally optimistic) that we're getting close to the answer... Any suggestions you can make will be much appreciated :worship:

I've cross posted this message with NI support (Jennifer, Support Reference number #711286)-- I don't want send you guys off on duplicated effort, so might check with her if you want to try and coordinate the effort. But in any case, I promise I'll let both of you know when I get an answer

Best Regards, Louis

[didierj]

So, I think we're onto something. Not sure why LV 8.0 modified these vis rather than using its own copies. Also not sure why LV 7.1.1 didn't reinstall its own versions of these vis when I uninstalled it completely and reinstalled it. Finally, I'm not sure how I can repair the damage. But I do have hopes (I'm terminally optimistic) that we're getting close to the answer... Any suggestions you can make will be much appreciated :worship:

After you uninstalled your LV7.1.1 copy, was the folder <program files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1> gone or stilll there? If it stayes then delete it and only afterwards reinstall your LV7.1. I've already seen (on other programs) that some installer do not overwrite files but keep the copy that is already on disk.

...On the same occasion, after uninstalling LV7.1 try to build a LV8 app (with installer). If it also fails, then it would mean that the LV8 is looking for some files at the wrong location (in LV7.1 directory instead of LV8 directory) and you either got a bug in the LV8 installer or were a bit careless while programming (e.g. opened a vi from LV8 from the wrong directory).

[Louis Manfredi]

After you uninstalled your LV7.1.1 copy, was the folder <program files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1> gone or stilll there? If it stayes then delete it and only afterwards reinstall your LV7.1. I've already seen (on other programs) that some installer do not overwrite files but keep the copy that is already on disk.

...On the same occasion, after uninstalling LV7.1 try to build a LV8 app (with installer). If it also fails, then it would mean that the LV8 is looking for some files at the wrong location (in LV7.1 directory instead of LV8 directory) and you either got a bug in the LV8 installer or were a bit careless while programming (e.g. opened a vi from LV8 from the wrong directory).

Hi Didierj:

Your explanation sounds very likely-- I did not check to see if the LV 7.1 folder was gone or not... I should have thought to do so-- the more I think about this, the more I think that I too have had the same problem before. I'll try again doing the uninstall, but follow up with checking the deletion of the directory before doing the reinstall.

I'm not planning to go back to LV 8.0 or 8.0.1-- its been a painful journey into the future for me & I'd rather stick to the present, which in my mind is 7.1.1. So I probably will not try the experiment you suggest to see if LV8, or my use of it, caused the problem. Hopefully the LV 8 testing will all be worked out by the folks paid to do so, rather than those of us who pay. Eventually, I'll change to 8.x where x>.0.1 Meanwhile, I never had problems with 7.1.1 till I started using 8-- so I'll keep to the simple solution, and not use 8.

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Best Regards, Louis

[kennoncotton]

So, I think we're onto something. Not sure why LV 8.0 modified these vis rather than using its own copies. Also not sure why LV 7.1.1 didn't reinstall its own versions of these vis when I uninstalled it completely and reinstalled it. Finally, I'm not sure how I can repair the damage. But I do have hopes (I'm terminally optimistic) that we're getting close to the answer... Any suggestions you can make will be much appreciated :worship:

I've cross posted this message with NI support (Jennifer, Support Reference number #711286)-- I don't want send you guys off on duplicated effort, so might check with her if you want to try and coordinate the effort. But in any case, I promise I'll let both of you know when I get an answer

Louis,

I checked with the developer who is responsible for the configuration file VIs and he hasn't heard of any reports of LabVIEW 8.0 or the 8.0 installer updating them. We verified on a machine with 7.1 and 8.0 that they aren't updated, so either you found a way to cause this to happen or inadvertently got those VIs loaded from 7.1 and saved them. I know I've done that before, you probably have 2 or 3 copies/versions of LabVIEW on your machine, I've got 10 (5.1 through 8.0.1, and some newer ones ), so I'm always asking "which folder am I loading this from?" and occasionally getting it wrong.

Besides uninstalling verifying the files are deleted and reinstalling, another way to go about it is to delete the .llb and then do a repair on LabVIEW 7.1 from Add/Remove Programs, this should reinstall the file, and take less time (I think). My thought on why the installer didn't overwrite the file has to do with the rules that MSI (Microsoft Installer) uses for determining whether or not to overwrite an existing file. Here I think what happened is MSI chose not to overwrite the file, since .llbs are not versioned with a Windows version resource (you can't see a version number on them in Properties under Windows Explorer) and the file had been updated.

I'll check with Jennifer to see if she turned up any else.

Kennon

[Louis Manfredi]

Hi Folks:

Success :!:

Reinstalling LV 7.1.1, After throughoughly and truely unistalling it and then manually throwing away all the fragments left behind by the uninstall process worked just fine. I suspect Kennon's suggestion that I simply delete the damaged llbs might have also worked, but I didn't want to take any chances of missing something, so I went for the thourough route instead.

This has been a long, drawn out thread, so for those that might follow me, or encounter similar problems:

SUMMARY:

Some time after I installed 8.0 or 8.0.1 a few of the library vis used by the 7.1 app. builder (and also by some programs of my own) got recompiled and saved for version 8. I'm not sure if this was my fault, LV8's fault, or a team effort between the two of us. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a team effort.

The crash messages left by the app. builder were a little cryptic, it took a while to find the damaged vis.

Uninstalling LV 7.1.1 using the Windows installer, and reinstalling it from the orignial disks didn't fix the problem. (In retrospect, I should have known better-- I think this has happened to me before. The Windows uninstaller can't be trusted to really ininstall everything-- Especially stuff shared with other software that you might have on the same machine. I've been around long enough that I should have known to also check for and delete any remaining 7.1 directories and their contents. Another clue was that the program launched as 7.1.1 after the re-install, despite having reinstalled using disks labelled 7.1)

Uninstalling LV7.1, using the windows utility, then manually deleting all the remaining stuff, then installing LV7.1 from disks, then installing LV 7.1.1 from the download patch file, then mass compling the LV 7.1 directory worked fine, and all my problems seem to have been solved. ('Though a sad fraction of my life has drifted by as non-billable hours.)

(Parenthetical note to Jim Kring: I haven't tried again to run the Open G installer you suggested, but I bet it failed because it was calling the same damaged library vis as the NI installer. Sometime soon I'll try it, and my bet is that I'll find it works very nicely. I may also try the installer that Irene He suggested someday. Might be good to have a separate thread to discuss relative merits of these, and any other available installer builders.)

So finally:

THANKS :worship:

Thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions. Special thanks to Kennon Cotton of NI, active on this forum, and Jennifer Ormston of NI tech support for their persistant efforts in helping the user. Most regulars on this forum know I can sometimes wax more than a little eloquent about the shortcomings and bugs of LV. Fact of the matter is, it is a terribly powerful and complex piece of software. Such software is bound to have the occasional quirk. I continue to use it because it allows me to do some pretty complex stuff pretty easily. Much as I complain, I really believe the benefits of the package far outweigh the flaws. In large part that is true because there are folks like Kennon and Jennifer at NI who answer the user's cry for help and stick with us 'till we get the answer.

So to everyone, Thanks & Best Regards, Louis.