LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Mr._Jim · ‎07-17-2014

Hello all,

This is an elaboration on a prior request by RavensFan:

When AppBuilder reports a file related error, such as error 8, could someone please provide a path?

I have no idea what's causing my file IO error, as I am running LabVIEW as a local admin and there should be nothing interfering with my path.

I can't probe a path wire in the AB method because the diagrams are understandably locked.

This is so frustrating. No one likes to debug by guessing and it wastes a tremendous amount of time.

Thank you with my deepest respect to the AB team.

Jim

For example:

BrianGShea@NGC · ‎07-18-2014

I agree. I have this issue from time to time.

I resolved the issue by deleting the folder that the build will building to. 99% of the time this fixes the problem. 1% i have to do it again. I think it was related to my anti-virus.

Other times i have run into this issue, was using post-build scripts that i hosed up a path in and returned the error and on windows hosts, when a file name exceeded 255 characters due to the file being copied to a new path that was longer than the origial path.

Knowing what the path is would help but more so knowing at what part of the build process would be even more beneficial.

Brian G. Shea
Certified LabVIEW Architect

davidkeng7777 · ‎07-31-2014

I like how it tells you that there's a problem but don't tell you what the problem is... 😞

Read only folder?

AristosQueue (NI) · ‎07-31-2014

So -- personally I think that the dialog could be clearer. I want to say that up front so no one jumps down my throat directly.

Having said that -- The explanation that I got from others is that the error message does say, explicitly, the problem is with the directory that *you* specified to use for the build. There shouldn't be a whole lot of ambiguity about which directory that is. So you aren't "debugging by guessing" -- there is only one directory that it can be, and it is the one you typed into your build spec.

I have suggested that even though the path should be known, printing it out in the dialog would be a convenience. I think it would cut down on the confusion among people who -- like myself -- read this error message as a generic "cannot write to directory" error message. I didn't pick up on the fact that it is a very specific "the build directory cannot be written to" message.

Mr._Jim · ‎08-01-2014

Hi David, nice to run into you again! Yep, "read only folder" would indeed be the conclusion drawn from conventional wisdom, but alas, please read on.

AQ,

I completely hear you (and the AB team, via proxy). In fact, if anyone asked my opinion regarding why they might be getting error 8 during a build, I'd normally just say, "It has to be one of your directory paths that you specified in the build spec!"

Seems pretty cut and dry, right? So right, under normal circumstances I'd agree that my request was a bit nitpicking.

Well, on the day I started this Idea Exchange thread, I was dealing with something more elusive than usual, and I'd never seen this behavior.

I was trying to build but inexplicably kept getting a permissions error, even though:

The destination directory was empty
Permissions appeared perfectly in order
I even launched LabVIEW as local admin

I was out of ideas and kept wondering, "Which specific path is hanging this thing up?!" I wondered if there was some piece of information I was missing, hence the need for information as specific as possible.

Incidentally, I did build successfully, but only after I moved the build destination to a completely benign location like "Documents".

Thank you AQ, and the rest of the team for humoring me on this one. We all certainly appreciate your efforts.

AristosQueue (NI) · ‎08-01-2014

It's not humoring -- half of my goal on these Idea Exchange feedbacks is to get you unstuck for today. Usually when someone presents an idea, it's because something is getting in their way, and sometimes we can at least partially clear the block. That's just good customer service. I hope you find the solution to your build issue. If it persists, do ping one of our Application Engineers to figure out what's wrong... and when you do, let us know... there might be an even better way that this error message should be improved if it turns out that the error is being triggered by something orthogonal.

Mr._Jim · ‎08-01-2014

>It's not humoring

Ugh - poor choice of words on my part. Thank you very much for looking into this and for taking the time.

MGiacomet · ‎08-05-2014

Kudos to the idea, but... better if NI would fix the underlying problem in LabVIEW that's triggering this dialog box. Yes, it is in LV.

What I've observed is that sometimes, there isn't any permission, lock or whatever issue the dialog box may imply. Sometimes just starting another build in a short while after one has finished, causes that dialog box to pop up. Sometimes when I get this dialog box, I just save the project (!!!) and the next build succeeds.

Most of the time this dialog box is triggered by a... BUG in LabVIEW.

tst · ‎08-06-2014

I always or almost always see error 8 if I have the build folder open in Windows Explorer when building (and of course, it only happens at the end of the build, when the AB converts the folder to an EXE). I'm guessing that it has something to do with the indexing or the anti-virus software.

Perhaps a more practical idea is this one, or what's suggested in the comments there - http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Application-Builder-Give-the-possibility-to-save-as-an...

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MGiacomet · ‎08-08-2014

Addition to my post: Today I don't even need to save the project for the build to succeed. If I just start the build again, it works fine.

Definitiely a race condition caused by LV itself. Buggy, buggy... (but as always, NI "feels good" because there is a workaround... and doesn't fix the problem)

AristosQueue (NI) · ‎08-08-2014

> Definitiely a race condition caused by LV itself. Buggy,

> buggy... (but as always, NI "feels good" because there is

> a workaround... and doesn't fix the problem)

I don't think anyone has ever mentioned that before. I cannot find a CAR on the issue, though that could just be a failure of my searching. I'll pass this along to the dev team and see if they have heard of the issue. If not, we'll file a CAR.

No, NI doesn't feel good because there's a workaround. We feel better than we would if there was no workaround, but that's not the same as feeling good.

LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Application Builder File IO Errors: Reveal Which Path