Compatibility problems with Word dynamic VIs in executable

[Gurdas]

Hi!,

Our development PC has Win2000, Office XP, LV 7.1 (with app builder), Report Generation Toolkit (1.0.1)

The exe built on this PC works fine on computers with MS Office XP.
However, when we ran the exe on a PC with MS Office 2000, the report generation created only blank documents.

Questions:

1) Is this behaviour because we did not include the dynamic VIs for Office 2000?

2) Does RGT install only version specific dynamic VIs on the dev machine. In other words, for Office 2000 dynamic VIs, do I need to point to the 'compatibility' folder on my RGT installer CD?

3) Can I include dynamic VIs for both Office 2000 and Office XP in the same exe? If yes, will the exe automatically choose the correct files when run on the target machine?

4) How can I ensure my exe also works with Office 2003?

5) Should I also be sensitive to the OS version? Will it run if the OS is WinXP?

Thanks,
Gurdas

[Photon_Dan]

1) No, you must compile your EXE on a PC with the same version of Office installed.  I'm not sure if that is the intent, but that has been my experience.  You can try to swap the llb files for the corresponding version of Office, but as I recall, that did not help much.

2) Yes

3) It could probably be done, but I think it requires a re-architecting of your app.  I acually have to maintain a separate EXE with my reporting / print functions.  I compile one of those for each version of Office and call the appropriate one.  Not super smooth.

4) The Office XP stuff works with 2003.

5)  I find that Win2k and XP are interchangeable when it comes to this.  I would be afraid of NT, 98, 95, and earlier.

Dan Press

PrimeTest Automation

(from the NI Week 2005 show floor)

[Gurdas]

Dan, thanks.

I tried some steps but the problem persists.

This is what we did:

1. Uninstalled Office XP on dev machine
2. Uninstaled RGT on dev machine
3. Installed Office 2000 on dev machine
4. Installed RGT on dev machine
5. Recompiled our app VIs
6. Build an exe

We now had two executables, one built when the dev machine had Office XP (I'll call this EXE-XP) and one when the dev machine has Office 2000 (EXE-2000).

We had two surpises:

1. On the dev machine (which now has Office 2000) both EXE-XP and EXE-2000 work fine

2. On the target machine (Win2K, Office 2000, LV 7.1 Runtime), neither exe works. Even with EXE-2000 when ask for report generation, it opens a blank word document. No data.

We also observed that after installing Office 2000 on the target machine, if word is not already open and shown on task bar, it takes two clicks (in my app) to get word to open and create this balnk doc.

Pls note that we only build EXE and not installer on the dev machine because the target machine already has LV runtime. Could that be a cause?

Any answers, ideas are welcome.

Thanks,
Gurdas

[ChrisJ]

Hi Gurdas,

I was just wondering if you got any errors when you try to run your application on the target machine. I also found a KnowledgeBase article that might be helpful. Thanks!

Regards,

Chris J

http://ae.natinst.com/operations/ae/public.nsf/web/searchinternal/83211e3a088d0c3786256db700621fe8?OpenDocument 

[Gurdas]

Hi Chris and Dan,

We solved the problem (and observed another anomaly).

First the anomaly: both EXE-XP and EXE-2000 now run successfully on target machine having ONLY Office2000

The problem had nothing to do with Office version on dev and target machines. In the create report event, we start by setting the page size to A4. It so happened that the target machine did not have any printer driver installed. So, in Word there was nothing called A4 page and LV gives a error tha describes the issue.

There are two workarounds:

1) Install any printer driver (even adobe pdf creator works) that gives Word a page size called A4

2) In the VI, change the A4 page setting to 'custom'. In this case the target machine need not have a printer driver installed because Word by itself has a 'custom' page option. The user can always set his PC such that custom is same size as A4 (or A3 or whatever).

Dan, any idea why both my EXEs work while your experience has been otherwise?

If anyone has comments on above workarounds or if there is a better way to handle this, please let me know.

Thanks,
Gurdas

[Gurdas]

Chris,

The KB link does not work at my end. (?)

- Gurdas

[ChrisJ]

Hello Gurdas,

I posted the wrong link. Sorry about that. I've attached the correct post below. Glad to hear everything is working.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/83211E3A088D0C3786256DB700621FE8?OpenDocument 

Regards,
Chris J

[Gurdas]

Hello Chris,

The link works. Thanks.

It is clear that Office 97 ActiveX objects are not compatible with Office 2000.

But what if I build the exe on a machine with Office 2000, will it work on machines with OfficeXP and Office 2003.

In short, whats the take when we are talking of Office2000, XP and 2003?

- Gurdas

[ChrisJ]

Hello Gurdas,

That is a bit of a gray area. It really all depends on how close the ActiveX structures of the two Office Editions are to each other. If the two editions are very close then it is likely that your VIs will work with either edition. However, this may not work for all functions. The best way to ensure the VIs created on your dev machine will work on your target is to install the correct Office compatibility when creating the VI.

Regards,

Chris J