Report Generation broken after deployment - Excel Set Cell Color and Border.vi

[chinghwayu]

Upon deployment, the Excel Set Cell Color and Border.vi became broken.  After installing LV2010 SP1 to view the VIs in the deployment, I noticed that in the second case structure where the code draws the border using the BorderAround invoke node, there is an extra variant input parameter named 'Parameters'.  Upon right-clicking, an option to 'Relink Invoke Node' appeared and after selecting this, the extra input disappeared and the VI was no longer broken.

Why does "Relink Invoke Node" appear?  How do I create a deployment with this issue?  Has anybody else experienced this?  Why is the TestStand deployment so buggy?  

[TaylorG]

Hi Ching,

Have you tried to rebuild and redeploy?  Perhaps something was corrupted during the build or during the transfer to the deployment machine.  Were there any build errors?  Also, are you calling this VI by itself in an Action step, or is it part of another VI that is being called in an Action step?  Thanks!

[chinghwayu]

There were no build errors except for the known ones.  This is called from within another VI.  If this was corrupted, shouldn't I still be able to open the VI?

If I remove the diagrams, will this in effect "freeze" the VIs so none of this will occur?

[TaylorG]

Hi Ching-Hwa,

Can you not open the VI anymore?  Also, can you clarify what diagrams you are talking about removing to "freeze" the VIs?  Can you run the VI and the TestStand sequence on the development machine?  Also, could you provide a screenshot of what you are seeing?  Thanks!  Have a great day!

[chinghwayu]

As mentioned previously, the VI can be opened but you cannot run it because there is an extra mandatory input parameter that is unwired.  When I right-click and select "Relink Invoke Node", this extra parameter disappears and the the VI can be executed.

During creation of a TestStand deployment, there is an option to remove diagrams.  If I select, will this in effect freeze the diagrams so this extra input parameter cannot possibly be created?

I do not have a screenshot but you can easily imagine an extra variant input parameter named "Parameters" at the bottom of the invoke node.

[chinghwayu]

Here is an image of the VI

[TaylorG]

Hi Ching-Hwa,

Is that screenshot just of the VI on the deployment machine?  If you open the VI and look at its block diagram on your development machine, does it also have this extra parameter, or does this only show up after deploying it from TestStand?  Also, what versions of LabVIEW and TestStand are you using on your development machine?  I am not exactly sure if removing the diagrams will actually "freeze" the code where it cannot be modified, even inherently just from the deployment.  However, the above information will help me troubleshoot and reproduce the issue on my end to see what could be causing this.

Thanks, Ching-Hwa!  Have a great weekend!

[chinghwayu]

The original VI does not have this extra parameter.  This only occurs after the deployment is created.  The VI is in this state when merged into the cab file.  I verified by extracting just this VI from the cab file on multiple systems.  The deployment was created from a system using TS 2010 and LV 2010 SP1.

If you're not exactly sure about freezing the code by removing diagrams, please ask your internal LabVIEW or TestStand application development team.  Somebody knows.

[TaylorG]

Hi Ching-Hwa,

I have set up a test deployment here where I am deploying a workspace that contains a sequence file.  This sequence file has a LabVIEW Action Step calling a VI that opens a new Excel file and simply calls the Excel Set Cell Color and Border VI.  After deploying this, both the VI and my test sequence ran on the deployment machine without error.  Therefore, I do have some more questions to more accurately reproduce what you are seeing.

First, what operating systems are you developing on and deploying to?  Also, what license do you have for TestStand on the machine you are deploying to?  If you have a development version, can you manually take the sequence file and VI to this machine and run it?  I know you now have LabVIEW 2010 SP1 on your development machine, but if you have the development version of TestStand as well, it would be interesting to see if you copy the files over if you still see this behavior.  Are you including the TestStand Engine in the deployment?

Can you open a blank VI on the deployment machine and add the Excel Set Cell Color and Border VI?  It would also be interesting to see if this is not a product of the deployment, but rather an issue with something on the deployment machine itself.  What version of the Report Generation Toolkit do you have on each machine?  Also, what versions of Excel are you using on the development and deployment machine?  Again, it would be helpful for me to know exactly what versions you have installed on both the development and deployment machines so that I can reproduce this as accurately as possible.

One last thing to try, too, would be to try deploying the VI by itself just to see if it also has the same behavior.  Do you have the Application Builder in LabVIEW?  If so, could you also try building an executable from the VI, create an installer, and deploy this to the deployment machine?  

In regards to the "freezing" of code by removing the block diagrams, I do not believe this will be a proper work around in this case.  While this removes the block diagram from actually being deployed along with the VI and restricts users from editing the code on the deployment machine, if something is getting changed in the compiled code upon deployment, this will not stop this from happening.  This option is available more as a memory option to lower the size of the deployment as well as prohibit any users on the development machine from editing the block diagram themselves.    

Thanks, Ching-Hwa!  I look forward to your response so that I can continue trying to reproduce this issue.  Have a great day! 

[Darth_Vader_DK]

You need to reconnect to the new facilities available behind the Invoke Node after the installing of Microsoft Office 2010.

1. In the Invoke Node - Click BorderAround and select Browse.

2. In the "Select Method" popupbox click OK

3. Your wire is not broken anymore. Save the "vi" and you are done.......

I can give some screendumps if needed.....

Regards from

Per Andersen

DELTA  - pea@delta.dk