RibbonTab component visual editor not showing / stability issues

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RibbonTab component visual editor not showing / stability issues
 
Michiel


Guest


Hello,

I have two strange stability issues with the add-in express dll:

My first issue:
I use an adxRibbonTab control. Ocassionaly when I compile in debug mode, run using delphi's Debugger Host application method (calling MS Word) and end the debugging session (by closing Word) I return in the IDE and cannot open the visual editor of the adxRibbonTab component anymore (Right mousebutton > Controls...). It seems to be broken in some sort of way.
I then only see a fraction of a second a highlighting of the border of the delphi container form. Rebooting delphi makes no difference. After I reboot my computer the visual editor works normally again.
I must say this happens relatively rarely. Perhaps once in 30 times, it's hard to say. Other components keep working fine however (including their popup editor windows).

Second issue:
When I include a Delphi 3d party library called "QuickLogger" (available through GetIt) to my project, the project (and thus Word) will not unload when I stop debugging. This is consistent.
It only happens with my addin-express project however. If I include Quicklogger in a normal VCL project the project unloads just fine.

I have tried reinstalling both MS Office and the Add-in Express library, but this has not resolved the issue. I hope a solution can be found..

Regards,
Michiel
Posted 09 Nov, 2021 06:12:18 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18791
Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Michiel,

The designer works for 10+ years and we've never received such a report. It would be difficult to reproduce and fix this issue for us as it may relate to COM and thus to your environment. Maybe you could get more info? Say, would the issue occur with a newly created add-in project? Also, please send the DFM file of your add-in module to the support email address; find it in {Add-in Express installation folder}\readme.txt; please make sure your email contains a link to this topic.

As to the second issue, your test may not be correct. Try to use that QuickLogger from a DLL, not from an application. The Application object functions somewhat differently in this case and this affects 3d parties really often.

Regards from Poland (CEST),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 09 Nov, 2021 06:44:18 Top
Michiel


Guest


Hello Andrei,

Thanks voor your quick reply. Regarding the second issue I have noticed that even in a new addin project, without this 3d party Quicklogger library, the problem exists.

what is remarkable is one of the last lines in the event messages of delphi:

"onecore\com\combase\dcomrem\preventrundownbias.cpp(1310)\combase.dll!00007FFB4B84D82C: (caller: 00007FFB4B84D659) LogHr(1) tid(35a8) 80070005 Access denied."

Would you perhaps know what this messages relates to / could this be some cause of the problem? Running the IDE with admin rights doesn't resolve the issue.

Also I was wondering what the effect is of the addin wizzard's options "register with admin privileges / register with user privileges", as the latter seems to generate some extra code in de dll source.

I have tried both variaties though and they both do not unload when I stop the debugging session.

Regards,
Michiel
Posted 09 Nov, 2021 09:40:06 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18791
Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Michiel,

Try to turn out all other COM add-ins. Does the issue persist? Also, make sure you do not have WINWORD.EXE hanging in processes.

Admin privileges are required if you develop a per-machine add-in. In most cases developers create per-user add-ins and it looks you should create such an add-in as well. If you already created a per-machine version of your add-in. make sure you unregister it to prevent creating a mess in the registry and getting load-time issues.

Updating a per-machine add-in on a terminal server requires all users to close the add-in's host applications; Word in your case. This may be really difficult to do: imagine people being on leave etc. Also, a per-machine add-in doesn't let you change the set of users for whom the add-in is installed.

And per-user MSIs are pretty useful in corporate environment: you pass such a .MSI to admins and they use system tools to run the installer for the specified user(s).

Regards from Poland (CEST),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 09 Nov, 2021 09:59:19 Top
Michiel


Guest


Hello Andrei,

That's good information to know about the privileges, I will apply that. I already chose the user privilege type, so that's ok. I have no other COM addin's loaded other than the Microsoft default ones. Indeed Winword.exe hangs, but that's because delphi hangs I think. Winword unloads as soon as I force delphi to stop.
Regarding your mentioning about the registering, perhaps during my testing something has gone wrong there and I have not unregistered one variant while switching.. I am not 100% sure about that.
It seems that the issues I am having are specific for my system..
Is there any way to clean up the registry to make sure this is OK?

Regards,
Michiel
Posted 09 Nov, 2021 11:18:23 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18791
Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Michiel,

The mess occurs if you change the add-in from per-user to per-machine or back. If you did this, unregister the add-in, change it and unregister it once again.

If you created new projects, then unregister them.

Regards from Poland (CEST),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 10 Nov, 2021 03:09:19 Top
Michiel


Guest


Ok, thank you.
Just to let you know, I think I have found a solution for my first issue. I have a secondary screen connected to my laptop with a closed lid, and I just noticed when I opened up my laptop the editor reappeared (on my secondary screen).
So it looks like it's a multiscreen issue.

Regards,
Michiel
Posted 10 Nov, 2021 03:34:12 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18791
Joined: 2006-05-11
Thank you, Michiel!

Regards from Poland (CEST),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 10 Nov, 2021 08:21:48 Top