(Not) Running App On XP Network - Fails Post Modification

[domino]

I`m working with a customer who accesses the NB App (compiled .exe) on an XP Network in a business center.

Presumably he doesn`t have admin privileges so when I sent the first build of the .exe the sysop had to arrange things to allow it to run.... All well and good everyone happy....

Unfortunately each time I issue an update to the app (just via a simple zip file to overwrite the older exe.. he has to call the sysop back again to reset things to run. )

The app is very simple 75% text files jpg's, a couple of dbf's and browser objects etc... nothing written to the registry etc etc....

Sysop is a helpful sort and has sent me this little questionnaire... not knowing much about the way these things work in this environment perhaps someone here could help me out...

The fact that the application runs under the administrator account and that Customer Person is able to execute the file afterwards would lead me to believe that the application it creating or editing a file or registry entry to register or configure itself. Typically I would use trace monitors to track down the problem but it can be quite a time-consuming process. Does the application need to register itself with any intermediary systems? (ODBC, .NET Framework, etc…)


Without knowing if, how or where the application is registering itself I cannot advise whether static build/version numbers will get around this problem. When Customer Person next calls with a problem I will see if I can narrow down the possibilities a little.

I`m incremeting the build numbers each time... but other than that nothing significant is changing.. in fact the last update was to correct two spelling mistakes....

Cheers
Dave

Just about to press the button... here but had a thought... I`ve installed and uninstalled (though not employed) a couple of plugins in between builds/compiles.. could this be a possible cause???

[Alberto_Meyer]

My bet is on a WebBrowser object.
IE writes to registry for a lot of things. I don´t know if it is the reason, but, think you can make an special version without it to test.

[domino]

Thanks Alberto.. Found this in the registry?? NBRun.BrowserToDelphi

[Neosoft Support]

Do you know what exactly the sysop has to do in order for the software to run? Is it physically copying the new exe to the server? Is it configuring a firewall to allow the software to access the Internet? The firewall might flag the software as needing reauthorization if there are any changes to the program's version, time stamp or file size. I don't know how to get around that since that's what the firewall is supposed to do.

Any registry settings should be written to the user's personal section of the registry not the servers, so that shouldn't be an issue.

[domino]

Do you know what exactly the sysop has to do in order for the software to run?

I`ll know tomorrow.....

But in the meantime I`m able to reproduce the problems if I create a new user account on my own XPPro machine.

In fact there are a lot of my exe's that won`t run on this user account.. mainly ones with databases by the looks of things.... I've swapped the spare account with and without admin privileges and.... some report OLE errors and won`t open at all .....

[dpayer]

In fact there are a lot of my exe's that won`t run on this user account.. mainly ones with databases by the looks of things.... I've swapped the spare account with and without admin privileges and.... some report OLE errors and won`t open at all .....

This statement tells me alot.

Databases need to read and write.

It is common that a user can read and execute but not write to the disk. I bet the system admin has to make the database writeable.

David P.

[domino]

Thanks everyone for the feedback... further experimenting....

To recap: XP Pro: App in C:\AppFolder
with dbf's and Dbt's in C:\Appfolder\Dat

Exe Installed on normal Admin Account - All Works OK

Create User account with Admin Privileges -
Switch to user account App Fails - (Not Posible To Alter File Permissions For Folder)

Create ZIP with App in...
Switch back to main Admin Account and manually Delete C:\AppFolder\

Switch back to user account (with admin privileges) unzip app to create new folder with app and other folders/files. All works OK on either Account....


Haven`t got a clue why this should be.. but it does seem to be a file permissions thing with the folder and or the databases dbf's and dbt's...

Could it be something to do with the fact the my DB's are not set for dbfOpenMultiUser?

(Purpose: Open an existing database file (dbf) in multi-user mode. This action is identical to dbfOpen except that it will allow more than one user or application to view and edit the database at the same time.)

Cheers
Dave

[dpayer]

Haven`t got a clue why this should be.. but it does seem to be a file permissions thing with the folder and or the databases dbf's and dbt's...

Could it be something to do with the fact the my DB's are not set for dbfOpenMultiUser?

Sample of permission differences (using an older NT4 machine):

This setting will allow a person (visiting via the webserver which uses the IUSR_SERVER1 account) to read the content of a database on DSN/ODBC connection


But it will not allow changing or adding to the database.

This setting will allow changing/updating of a database:


You need to ask the system administrator to give the user's account permission to write. You simply need to limit him to a certain area to do it in so he doesn't affect the operating system.

D

[domino]

Thanks Dave, very useful.... I'll be talking to him today and will post anything that might be of general interest...

[domino]

Just to wrap this thread up from my point of view....My contact reports the Sysop person "did something" and everything works OK...

Sadly what ever he did I`ll probably never know as when my contact asked what the problem was.. he replied ...

"Just changed some settings, call me if you need anything else"

Sigh....