Tech Note 112 Rebuild Corrupt InTouch Application.pdf

Tech Note 112
Recovering a Corrupted InTouch Application
All Tech Notes and KBCD documents and software are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. See the Terms of
Use for more information.
Topic#: 000720
Created: October 1998
This Tech Note outlines the most common reasons Wonderware® InTouch™ applications can
become corrupted and provides a step-by-step procedure to rebuild and recover your application.
Note You should always backup your InTouch application files. If a backup of your application
is not available and the DBDUMP.EXE utility is unable to create a CSV file from your application
database, then only a partial restoration of your application will be possible and your database
must be recreated from scratch. In such cases, the windows and scripts can often still be
recovered.
Identifying a Corrupted Application
Most InTouch application corruption occurs after an application’s windows, tagname database, or
scripts have been modified. You will know your application is corrupted primarily because a
Wonderware Technical Support engineer has determined that this is the case. Here are some
common indications of a corrupted application:
 Opening a window or running a script causes WindowMaker to terminate or shut down
abnormally.
 When starting WindowViewer, you see an assertion error. Assertion errors indicate that
there is a problem with the database entries in the animation links or scripts. Typically,
assertion errors appear as FDRD errors. FDRD is the prefix used in the error message
dialog box, such as FdRdKey element #1.
 WindowViewer starts and runs properly for a while and then suddenly, for no apparent
reason, a GPF or an Assertion error occurs. Usually this happens when a corrupted script
executes on the change of an event or a corrupted window is called to open.
 During the conversion of your application from one version of InTouch to another, the
conversion halts with an error.
Note If the conversion halts as described above, move the error message aside and take note
on which window or what type of script the conversion program stopped. Most likely, that
window or script is corrupted.
Three Rules for Avoiding Application Corruption
The primary cause of application corruption is copying or moving an application from one
directory to another, such as copying an application from a development machine to a runtime
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machine. Here are three rules to keep in mind when copying or moving applications:
Note The following rules are most commonly violated when an application developer backs up
an application. Be sure to keep all three of these rules in mind when backing up an application.
All of the files for an InTouch application must be considered as a single entity for copying
purposes. No files should be individually separated from the whole.
1. Assume that you are an application developer and you receive a call from a customer. He
asks you to make a small modification to an application that is currently running on his
factory floor. It seems clear that the fastest way to remedy this situation is to modify your
copy of his application in-house, and then send the modified application to the customer.
You make a backup of the application first, and then add the changes. A thought occurs to
you—why send the entire 10-MB application to the site when only one window changed?
Just to be safe, you open Windows Explorer and look through the application directory for
any files with the current date. It appears that only three files have changed, and one of
them is a backup, so you assume that you only need to send the two remaining files. The
customer receives your floppy disk with the two files and follows your instructions to copy
them into the application directory. However, when the customer goes to runtime,
WindowViewer causes a General Protection Fault or an Assertion Error.
2. The destination directory must be empty before copying an application. If you plan to copy
an application, first rename the existing application directory and then create a new
directory that has the original directory’s name. Copy all of the application files into this
new directory. If you have another backup of the application, and you are confident the
new application is running properly, you may delete the original directory
3. Do not directly add, delete, or modify (through the MS-DOS command prompt, Windows
Explorer, or File Manager) any files in the InTouch application directory, unless they are
listed in Tech Note 85, titled “Files That Can Be Deleted From an InTouch Application,” or
you have been instructed to delete them by a Wonderware Technical Support engineer.
The only supported methods of adding, deleting, or modifying application files are through
WindowMaker.
Note The development computer and the runtime computer must have the same language
configured under the system regional settings. This is because each language sorts special
characters and their substitutes differently. For example, "AA" will be sorted last, instead of
first, under the Norwegian regional settings. Also, if the same language is not configured under
the regional settings for both computers, the index to the database will be wrong. (If this is the
cause of your currupted application, you may be able to fix it by deleting the AVL and BIN files
from your InTouch application directory.)
Procedure to Recover a Corrupted Application
Wonderware Technical Support has found the following procedure to be the most effective way to
recover a corrupted application and recommends that you follow these steps in order. Do not
follow these steps out-of-order unless you are directed to do so by a Wonderware Technical
Support engineer. Note that the term “legacy application” in this section refers to the directory
that contains the corrupted application files, which should be considered as a single entity.
Step 1: Make a backup copy of your legacy application files
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When you backup your legacy application files, be sure to follow the three rules listed above for
avoiding a corrupted application.
Step 2: Create a CSV file of your tagname database using DBDump.exe
In InTouch version 7.0, DBDump.exe can be launched from the toolbar in the InTouch –
Application Manager. In InTouch versions prior to 7.0, DBDump.exe is located in the InTouch
installation directory and can be launched by selecting Start/Programs/InTouch for
Windows. In these older versions of InTouch, DBDump will prompt you for the source
application directory; however, in InTouch version 7.0, the source application directory will
already be determined by the item that is selected in the main window of the Application
Manager. Regardless of the version of InTouch you are using, be sure to verify that the source
application directory points to your legacy application directory. The name of the CSV file you
create is arbitrary as long as you remember the name of the file when you are prompted for it
later. You should create the CSV file in the same directory as the legacy application. Here is the
final DBDump.exe dialog box:
Step 3: Create a new InTouch application
Open InTouch, select New from the File menu, and create a new InTouch application. Launch
WindowMaker and then immediately exit WindowMaker. The purpose of this step is to create the
application starter files. At this point, you have not yet created a database, scripts, or graphics in
the new application.
Step 4: Load the CSV file using DBLoad.exe
Make sure you have exited WindowMaker and then load the CSV file of your tagname database
using DBLoad.exe. In InTouch version 7.0, DBLoad.exe can be launched from the toolbar in the
InTouch – Application Manager. In InTouch versions prior to 7.0, DBLoad.exe is located in the
InTouch installation directory and can be launched by selecting Start/Programs/InTouch for
Windows. In these older versions of InTouch, DBLoad will prompt you for the source application
directory; however, in InTouch version 7.0, the source application directory will already be
determined by the item that is selected in the main window of the Application Manager.
Regardless of the version of InTouch you are using, be sure to verify that the source application
directory points to your new application directory. Here is the final DBLoad.exe dialog box:
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Note Often it is during this stage that problems are encountered with tags that will not load. If
an ASK dialog box appears, there is probably a problem with the alarm groups. Click Abort
load and then acknowledge the Load Failed dialog box. Open the WWLogger and observe the
DBLoad failure line (generally at the bottom), writing down the line number where the failure
occurred. Open the DB.CSV file in a worksheet editor such as Microsoft Excel. Find the row
number that matches the line number you noted from the WWLogger and then fix the problem
in this row as reported by the WWLogger.
Step 5: Verify the database in WindowMaker
Launch WindowMaker and verify that you have a new application containing your legacy
database. For example, open the tagname dictionary and select a few tags that you know should
be in the database and verify that you can see them. At this point your application should not
contain any graphics or scripts.
Step 6: Import all windows and scripts from the legacy application
Anything you want, but do not import, you will have to create from scratch. To import the
windows and scripts, select Import from the File menu. Then, select the legacy application
directory and click OK. You will see the following dialog box (this dialog box may appear
differently depending on your version of InTouch):
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Make sure Application is pointing to your legacy application path. Next, select all of the boxes,
and for the Windows, Data Change Scripts, Key Scripts, Condition Scripts, and Quick Functions,
you also need to click the Select button and select all of the items. For example, selecting the
box labeled Windows will not select any windows for importation. Click Import when you have
selected everything you wish to import. It may take a while to import everything, depending on
the number of items that are being imported.
Warning InTouch 7.0 uses a 60K tagname license, which is larger than the tagname license
for previous versions of InTouch. As a result, this has reduced the placeholder database to a
maximum of 4,095 tagnames. If you are using InTouch 7.0 and your legacy application has
more than 4,095 tagnames, pay special attention to the following information. Larger legacy
applications will need to be divided into smaller logical pieces. Each piece must have fewer than
4,096 tagnames. Example 1: You might estimate that all of your scripts can be imported at
once, with less than 4,096 tags. After importing this piece you must convert all the
placeholders. Doing so will free up space in the placeholder database for the next imported
piece. Placeholder conversion is explained in Step 7 of this Tech Note. Example 2: Say you
have 20,000 tagnames in your application with 200 windows. Perhaps you can safely import 25
windows at a time. Convert the placeholders in these windows, and import the next 25
windows. Since WindowMaker will not track this information for you, remember to keep an
accurate record of which windows and scripts you have already imported. On a final note, if
you have a single window or script which contains more than 4,095 tagnames, contact
WonderwareTechnical Support for assistance.
Step 7: Convert all placeholders
When you imported the windows and scripts, placeholders were added to the tagnames. The
placeholders are the first three characters of the tagname: a question mark, followed by an
alphabetical character that represents the data type, and then a colon. For example ?d:, ?i:, ?r:,
and ?m: respectively stand for discrete, integer, real, and message. Follow these steps to
remove the placeholders so the tagnames can be linked to the database:
1. Open one of the imported windows and select all of the items on the window by selecting
Select All from the Edit menu.
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2. Select Substitute Tags from the Special menu and then remove the placeholders by
clicking the Convert button. (If you are using InTouch 7.0, you will have the option to
convert local or remote tags. Since we are linking the placeholders to the local database,
click the Local button.) Then click OK.
3. Select Window/Properties/Scripts or Special/Scripts/Window Scripts to open the
window script editor. Click Convert (in InTouch 7.0, click the Local button next) and then
click Save to automatically convert all placeholders for all three window script types: On
Show, While Showing, and On Hide.
4. Save the window and close it.
5. Now repeat the steps above for each window in the application that you imported.
6. Next, select Special/Scripts/Application Scripts to view the Application scripts.
Remove the placeholders by clicking Convert (in InTouch 7.0, click the Local button
next), and then click Save.
Repeat this procedure for each of your Data Change scripts, Condition scripts, Key scripts, and
for InTouch version 7.0, your QuickFunctions.
Step 8: Copy InTouch.ini from your legacy application and overwrite the
InTouch.ini in the new application.
This will ensure that all of your configuration options have been preserved. Note that this will not
update the home window configurations however. To configure the new application, select
Special/Configure/WindowViewer/Home Windows. Most of your configuration options are
contained in the InTouch.ini file.
Note that you can also copy the almgrp.ini and histprv.ini files, which contain information on how
the alarm and history providers are configured.
Step 9: Before running WindowViewer, backup your application.
When you backup your application files, be sure to follow the three rules at the beginning of this
Tech Note for avoiding a corrupted application.
Step 10: Run WindowViewer to compile your application
After you have compiled your application, spend some time to verify that your application works
as it did before. Navigate all the various screens and, if possible, simulate some scripting events.
Wonderware Technical Support recommends that you keep a permanent backup copy of your
legacy application. This is best done with backup media. However, you should keep a backup on
the local hard disk for a little more than one month, then you can clear up the hard disk space
later if necessary.
M. McCulty
The Tech Note is published occasionally by Wonderware Technical Support. Editors: Sabrina Abercromby and Kelly
Hauser; Publisher: Wonderware Corporation, 100 Technology Drive, Irvine CA 92618. There is also technical information
on our software products at Wonderware Technical Support, our WonderFax fax-on-demand system at (949) 450-
5050, and the Comprehensive Support Knowledge Base.
For technical support questions, send an e-mail to support@wonderware.com.
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