FactoryLink WebClient With Win2000

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Thread Starter

Tony R. Gunderman

We currently use FactoryLink ECS 6.6 on WinNT 4.0. We run in the client/server configuration using the WebClient ActiveX control embedded in a VB application or using Internet Explorer for the container app. This works fine on WinNT and Win95, but if I try to run one of the clients on Win2000 (or WinME for that matter), the bounding boxes for animated text are too large and extend into and cover other parts of the graphic. As best I can tell, there is some difference in the way the size of bounding boxes are determined between WinNT and Win2000.

The response I received from FactoryLink tech support is that I would need to move to the Mimic graphics to run under Win2000. While that is our eventual goal, it would be convenient to run existing client software on Win2000 desktops. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Tony Gunderman
 
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I have had no problem running WebClient on Win2K. Clients looks the same as they do on WinNT. The tech support answer you received doesn't make any sense. I think something else is wrong. Do you have the right font
substitutions ? If, for example, you used Helv to
make your graphics, you need to substitute this for Arial. These are defined in the Windows registry:
Hkey_Local_Machine/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/
CurrentVersion/FontSubstitutes

Jay Kirsch
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
 
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Tony R. Gunderman

Jay,

Thanks for the response. Now I am at least encouraged that this can work. Our application actually makes use of the Arial font directly instead of Helv or Helvetica. However, I did try pulling in the registry export of the font substitutions from an NT box that does work. This created entries for substitutions for Helv, Helvetica, and a few others. I still get the same issues with the bounding box. It appears that the top and bottom are bound correctly and the justification side is bound correctly. However, the side of the text opposite the justification side is too long.

The problem does not appear in development...only in runtime. It also appears to be a problem with animated text only.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

Tony Gunderman
 
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Tony,

I can only guess why I have not seen this problem in my app.

Maybe because of one of the following reasons:

- My windows don't have borders or a title bar.
- My windows are set to clip on resize.
- I'm using a different Webclient release ( the one for 7.0
is supposed to work for 6.6 also ).
- I press F7 for actual view, then F8 for recalc clip text
before saving a window with APPEDIT.

Purge your webclient cache directory to make sure there are no stale window files in there.

I have always had some problems with animated text though, even on the same platform. By habit, I add a space or two after the text.

Good Luck,

Jay Kirsch
[email protected]
 
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Tony R. Gunderman

Jay,

Thanks again for giving me hope enough to investigate further. Just on a lark, I tried installing software that I was running on the Win2K box on a WinNT box. What I found was that my problem also occurred on WinNT after I loaded Office2000 on the box. Apparently, the Arial font that is loaded by Office2000 is not necessarily backward compatible. I found a reference to that in the Microsoft Knowledgebase (article Q238417) as it pertains to Quicken 98. This article has an exe that will replace the ARIAL.TTF, but not the variations, thereof.
So, what I did was replace the Arial font files ARIAL.TTF, ARIALBD.TTF, ARIALBI.TTF, ARIALI.TTF, and ARIBLK.TTF on my Win2K box with the fonts normally installed by WinNT. Lo and behold, the WebClient application now looks right. I had gone down this path early on, but the only file I had replaced was ARIAL.TTF. I conveniently overlooked the fact that I was using the bold variation of the font.

So, now it appears that the problem was not Win2K, but Office2K.

I haven't seen any adverse effects...yet.

Thanks again for the dialogue.

Tony R. Gunderman
 
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Dean Forsyth

Hi Tony,

I am in the support department at USDATA. I would like to clarify a minor point in this thread.

It is not necessary to move to Client Builder graphics (mimics) to run an application on Windows 2000 (W2K). It is necessary to upgrade to FactoryLink 7.0 because FactoryLink 6.6 has not been qualified to run on W2K. A FL6.6 application can easily be converted (FLCONV) to FL7.0 and run as is on W2K.

The problem with fonts must still be addressed if Office 2000 is installed on the OS. Good job troubleshooting the issue. We (support) had identified the issue and posted a solution, but you have done a better job describing how to fix it.

Best regards,

Dean Forsyth
 
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Tony R. Gunderman

Dean,

Thanks for the clarification. I should make a clarification, too. The guidance I received was not directly from USData support, but from a Tier One Partner. Apparently, at that time, they were not aware of the posted fix.

Thanks again.

Tony R. Gunderman
 
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Ranjan Acharya

A question for USData, are all FactoryLink 6.5.0 and 6.6.0 "easily" converted to 7.0.

Just plug and play?

RA
 
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