FMP 9 Bug?

[Brian C]

I have noticed that if I change my network connection on my laptop from wired to wireless while working in FMP Adv 9, FMP freezes when I attempt to use the function: Get ( SystemIPAddress )

After force quitting FMP, this function will continue to freeze FMP until I restart my laptop.

Has anyone else noticed this bug? Is this a Mac OS X only bug? Is this a FMP Adv only bug? Does this only happen to me?

[JesseSFR]

That is a strange bug, when you log back in... do you use the same user name and password?

Is this same problem found in 8.5? My experience when force quitting filemaker is that the server tends to actually still see you connected for a short time so typically an error about using duplicate licenses may pop up.

If you are using a site license, I am guessing that FileMaker may just allow you to log in and then it gets confused between multiple users. These are all just wild shots in the dark but something to think about.

[Brian C]

I am experiencing this bug while developing in Adv 9 on my laptop. No server is involved. The account used to connect has no affect on this bug - it crashes no matter what account I use to open the filemaker file. I just get the spinning wheel of doom that never goes away until I forcequit FileMaker Pro.

Edited July 18, 2007 by Guest

[Vaughan]

It's probably because the wireless router is assigning the computer a different IP address. FMP remembers the IP address when it first starts.

I'd be surprised if any program could manage this.

You'd probably notice that mounted file servers will drop off too.

Edited July 18, 2007 by Guest

[Brian C]

FMI should look into this so that their application will not crash and corrupt data for a locally hosted solution. If anything it should return an error if it does not recognize a valid response from the OS or the query times out. I do not view it as acceptable for an application to crash simply because there is a lost network connection. What if something happens to the user's network? What if a switch/hub goes down? I should not have to be concerned with data integrity if that occurs.

A developer could potentially use get(systemipaddress) to lock a solution to a specific machine. If this is broken then there could be a similar issue with get(SystemNICaddress).

In any case I discovered this because I have to develop my solution locally before it can be hosted on a server. I do not relish having to restore from a backup and loose a day's worth of work.

In my scenerio, Dynamic ip address assignment via DHCP is not an issue here either since in my scenerio the ip is already assigned, and the airport connection is already present and established. It is just not the default connection that the network traffic is being routed through as long as the wired connection is active.

When you use get(systemipaddress) it returns a delimited list of IP addresses for the users machine... Example:

192.168.1.1

192.168.1.100

If the first ip address in the list is my wired connection and I unplug it it, then the wireless connection automatically takes over after a few seconds and the second ip address swaps places with the first. Example:

192.168.1.100

192.168.1.1

If FMP caches the ip address list from launch, it should not crash since it would return the same result.

If FMP does not cache the ip address list, why would it crash by querying it from the OS a second or third time?

I am not trying to attack FMP 9. I love the new version. I am just trying to make others aware of potential problems and to also verify that others can replicate the same issue. If it is an error that only occurs on my Intel MacBook Pro running OSX 10.4, that is also useful to know.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

n any case I discovered this because I have to develop my solution locally before it can be hosted on a server. I do not relish having to restore from a backup and loose a day's worth of work.

Granted that the app ought not to crash, but why in the world do you go for a day of development and not make a backup? If thisis crtical work, you should backup very frequently, perhaps once every 10 to 15 minutes.

Steven

[xochi]

Brian,

I'm confused -- you first post says that fileMaker froze, and then you force-quit it. This is not the same thing as a crash.

I'm sure you are aware that Mac OS X has some trouble with networking (e.g. when a server goes offline, the Finder will often beachball for 2+ minutes until it decides it's gone). Perhaps the same thing is happening?

Have you tried just waiting it out?

[Brian C]

Yes I let it wait overnight one of the times just to see if it would time out. It makes no difference.

If the application freezes or if the application unexpectedly quits I still consider it a crash.

[xochi]

If this is reproducable, you can probably help apple and/or filemaker by doing this:

1. Get filemaker to hang.

2. Open /Applications/Utilities/A ctivity Monitor

3. Click the FilemakerApp and choose "Insepct"

4. Click the "Sample" button.

5. Submit the sample log to apple/filemaker as a bug report.

Sampling takes a snapshot of the processes status for a few seconds -- this should clearly show which method the app has hung in.

[fmpwnerer]

were you able to duplicate this in a new file?

If so, can you post step by step instruction on how to cause the hang?

In my testing I was able to get the spinning wheel of death for maybe 30 seconds.

[fabriceN]

Hi,

just to say that I had the same thing today. Impressive !

Actually, FileMaker didn't really crash and was finally returning a normal result, but after several (15 or so) seconds of spinning beach ball.

And I'm not sure something had changed in the network environment. Anyway, the database was on my laptop.

Restarting the laptop didn't solve it, by the way.

[MacBook Pro, Leopard, FileMaker Pro Advanced 9[color:red]v3]

Edited January 12, 2008 by Guest