CDR Tickets

It's unfortunate that this wasn't reported during user acceptance testing, when we had instances of XMetaL 9 we could use to confirm whether or not the behavior was pre-existing or a new bug. Do you have any evidence (screen shots, for example) we could use to demonstrate for the vendor what XMetaL 9 did for this feature?

~oseipokuw said in today's PDQ standup that we do not have evidence of support for this feature in XMetaL 9. Reported to the vendor. We'll see what they say.

I remembered that we do have training videos that might show the table merging steps. I am researching now and will post it if I find one.

Table Merging_Trim_Trim_Trim.mp4

Here is a short video on table merging from XMetal 9.

Thanks, ~oseipokuw, that's helpful. I have sent a complete repro case to the XMetaL development team, with instructions for reproducing the problem.

I have a patched version of XMetaL which I have tested on my Windows 10 VM, confirming that it solves the bug. The next step will be for you to install the patched version of XMetaL on your laptop, ~oseipokuw, and test yourself. If it works for you (and anyone else you want to have test) we will ask the vendor to provide a complete fresh installer, and I'll plug that into the CdrSetup17 folder, and we'll provide instructions for the users to run the install-xmetal.cmd script again.

The patched xmetal.exe and a script to install it are in the CdrSetup17 folder on the cdr_deployments share, in a subfolder named {}TableSpanBugFix{}. What you need to do (read the note below before jumping in):

1. shut down XMetaL

2. drag TableSpanBugFix inside CdrSetup17 on your desktop

3. open up TableSpanBugFix in Windows Explorer

4. right-click on the patch-bug file

5. select Run with Elevated Permissions

6. provide your password

7. select a Justification

8. click OK

9. launch XMetaL and test table-cell spanning functionality

NOTE: a preliminary step you will need to perform is to confirm that XMetaL has been installed in C:\Program Files\XMetaL 17.0\Author. If not, let me know and we'll do a screen share to get you going.

NOTE: a preliminary step you will need to perform is to confirm that XMetaL has been installed in C:\Program Files\XMetaL 17.0\Author. If not, let me know and we'll do a screen share to get you going.

This is what is contained in the Author folder. Is that a confirmation that XMetal 17 has been installed there?

I successfully installed the patch, and the Merge Cell Function works now

However, I think there is still an issue when you've merged all the cells and you're left with a table row with only two columns. That is only, one "column divider". The Merge left/right is no longer active for you to select regardless of where you place the cursor in that row.

However, I was able to get rid/merge the cells from the attribute inspector. I will have another person try it tomorrow just to confirm that what I have observed is correct but at this point, it is possible to merge all cells. 

This is what is contained in the Author folder. Is that a confirmation that XMetal 17 has been installed there?

Yes.

I have reported the fact that when the cells adjacent to the selected cell already have NameSt and NameEnd attributes the horizontal merge options are no longer available. However, I found an old Windows laptop, installed XMetaL 9 on it, and confirmed that XMetaL has never supported merging with cells which already have those attributes. If you place your cursor in one of the cells of a row in a new table with three columns, you can merge with the other two cells (one at a time) with the cursor placed in the same cell for both operations, since the cell you're merging into the selected cell does not have those attributes already set. But in the scenario you've created, first merging the left and right pairs on the original four-cell row, now both of the resulting cells already have the NameSt and NameEnd attributes set so neither is available as a cell which can be merged into the selected cell. We'll see what they say, but it's less likely that they'll be willing (and able) to modify behavior which has always been in place than they were to fix the regression of behavior which used to work but was now broken. The fact that we've been working with this limitation for over 20 years and no one has noticed it (or at least none of the users has reported it) makes this seem very much like an extremely rare edge case. And as you point out yourself, there are workarounds.

• manually edit the attributes; or

• split one of the two cells and merge from the other one

The vendor has confirmed that the preexisting behavior will not be changed.

We have a new installer from the vendor which includes the fix for this bug. The installer has been integrated into the client setup package. ~oseipokuw will likely be managing the rollout of the fix to his team. For other CDR users:

• install a fresh copy of CdrSetup17 from the cdr-deployments share [1], telling Windows to replace existing files when asked

• run the install-xmetal.cmd script with elevated privileges (see the instructions in the PDF file in the folder)

[1]  
nciis-p401.nci.nih.gov\cdr_deployments

I have tried this on two different laptops that I didn't install the patch on and the Table Merge (left, right) didn't work. 

Also, I realized that the folder has two install-xmetal.cmd files but one has the tilde symbol. I am not sure if that makes any difference.

Just to clarify: The script runs successfully and brings up the command prompt that prompts the user to press any key to continue but after that, when the user logs into the CDR and attempts to merge a row to the left or right, the options continue to be greyed out. 

I have reported this to Ning at XMetaL, asking what suggestions he has.

The file with the tilde is just a backup file. I doubt that it would even run, but if I'm wrong, it would have done the same thing as the version without the tilde suffix. It can be removed (I've deleted it from the folder on the share).

One thing you might want to try on one of the machines where table cell merging didn't get fixed would be to edit the install-xmetal.cmd file and remove "/quiet" from the msiexec command and run the script again, examining the output for any clues you might see.

If you prefer, we can do this together on a screen share.

Here's Ning's response:

I just tried the normal installation with Windows SandBox.  The corresponding toolbar buttons are enabled.
Could you please check the build/installer # in the about box?

Let me know what the build/installer is for a machine where you re-ran the script but horizontal cell merging still isn't working. Here's what that looks like on a machine where merging is working correctly:

Here are screenshots from the two laptops

.

Very curious. Can you open a command console window on one of these machines and run the following command, and then post the output here?

dir "c:\Program Files\XMetaL 17.0\Author\xmetal.exe"

Did you get a chance to try the modification to the script I requested earlier?

Did you get a chance to try the modification to the script I requested earlier?

Well, I never got a response to my question, so I went ahead and manually restored the buggy version of the program so I could perform the test myself. The results are captured in my most recent reply to Ning, on which I copied you. Basically, the installer complains that it can't reinstall because the program is already installed, and it can't repair the program, because it is NOT already installed. I've asked them to explain what these bizarre error messages mean.

Sorry for the delay. It was difficult getting Jess and Kirsten to run the commands. I am attaching the information from Jess. Once I am able to get together with Kirsten, I will provide the information from her laptop.

xmetal17jessdir

I am attaching the results from the xmetal dir command from Kirsten's laptop. I couldn't find capture a screenshot from her laptop after removing the "/quiet" and running the script but the error message was the same as the one for Jess's laptop. xmetal17kirstendir

~oseipokuw Please have one of the users drag a fresh copy of the CdrSetup17 folder to the desktop, run the install-xmetal.cmd script again, and then test the table cell merging.

It may be necessary to re-run the run-setup script again. Not sure. Try without and then if CDR/XMetaL doesn't launch re-run the setup script and try again.

It didn't work on Kirsten's laptop after getting a fresh copy and running the install-xmetal.cmd. It completed successfully but she still couldn't merge left or right.

we didn't have to re-run run-setup. XMetal started normally for her.

Can we do a screen-share with Kirsten at her (and your) convenience?

Sure. I will try to get something setup for tomorrow morning.

~oseipokuw My latest response from Ning was the following:
 

Hi Bob
 
Please download the following,
 
https://downloads.xmetal.com/downloads/customers/rksystems/XM17-clenaup-install-info.zip

1. unzip.
2. run Remove-XMetaL-17-InstallInfo.bat

The batch file will clean up installation data that Windows keeps and XMetaL installation.
The batch file assumes that XMetaL is installed at the default location (C:\Program Files...).
 
Ning
 

Can you try following these steps on one of the other users' machines, and then try running either the install-xmetal script or the repair-xmetal script (at this point they're doing pretty much the same thing)? If that works, I'll try to fold it into a single script (called something like {}patch-xmetal{}). I have attached his zip file to this ticket.

Windows is preventing us from running the .bat file. 

I assume the Run with Elevated Privileges option was used. If not, please try that. If that doesn't work, try renaming the script to something link cleanup-xmetal.cmd (the import bit is changing ".bat" to ".cmd") and try again.

Yes, we used the elevated permission. I also changed the extension from .bat to .cmd and got the same message.

Finally got a response from XMetaL on the strange behavior of the installer. It appears that they have no plans to investigate or fix that behavior, so users who need the fix for the table cell merge bug will need to run the full installer. The name of that installer is

XMAU-ESSENTIAL-17.0-x64.exe

and it's in the XMetaL17 subfolder in the CdrSetup17 folder in the cdr_deployments share. The user should be able to right-click on the installer, select Run with Elevated Permissions, and click through the dialog boxes, accepting the defaults.

I recommend copying the installer to the desktop before running it or (preferably) re-copying the entire CdrSetup17 folder to the desktop (telling Windows to overwrite existing files) and running it from the location identified above.