MEX file instability/corruption?

[terrypin]

Something very odd going on here. I just noticed that an entire category, called 'Explorer', containing about 30 macros, has disappeared from the ME Pro Explorer structure. More accurately, on closer examination the macros still exist but they have an 'unassigned' category.

 

Luckily I have a backup of the file, FULL.mex, from a few days ago, and loading that shows that it has 695 macros comapred with 697 in the faulty file. So I should be able to add the recently written couple to recover.

 

However, I now see that the file (both the recent and today version) has another serious fault. Sorted into descending order of Modified, about 50 of the most recent macros all have the same Modified date/time value (last night at 18:17), yet I didn't modifiy any macros yesterday. And have probably written or modified no more than 3 or 4 over the last couple of weeks. So somehow my MEX file has

- Had an entire category rectagorised as 'not assigned'

- Had many macros details changed.

 

Of course, the macros themselves may also be corrupted, although a test of half a dozen at random didn't reveal any obvious problems.

 

I'll look back at progressively older backups to see if I can isolate the time and date more closely.

 

I've had no recent crashes of ME Pro or other apps on this XP Pro PC.

 

Worrying ...

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[terrypin]

I've recovered the recent macros and corrected the unassigned categories using a backup MEX.

 

Somehow the batch of identical Modified values has cured itself!

 

But all my 697 macros now have Never in the Last Run column. It's not information I use a lot, but I do use it and it's a pain to see it deleted arbitrarily like this.

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Cory]

Sounds like the category delete button.

.........................................................

If one hits the category delete button which is the red X over folders in the Explorer toolbar it will do what you described. I did it a few times in the early days of MEP beta because I thought it would be a button to delete a selected macro. Back then it was simply a red X. Later they changed the icons to be less confusing. Anyway I just thought I would toss it out there.

[terrypin]

Sounds like the category delete button.

.........................................................

If one hits the category delete button which is the red X over folders in the Explorer toolbar it will do what you described. I did it a few times in the early days of MEP beta because I thought it would be a button to delete a selected macro. Back then it was simply a red X. Later they changed the icons to be less confusing. Anyway I just thought I would toss it out there.

 

Thanks Cory, and Happy New Year to you. I don't think it can be down to that button getting accidentally clicked, because it offers a warning message before deleting the category. Given the number of times I've had problems with losing categories in the past (albeit usually all of them, not just a batch like this case), I'm still inclined to suspect an obscure ME Pro bug.

 

How about the 'Never' status of the Last Run column - ever happened to you? Anyone? I'm darned if I can see why ME Pro cannot simply retain this date-time value on a per macro basis, just like all the other macro data. This is the umpteenth time I've had it reset like this. It's actuallly quite useful info, particularly when you're about to get down to some serious house-keeping.

 

I've now also reported it to ISS Support - as I did (in various contexts) in March and October of last year.

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[kevin]

Re: Macro Last Run time

How about the 'Never' status of the Last Run column - ever happened to you?

The Last Run information is stored in the registry, not within the macro file itself. When a macro file is reopened or restored from a backup this information is reset.

 

The reason it was designed this was was due to performance reasons. It is faster to update the information within the registry than to have to read and write to the macro file each time the macro runs.

 

We will consider your suggestion to maintain the last run information for a future version. But, as this would be a major change it will not be implemented in a minor update to Macro Express Pro.