"There Was a Problem Saving the Standalone Application"

[J. Landman Gay]

Dan Shafer wrote:
> Nothing infuriates me more than meaningless error messages from development
> tools. (OK, OK, there are some things in life and politics that 
> infuriate me
> more, but they don't count right now!)

The standalone builder gives specific error messages when it knows 
what's wrong, but you get the generic one if something else causes a 
problem that it doesn't know about.

> The app is a single stack with a single card. It uses libURL to do some FTP
> stuff. I've set up the standalone settings the way I think they should be.
> I've tried both explicitly including the Internet library and letting Rev
> search for the needed libraries. I've tried including and excluding the
> standard dialogs (which my app doesn't use). I've tried building only 
> for OS
> X and only for Windows and both at the same time. I've tried building the
> app under 2.6.1 and 2.7.2.  I've confirmed I can build a standalone in 
> 2.6.1and
> 2.7.2 from another stack with the same basic set of settings.
> 
> What else can I look for? What could cause this oh-so-helpful error messag?
> 

Others have already listed most of what I know about, but just for the 
record, here's my boilerplate list of things that can go wrong.

1. The path to the stack contains non-ASCII characters, such as 
diacritical marks or accent marks.  Avoid the use of accented or 
non-ASCII characters in path names.

2. The standalone builder is set to search for inclusions but the stack 
is password protected. Select the inclusions manually instead, or remove 
the password.

3. Alternately, the standalone builder may be having trouble searching 
for the required inclusions regardless of password protection. Turn off 
"Search for required inclusions" and turn on "Select inclusions for the 
standalone application." Then choose the resources you need to include 
yourself in the Standalone Settings dialog.

4. The folder name is the same as your standalone's name. You need a 
unique folder name; make sure you select an empty folder with a name 
different from the standalone's name.  If you have previously built a 
standalone from the same stack, do not try to build a new one into the 
same folder. Trying to overwrite an existing standalone with a new one 
can casue problems. Rename or remove the old folder first, and then build.


5. Your source stack's file name does not use an extension, or uses an 
incorrect extension. Make sure your stack's file name ends with the 
extension ".rev"

6. Your source stack contains duplicate "message box" or "ask" or 
"answer" dialogs. Remove the embedded stacks and let the standalone 
builder add them instead. (This usually only occurs with stacks 
originally created in MetaCard.)


-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com