INFO: Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme: Part 6 - Visual InterDev

ID: Q230730

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 SP3

SUMMARY

This Readme file contains updated information for the entire Microsoft Visual Studio suite of developer tools. If you downloaded a Core service pack from the Internet, not all sections of this file apply to the updates you received. The fixed issues appropriate for the Core downloads are those listed in the Visual Studio section plus the sections for the products updated by your Core download.

The Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 Readme contains the following sections:

PART 1: Overview and Installation

PART 2: Visual Studio

PART 3: Visual Basic

PART 4: Visual C++

PART 5: Visual FoxPro

PART 6: Visual InterDev

PART 7: Visual J++

PART 8: Visual SourceSafe

PART 9: File Versions

For the latest product information, see the Visual Studio Web site at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio

For the latest product updates, see the Visual Studio Support Highlights site at:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/vstudio

For the latest year 2000 information regarding Microsoft products, see the Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure and Resource Center Web Site located at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com

You can also call 1-888-MSFT-Y2K within the United States, toll-free, or contact your local Microsoft subsidiary.

Please see the REFERENCES section below for more information about the other parts of this readme.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Visual InterDev

Installation information

Connecting to a SQL Server

If you will be using MDAC 2.1 to connect to a SQL Server, you must run the version of instcat.sql installed with MDAC 2.1 SP1, which can be found in your system directory.

To run instcat.sql:

From the Start button, choose Programs, Microsoft SQL Server, and then run ISQL_w.

When prompted, connect to the SQL Server server that you want to update.

From the File menu, choose Open. From your system directory, select instcat.sql.

From the Query menu, choose Execute.

Internet Explorer 5

Installing Internet Explorer 5 is strongly advised. Using Internet Explorer 5 with Visual InterDev 6.0 provides enhanced HTML editing and other benefits. Internet Explorer 5 is provided on the Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 CD in the IE5 folder under your language folder. It is also available from the Microsoft Windows Technologies Internet Explorer Home Page at:

http://www.msdn.microsoft.com

"NT SP4 not tested" Message

During the Visual InterDev 6.0 installation, if you are installing the NT Option Pack onto Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4, you might see the message "We haven't tested this on NT SP4, do you want to continue?" You should reply "Yes" to this message.

Working with Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4

Since Visual InterDev 6.0 was released, Service Pack 4 has become available for Windows NT. It is recommended you install Service Pack 4 on your Windows NT Server computer. Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 is available from the Microsoft Windows Update page.

The availability of Windows NT Service Pack 4 requires slight changes to the installation instructions published in the Visual InterDev 6.0 Readme file (ReadmeVI.HTM). In general:

You should install Windows NT Service Pack 4 after installing the server components for Visual InterDev 6.0. Service Pack 4 includes fixes for components such as Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), but the fixes are installed only if IIS and other server components are already installed on the computer.

The ASP hot fix (ASP2FIX1.EXE), which fixes problems with debugging and with updating the Global.asa file, is included in Windows NT Service Pack 4. You do not need to install the ASP hot fix separately.

Corrections to the Visual InterDev 6.0 Readme installation instructions (ReadmeVI.HTM)

Because Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 is now available, the following installation instructions replace the corresponding instructions in the Visual InterDev 6.0 Readme file (ReadmeVI.HTM).

Client Installation: If You Are Installing on Windows NT

The following components are required for the PageNavbar design-time control, remote debugging, and previewing active server pages on your local machine. You may choose not to select these components if you do not want to take advantage of these features.

Select Launch BackOffice Installation Wizard, and click Install.

The BackOffice Installation Wizard will prompt you to select a Custom or Visual InterDev Developer option. Select Custom, and click Next.

Verify the disk space requirements, and click Next.

Select Front Page Server Extensions and MS Data Access Components from the top level of the components list.

Expand the Windows NT Option Pack node, and select:

Internet Information Server - for NT Server
Microsoft Management Console
NT Option Pack Common Files
Personal Web Server (PWS) - for NT Workstation
Transaction Server
Data Access components (for example, Data Access 1.5)

Clear the remaining components. As you clear the other components, the wizard might display a message that warns you of various dependencies. You can choose Yes to ignore the dependencies, because you are using this computer as a client for Visual InterDev and not as a server.

Continue with the remaining steps of the wizard.

Server Installation for Windows NT

Perform the following steps if you are installing the server on Windows NT:

When prompted by the wizard, select Launch BackOffice Installation Wizard, and click Install.

The BackOffice Installation Wizard will prompt you to select the Custom or Visual InterDev Developer option. Select the Custom option, and click Next.

Select the following options:

Windows NT Option Pack 4.0
MS Data Access Components
Remote Machine Debugging
FrontPage Server Extensions
Visual InterDev Server

Before you click Next, expand the Windows NT Option Pack 4.0 node. In addition to the options selected by default, select the Visual InterDev RAD Remote Deployment Support node. Then expand the Visual InterDev RAD Remote Deployment Support node, and select the second instance of Visual InterDev RAD Remote Deployment Support. Make sure Visual InterDev RAD Remote Deployment Support is selected at both levels.

Click Next, and continue with the remaining steps of the BackOffice Installation Wizard.

Install Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4. If you installed Service Pack 4 previously, you should reinstall it to update the server components you installed in Steps 1 through 5.

Changes to Data Connections

Data connections can now be established using OLE DB data source providers, which offer greater flexibility in data sources and more efficient connections. For data sources that do not yet support OLE DB providers, you can continue to use ODBC-based connections.

For more details, see the topic "Connecting to a Database" in the Visual InterDev 6.0 SP3 documentation.

Changes to the HTML Editor

New Glyphs

The glyphs used to mark non-visual elements differ depending on whether the editor is being used with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or Internet Explorer 5. The glyphs used with Internet Explorer 4 are described in the documentation that accompanies Visual InterDev. The following table lists the glyphs the editor can display if Internet Explorer 5 is installed on the computer.


Glyph Represents 

 
 HTML comment (<-- through -->)

  
 Line break (<BR> tag)

  
 Beginning of division (<DIV> tag)

  
 End of division (</DIV> tag)

  
 Beginning of form (<FORM> tag)

  
 End of form (</FORM> tag)

  
 Beginning of paragraph (<P> tag)

  
 End of paragraph (</P> tag)

  
 Beginning of span (<SPAN> tag)

  
 End of span (</SPAN> tag)

  
 Style element (<STYLE>)

  
 Script in the <BODY> portion of the document. This can include client script block (<SCRIPT>) and inline server script block in .asp files (<% %>, or <SCRIPT RUNAT="Server">).
 

 Anchor point for absolutely positioned elements and for image elements that are aligned left or right (for example, <IMG ALIGN=RIGHT>). The glyph appears where the HTML tag defining the element is located in the HTML document. 


 Unrecognized HTML tags and unmatched ending tags.

Improved White Space Preservation

If you are using Internet Explorer 5, Visual InterDev can do a better job of preserving the exact layout of an HTML file when filtering elements that require special handling, such as scripts and design-time controls (DTCs).

See also Exceptions to white space preservation later in this document.

Debugging ASP Script Objects

A new debugging feature has been added to the scripting object model that allows you to catch errors that occur in lower-level components (such as during database access), trace events, and display warnings when script objects encounter possible errors. For more information about debugging and the scripting object model, see the topic "Debugging Script Objects in ASP Pages" in the documentation that accompanies Visual InterDev 6 and Knowledge Base article Q224955.

Enabling ASP Script Object Debugging

The documentation for ASP script object debugging incorrectly says that the following script block is automatically added to an .asp page when you first create the page:


<SCRIPT id=DebugDirectives runat=server language=javascript>
// Set these to true to enable debugging or tracing
@set @debug=false
@set @trace=false
</SCRIPT>

This is incorrect. The script block is not added to the page until you enable the scripting object model for that page.

Adding Debugging to Existing Applications

The new script object debugging features are automatically available when you create new webs in Visual InterDev 6.0. However, they are not automatically added to your existing applications. To take advantage of the debugging features, you must update the script libraries in your applications (projects) and update individual .asp pages, as described in the following procedures: To update script libraries in an existing application:

In Visual InterDev, open the project you want to update.

In the Project Explorer, open the project so you can see the _ScriptLibrary node.

Right-click the _ScriptLibrary node, choose Add, and then choose Add Item.

In the Add Item dialog box, choose the Existing tab. Use the Look in box to navigate to the master script library on your computer, which is usually in the following folder:

\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VIntDev98\ScriptLibrary

Select all the files in the folder, and then choose Open.

When prompted, confirm that you want to overwrite the existing files in your project's copy of the script library.

Repeat this procedure for all projects in which you want to use ASP object debugging.

After updating the script libraries, you can add debugging to individual .asp pages.

To Add Script Object Debugging to an Individual .asp Page

Open the .asp page and add the following block immediately following the <% @Language= %> block at the top of the page:


<SCRIPT id=DebugDirectives runat=server language=javascript>
// Set these to true to enable debugging or tracing
@set @debug=false
@set @trace=false
</SCRIPT>

Set the debugging options you want. For details, see the topic "Debugging Script Objects in ASP Pages" in the documentation.

Localized Error Messages for the Script Library

If an error occurs inside the script library when you are using Visual InterDev design-time controls, the resulting error message is displayed in English, along with an error number. You may look up the translated error text by error number. Translated versions of these error messages are available in SLErrors.htm on the Service Pack 3 CD under the appropriate language subdirectory in the \support folder. If you downloaded the service pack, SLErrors.htm is located in the folder in which you extracted the files.

Other Fixes

The following problems have also been fixed in Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3. The "Q" number that precedes most fixes indicates the ID of a Knowledge Base article that provides further details about the problem and the fix:

Q190753 Page Not Refreshed When Pointing to a Deleted Record

Q190939 Editing ASP Pages Using FrontPage 98 Causes Problems

Q191560 Contacting Web Server to Open Web Project Never Times Out

Q224936 GPF When Switching to Source View in Visual InterDev 6.0

Q224958 Wrong HTML Editor Picked in Internet Explorer 5

Q224944 Text Fails to Keep Styles When Pasted into Tables

Q224941 Memory Problems With Many DTCs on 64 Meg Win9x Clients

Q224950 Changing From Bulleted List Styles Back to Normal

Q224953 Visual InterDev Crashes When Re-Aligning Elements Inside a FIELDSET

Q224956 HTML Selection Losing Focus Causes Visual InterDev to Crash

Q224945 Visual InterDev Stops Responding When Accessing SP Under Source Control

Q224946 Color Name Not Returned as Expected After Changing Tabs

Q224948 Template Page Wizard Problems in Localized Versions of VI

Q224949 Data Tools Timeout Values Have No Effect in Visual InterDev 6.0

Q224951 ASP From File-New Removed to Prevent Problems

Q224952 GPF in Table Design Window Menu

Q224954 Next Connection Not Displayed in Data View

Q224957 Cannot Debug HTC (Internet Explorer 5 Script Behaviors) With Visual InterDev 6.0

Q224937 HTA App (Internet Explorer 5 Behaviors) Debugging Shuts Down Internet Explorer 5

Q224938 Access Violation in Internet Explorer Due to Visual InterDev Script Debugger

Q224939 Wrong List of Object Names for Access OLEDB Connections

Q224942 GPF With thisPage.navigate.Show() in Visual InterDev 6.0

Q224934 DISPLAY Function Enhanced for Visual InterDev 6.0

Q224940 Windows NT 4 Client to Windows Server 2000 Debugging Issues

IDE crashes when doing a Save As of a utility project

Opening ASP Page w/ ActiveX Control Crashes Visual InterDev 6.0

Known Issues

Exceptions to white space preservation in HTML editor

When you load a document into the HTML editor or switch between Design view and Source view, the editor attempts to preserve the format of the document as closely as possible. However, this is not always possible. If you are using Internet Explorer 5, the following changes might be made to the document:

<PARAM> elements within an <OBJECT> element might be modified. Modifications might include the reorganization of tags, such as breaking a single <PARAM> element into multiple ones or consolidation of separate <PARAM> tags. <PARAM> tags might also be added that explicitly specify default values. The exact modifications to <PARAM> tags depend on the object referenced in the <OBJECT> element. If multiple <PARAM> tags have the same name, duplicates will be removed.

Matched tags that are in different cases are converted to the case of the first letter of the opening tag. For example, <STRONG>My Page</STRONG> is converted to <strong>My Page</strong>.

Formatting of content inside inline style attributes (STYLE="") is not retained, and style attributes might be reordered. Specific changes include:

Style names are converted to all uppercase. Style attributes are converted to all lowercase. For example, Background-Color=#FF01EA becomes BACKGROUND-COLOR=#ff01ea.

Composite style attributes might be replaced with individual style attributes. For example, the BORDER style attribute might be replaced with BORDER-LEFT, BORDER-TOP, BORDER-RIGHT, and BORDER-BOTTOM.

Attributes explicitly assigned empty strings might be removed. For example, the attribute VALUE="" in an <INPUT> tag might be removed.

Tags might be inserted to complete or correct the structure of the document. For example, the DHTML Editing Component might add missing <TR> tags around <TD> tags.

Documents containing the following cannot be loaded:

Multiple <HTML>, <HEAD>, <TITLE>, or <BODY> tags.

<FRAME> or <FRAMESET> tags.

Scripts inside <SELECT>, <TEXTAREA>, <LABEL>, or <LISTING> elements.

Server script inside attribute values, as in the following examples:


<INPUT TYPE=TEXT VALUE = <% =serverID.value%>>
<INPUT TYPE=TEXT VALUE = "<%Response.Write("x, y")%>">

Individual Themes Deleted During Recalculation

When using source control to obtain files that belong to a theme, always perform a Check Out or Get Local on all files in the theme. You can do this by selecting a theme folder before getting the files. Otherwise, if part of a theme is local and the remainder is on the server, you might encounter problems. Recalculating links or switching from local to master mode might cause the theme to be deleted from your project. Likewise, check all files back in at the same time.

RDS Objects on Page Cause "failed to load" Message

If a page contains an <OBJECT> tag that references an RDS component, when you switch to Source view in the HTML editor, you will see the message:

Some objects have failed to load. The objects will be displayed as text.

This occurs because the RDS objects do not have a visual representation, so Source view cannot render them. However, the objects will function correctly.

REFERENCES

For more information about the Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 readme, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q230722 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 1 - Overview and Installation

Q230724 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 2 - Visual Studio

Q230726 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 3 - Visual Basic

Q230727 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 4 - Visual C++

Q230729 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 5 - Visual FoxPro

Q230731 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 7 - Visual J++

Q230732 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 8 - Visual SourceSafe

Q230733 Visual Studio 6.0 SP3 Readme Part 9 - File Versions

Additional query words:


Keywords          : kbreadme kbservicepack kbVS600sp2 kbVS600sp3 
Version           : WINDOWS:6.0 SP3
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbinfo

Last Reviewed: July 29, 1999