BUG: Printing Reports in Loop Hangs Visual FoxPro

ID: Q185865

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

Printing reports in loops generates an "Internal Consistency" error under Windows 95 and hangs Visual FoxPro under Windows NT 4.0.


CAUSE

This activity causes massive amounts of spooling, which causes a low memory situation because of continuous virtual memory swapping.


RESOLUTION

Create an out-of-process Visual FoxPro OLE server to handle the printing and release the object when the printing is completed. This workaround is available only in versions of Visual FoxPro later than 3.0x.

An example is shown below.

Create an OLE server named "TestPrint" by creating a project, adding the following code to a program file, and compiling the project to an EXE file: 


   DEFINE CLASS PrintIt AS CUSTOM OLEPUBLIC

   WhichData=''
   WhichReport=''

   PROCEDURE PRINTOUT
      Use (This.WhichData)
      REPORT FORM (This.WhichReport) to Print
      Use
   ENDPROC

   ENDDEFINE
In your application, replace the REPORT FORM command with the following lines of code: 

   Ox=CreateObject("TestPrint.PrintIt")
   Ox.WhichData  ="<Full Path of the Table associated with the report>"
   Ox.WhichReport="<Full Path of the Report>"
   Ox.PRINTOUT
   Release OX


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.


MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: Close all running applications and save your data before following this procedure. Note that following these steps may produce lost allocation units, lost clusters, or cross-linked files.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Create a table named Test and insert some records. 
    
      CREATE TABLE Test (ID c(4), NAME c(20))
      INSERT INTO Test VALUES ("AAA","111")
      INSERT INTO Test VALUES ("BBB","222")
      INSERT INTO Test VALUES ("CCC","333")


  2. Create a Quick Report based on table Test and name the report Test.frx.


  3. Place the following code in a program and run the code: 
    
      SET SAFETY OFF
      FOR i=1 TO 5000
         ?? i
         REPORT FORM Test TO FILE Test.txt ASCII
      NEXT


The system hangs or crashes after a certain number of iterations.

Additional query words: kbprint hang kbDSupport kbDSE VFP600REL kbvfp300 kbvfp300b kbvfp500 kbvfp500a kbvfp600 


Keywords          : 
Version           : WINDOWS:3.0,3.0b,5.0,5.0a,6.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: August 3, 1999