Steema Central

I upgraded to Version 1.1.1864.22788 from Version 1.0.1189.31308. I have no problems on my development machine but when I deploy my App I get the following exception. Does anyone have any ideas?

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Steema.TeeChart.FrAccessProvider.GetLicense(LicenseContext context, Type type, Object instance, Boolean allowExceptions)
at System.ComponentModel.LicenseManager.ValidateInternalRecursive(LicenseContext context, Type type, Object instance, Boolean allowExceptions, License& license, String& licenseKey)
at System.ComponentModel.LicenseManager.ValidateInternal(Type type, Object instance, Boolean allowExceptions, License& license)
at System.ComponentModel.LicenseManager.Validate(Type type, Object instance)
at Steema.TeeChart.Chart..ctor()
at Steema.TeeChart.TChart..ctor()
[My Code Here]

Hello,

Please check that the registry key contains the license keyline:
(See Tutorial 17 for more details). If the key is not present then please use the registry utility on the customer download page to write the correct key to the registry.

Please check that the licenses.licx file in the project contains valid content as described in the Tutorial.

We are aware of an issue affecting the license on some double-byte language Windows installations and we expect to put up a revision to resolve that issue. If the above suggestion doesn't resolve the problem on your installation please let us know what version of Windows & Language you are running and any information that you feel may be of interest to help us further diagnose any license issue that we may not be aware of.

With thanks.
Regards,
Marc Meumann

The registry key you mentioned is present.
The license file has the correct information based on Tutorial 17.
I have no problems at all compiling and running my app on my devepment machine. I am using Visual Studio .Net 2003, C#, WinXP SP2, English Language for development.
I only get the exception I mentioned when I install my app on one of my test machines and attempt to run it. My test machines are Win2K SP4 and WinXP SP1, both English Language. I have the same problem on both these machines. Using my App's .Net Configuration file I am able to redirect the App on my test machine to use old Version 1.0.1189.31308 DLL I was using before, it then works just fine. If I remove the redirect statements from the Configuration file and then Copy the new Version 1.1.1864.22788 back in, I immediately get the errors again when I attempt to start my App. What could be causing this?

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

I misunderstood slightly your original post. To clarify, it seems the development setup appears to work ok in its basic format but the license isn't being written into the executable at compile time.

Possibilities, things you might like to check:
- As a test to remove all other (prior) versions of teechart.dll (& teechart.languages.dll) from the runtime machine. In that way we can be sure there's no versioning issue. The same should also apply to the development machine, that there is no possibility of an older version of TeeChart being on the path or in AssemblyFolders.
- failing any success with the above -
To delete the licenses.licx file from your project, recompile and re-add a TeeChart to form in the app ... that will regenerate the licx file. The new Chart may then be removed. In that way we can be sure that there are no errant characters in the licx content strings.
- Another test as a cross-check. The TeeChart demo included in the "Examples\DemoProject\bin\ExecutableDemo" folder along with supporting files is compiled with the TeeChart binary license. That should work copying that folder to another machine and running it there provided that the runtime framework exists on the destination machine. If it doesn't it most likely points to another issue, again possibly other teechart versions on the path, or another underlying 'as yet unknown' issue.

Regards,
Marc Meumann

Hello Digital,

A new version has been posted to our customer download area to solve those problems as anounced here.

I tried the suggestions you made and the new version but I keep getting the same errors.

Following is what my license file looked like after adding. Note that there is already another componet listed in the file before TChart and TChart is listed twice for some reason.

ComponentXYZ, ComponentXYZ.Net, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e0d19238061985cb
Steema.TeeChart.TChart, TeeChart, Version=1.1.1879.21176, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=9c8126276c77bdb7
Steema.TeeChart.TChart, TeeChart, Version=1.1.1879.21176, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=9c8126276c77bdb7

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

- Please confirm that the license.licx file is included as an "Embedded resource" (select file in solution explorer to confirm)
- I assume the other licensed component, ComponentXYZ, is working correctly?
- The duplicate TeeChart.TChart line can be removed
- Be sure to do a full rebuild of the project after any license.licx file modification.
- Is the TeeChart.dll in your Application installation folder the only version installed on the runtime machine?
- If you make a new test project and add a TChart to a Form and compile, is that distributable to your runtime machine?
- Does the compilation of your application or the test program complain of "Could not transform licenses file 'licenses.licx' into a binary resource"?
- If deploying the test project to a runtime machine doesn't work please could you add and post it (and its compiled exe) as a zipped attachment to the newsgroup news://www.steema.net/steema.public.attachments - if we can/can't run the exe then perhaps we can start to rule in/out the development machine installation and/or the runtime machine as being the source of the problem.

With thanks.
Regards,
Marc Meumann

- license.licx is an "Embedded resource"
- ComponentXYZ is work correctly. I have never had a problem with it.
- "The duplicate TeeChart.TChart line can be removed" Ok I'll do that.
- "Be sure to do a full rebuild of the project after any license.licx file modification" I did do a rebuild.
- "Is the TeeChart.dll in your Application installation folder the only version installed on the runtime machine?" Yes it is.
- "If you make a new test project and add a TChart to a Form and compile, is that distributable to your runtime machine?" Ok I will have to give it a try.
- "Does the compilation of your application or the test program complain of "Could not transform licenses file 'licenses.licx' into a binary resource"?" No it does not complain when I compile.

I will have to try putting the TChart on another form at a later time. I am going to have to use Version 1.1.1769.19457 for now as it does not cause me any problems.

Thank you for all you help.