Flare 2017 r2 - OK to upgrade?

[Paul Griffiths]

Hi

When Flare 2017 r2 was first released, I and my colleagues noticed a fair amount of criticism in these forums regarding various bugs. We decided to stay with 2017 and hold off on r2 until the situation settled down. Since then, MadCap have released build 6355, and now the forums seem calmer.

So I'd like to ask if you think r2 is generally stable now, or if there are still significant outstanding issues that lack workarounds.

If it helps, we're exclusively HTML5/Word output at the moment, none of that fancy top-navigation stuff yet!

Thanks for your advice.

Paul

[roboHAL]

Hi Paul. While I cannot speak/write for others, I'm on 6355 and there are no unwanted issues with Flare tat I'm aware of. I too use HTML5 output.

[dtmenges]

I have one small target in HTML 5. The rest of my targets are .pdf and .chm. Flare 2017 r2 seems to behave itself for those targets. Running 64-bit with TFS for source control since R2 it came out.

[RamonS]

I upgraded at home last week and generated new HTML5 output for a small project. No issues.

[KayJay]

I upgraded the week before last and had huge problems with build times - I use global project linking across a few small projects, and regardless of the settings on the import file (disabling automatic import) it would still search for import candidates for 5-10 minutes before each build, become unresponsive, screen would go black and block everything on my desktop.

But deleting all the import files and rebuilding them from scratch fixed it. So I'd go ahead but keep this in mind.

[Jess77]

Has anyone had issues with r3?
I had terrible issues with r2 and went back to 2017, so I am leery of upgrading again.

[cdschroeder]

Has anyone had issues with r3?
I had terrible issues with r2 and went back to 2017, so I am leery of upgrading again.

There was an issue with shorthand padding, but MadCap addressed it in a manual patch (http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/Content/Fl ... erties.htm).

Also, when using the Create Snippet feature, the snippet name/location you enter does not save. You can, of course, rename and move the snippet later. But if you are creating lots of snippets, it will be a pain.

And finally, there are also some reported issues of conflicts with recent Windows updates, but it seems that those can only be resolved by reverting the Windows update or installing Flare 32-bit (any version). Reverting to R2 or 2017 does not solve the conflict, so it's not exclusive to R3.

Aside from that, I can't think of anything else. I've been on R3 since it released (first testing, then using full-time), and haven't experienced anything awful. Nothing compared to the initial R2 release, which I uninstalled after a day of testing.

[NorthEast]

Has anyone had issues with r3?
I had terrible issues with r2 and went back to 2017, so I am leery of upgrading again.

I have bad performance issues using 2017r3 with large projects in TFS, which means I'm back on 2017r2.

I also spotted minor issues, like not being able to choose the name of a snippet when saving - but it's not the complete car crash that was the initial 2017r2.

[Jess77]

Thank you both very much!
The Windows upgrade thing is a little concerning because I could not reverse an upgrade; those come from my company's IT department.

[cdschroeder]

Thank you both very much!
The Windows upgrade thing is a little concerning because I could not reverse an upgrade; those come from my company's IT department.

Same here. But my coworker had the issue, and it didn’t matter if he reverted to R2 or 2017 - they both had the same problem. So it’s not exclusive to R3. He eventually solved it by installing R3 as a 32-bit program instead.

That being said, my computer is identical, but doesn’t have the same problem. So I don’t know what’s up there. I just assume it is related to Windows updates because Nita Beck solved a similar issue by reverting a couple of updates.

[cdschroeder]

Well, look at that. Just got a notification for a new Flare update. Going to hop right in and check out those snippets. And a TFS fix for Dave too!

update.png

[NorthEast]

Well, look at that. Just got a notification for a new Flare update. Going to hop right in and check out those snippets. And a TFS fix for Dave too! :)

Strange, mine says something different... is 6520 a new r3 release, or the initial r3 release? (I'm currently on 2017r2)

Edit: 6520 is the new r3 release - and appears to fix the TFS issue.

[RamonS]

My assumption is that any r3 downloads are the new build, but the list of things changed is different when upgrading from r2 to the new r3 compared to upgrading from the old r3 to the new r3.

[cdschroeder]

Well, look at that. Just got a notification for a new Flare update. Going to hop right in and check out those snippets. And a TFS fix for Dave too!

Strange, mine says something different... is 6520 a new r3 release, or the initial r3 release? (I'm currently on 2017r2)

6520 is the new R3 release. I scrolled down in my screenshot - new patch notes are at the bottom. The top section looks the same as the initial R3 release.

[Nita Beck]

That being said, my computer is identical, but doesn’t have the same problem. So I don’t know what’s up there. I just assume it is related to Windows updates because Nita Beck solved a similar issue by reverting a couple of updates.

FWIW, I am now on the latest version, 2017 r3 6520. The issue that I reported over in the Slack community was a potential conflict between Windows 10 Fall Creators update and Flare (any version). My solution was to roll back to the prior Windows update. Then, when Flare 2017 r3 6520 came out, I tried to update Windows to Fall Creators again, to see if the issue with Flare was resolved. Alas, I'm unable to install Fall Creators so I cannot test my theory! For the time being, I'm on a slightly older version of Windows 10 and all versions of Flare are playing nicely.

[cdschroeder]

The issue that I reported over in the Slack community was a potential conflict between Windows 10 Fall Creators update and Flare (any version).

Makes sense. I had awful problems with Flare when I upgraded to the Spring Creators update. Fortunately, Windows issued a .NET patch that fixed everything shortly thereafter. Hopefully the Fall update can be fixed just as easily.