Flare and TFS - .NET error message Problem(s) with FileList

[HeraTech]

I’ve been getting the following error message:

Problem(s) in FileList background thread: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name index [System.ArgumentOUtOfRangeException]
Stack Trace….

Yes, I’ve done my homework. (And posted it here http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 13&t=15191) Here’s what I know about this error message so far.

Googling the parameter turned up this ->http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... ption.aspx Which confirms the general consensus that this is a .NET error message.

It’s definitely something related to source control (we’re using Team Foundation Server). I’m still in the process of converting 1,200+ pages of legacy content into Flare projects. The projects that I have checked into source control throw the error message. The projects that I have not yet checked into source control never throw this error message.

It just started up last week, so I’m not sure what changed, because things were going smoothly before. I’ve browsed through the Windows System logs and the Windows Application logs and can’t find anything that seems to have changed on my system. And I’ve reproduced the error message on my manager’s laptop. So that confirms that it probably isn’t anything that’s specific to my laptop.

Things we’ve tried so far to troubleshoot this error message: I deleted the Analyzer folder in each of my projects. This worked temporarily. But every time you open the Flare project, the folder is automatically re-generated. Even after I completely uninstalled Analyzer. I uninstall and reinstalled Flare. And we’ve rebooted the TFS server.

At this point I think I’ve done everything I can to troubleshoot this myself, and I’m about ready to open up a support call with MadCap, as I get this error message multiple times EVERY TIME I save a file. And when I say multiple times, I mean anywhere from four times to 32 times, for a single save. Unless someone here has seen this before?

[HeraTech]

I spent over an hour on the phone with support on Monday, and thought I’d report back on the results.

It took us quite a while to track it down, since every time we thought we’d fixed the problem in one project, I’d test another project and it would pop up again. We eventually determined that this was caused by a known issue with Flare and TFS (so it shouldn’t affect people using other source control software). I was told that this bug is in queue to be fixed in the next update of version 8.

Until the issue is fixed the workaround involves the following:
Reset the layout
• (menus) Window > Layouts > Reset Windows Layout
• (ribbon) Window > Reset Layout

If that fails, deleting the CatapultMdiEditor file/folder to reset the layout.
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MadCap Software\Flare\CatapultMdiEditor.

Do not keep the Pending Check-Ins pane open while working. Especially when generating output (I was getting 20 – 30 tiled error messages when generating output).

[lingchan]

Just curious: What was the "known issue"? We are using Flare 8.1 and are running into problems with TFS.

[HeraTech]

Wow, it's been a while. I'm sorry but I can't remember if I ever knew the issue number or not. I'm pretty sure they fixed it in the next release, whatever number patch that was.

My sympathies if you're having trouble with TFS. It's hard to track down the source of problems when you're got Flare, TFS, and your network settings all complicating the mix. One of the things I did when initially testing out the TFS/Flare linkage was install the TFS client and used that to double check that things were working properly. I was very careful not to check in/checkout anywhere but Flare though. I just used the client to verify that Flare was checking in and out correctly. to view/edit commit messages, and occasionally delete something that got checked in by accident.

I've switched jobs, so thankfully I'm not using TFS anymore. But I'm not using Flare at the moment either. *sad face*