Flare and Subversion Check In Problems

[GarrettDRussell]

Hi,

I have been getting a pop-up error from Flare when I try to check in files from an existing project. The project is already in Flare and these are files that have already been bound to source control. This is a simple check in after I have checked it out to edit it.

Now I noticed that Flare v10 has had an incredible amount of issues with Subversion in general so this may just be another screwy glitch. But the pop-up error I get reads: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." I don't really know what this means or why I get this error but I haven't done anything different to this Flare project other than edit topics. I really need these topics to be checked in so others can work on them.

I have gone topic by topic checking in and adding one file at a time. This is a crazy way to have to go about checking topics in so I hope someone knows of a solution to this problem.

Flare Check In.JPG

Thank you,
Garrett

[Nita Beck]

Unfortunately, Flare just passes on an error that's thrown from .NET without telling the cause. In short, the "Object reference not set..." error could be just about anywhere.

Are you using Flare 10.0 or 10.1? There were some issues with SVN that were resolved in Flare 10.2.

But otherwise, I'd suggest that you back up the project (Project > Zip Project) in Flare; exit Flare; delete the Analyzer, Output, and Project\Users folder; and delete the svn folder (cache). Then reopen the project. Flare will rebuild those folders, including the svn cache. Then try to check in the files.

Does that help?

[GarrettDRussell]

Unfortunately I won't be able to test that until Flare spits that message at me again. It hasn't done it since that day.

If it comes up again, I will give the proposed solution a shot.

Thank you for the response!

[mlaird]

I was having tons of these messages (using 10.2) but I eventually figured out what the problem was.

There was a directory that had been created by some Flare SVN update (it was content created by another editor which was created, then either deleted or moved) which had entered some kind of nebulous state of not being under version control, but also not being recognized as a new directory that should be added.

Any time Flare would try to check that directory, it would throw this error. And when I tried to look at that directory in the content explorer, it would actually cause Flare to crash. When I deleted that directory from outside of Flare, it fixed the problem.

I can't say for sure if your issue is the same, since the error is so vague, but you may want to check for directories in weird states... although, it looks like maybe you've done the kind of thorough investigation which would catch this, already. So this might not be helpful for you - but in case anyone else searches for this error and finds this thread, I wanted to share my experience!

[Kt_123]

I am facing the same issue. I have checked in the Analyzer folder in SVN. Should I just delete the Analyzer folder? Would it affect my checked in Flare Project? I am using Flare 10.1.

[emsachs]

I would definitely recommend using another svn tool to look at what is going on with your files. If you are comfortable using svn on the command line and you have that set up, you should be able to navigate to your project (inside the folder where the .flprj file is) and type

svn status -u

if you see anything with a C in the first column of the response, you have a conflict.

If you are not comfortable with that, install a utility like TortoiseSVN. You need information from outside of flare to see what the conflicts are.

[SteveS]

I am facing the same issue. I have checked in the Analyzer folder in SVN. Should I just delete the Analyzer folder? Would it affect my checked in Flare Project? I am using Flare 10.1.

Why bother putting the Analyzer folder in source control?

Anything that can be created from other files can be left out of source control. For example you are making things complicated if you put your output (let's say a .chm) into a source control system. It can be recreated from the files in source control, and serves no purpose to back it up in what is essentially a database.

The same goes for the Analyzer files, particularly as deleting the folder can be used to overcome some issues in Flare. I'd remove it from the source control system...