Fred's Polarbar Challenge
Frederik L. Schodt
Here's a summary of my issues, with some specific questions at the end. Good karma to anyone who can answer them.
I am a decades long user of Polarbar and its predecessors in various permutations, but I am not a programmer or knowledgeable about java. Some time ago (perhaps a couple of months ago?), something happened to the old Polarbar I was using (1.25e, I think). I lost my search function, which is essential to me since I have so much email from the past. I thought it was time to update to the new Polarbar, with new java and javafx. Bill Kredentser deserves a Nobel prize for trying to help me setup my environment variables, and for being so generous with his time in trying to get it all to work. From what Bill has concluded, the variable settings seem correct, but for some reason PBM has trouble invoking JavaFX properly. There is a long and complicated thread already on the group list showing all the ways he has helped and suggestions he has made.
To summarize what I have experienced.
1) At one point, when everything was installed, I thought that everything was working great. I made the mistake, however, in changing the browser from the Webkit one to Google. That seemed to ruin it. After that, sometimes nothing would work. Usually, when invoked, the command line window would show PBM dying in an endless loop, making it impossible to change settings or do anything. Looking at the command line, it seemed to choke on the line, "
InteropFactory: cannot load com.sun.javafx.embed.swing.newimpl.InteropFactoryN"
2) On Bill's suggestion I tried re-downloading Java and also JavaFX, and the latest version of PBM, but it didn't seem to help. At one point, Windows Defender started treating the PBM download as ransomware. I know from the read.me file that AntiVirus programs can cause problems, and it suggests giving PBM full privileges but I am not sure how to do that. After a while of trying to stop it from blocking PBM or deleting parts of it, PBM seemed to survive the installation, which was nice.
3) I eventually tried to do a clean install. I redownloaded PBM and made sure that it would create a new account settings file. Then, I copied over all my old mail folders, and fired PBM up. To my surprise, most of the PBM functions seemed to work, after I was able to re-input the settings for incoming and outgoing servers, etc. Mail downloads, and search also worked. I also added a .bat file that Bill suggested, and that seems to have really helped. When invoked properly, I don't see the command line window, and everything seems to load fine. But when polarbar.exe is invoked directly, I do see it, and see the execution stop at the line"
InteropFactory: cannot load com.sun.javafx.embed.swing.newimpl.InteropFactoryN" and then go into an endless loop. With the bat file, in terms of functionality I am now at the place where the most important functions I need (Search, downloading, etc.) seem to work okay as far as I can see.
4) There are still anomalies, however. Help does not work. If I invoke polarbar.exe, and click on help, it often sends PBM into an endless death-spiral loop related to JavaFX. If I invoke through the .bat file recommended by Bill, with a specific connection to JavaFX, however, it avoids the endless loop. Help displays its contents when clicked, but none of the categories or items listed function when clicked.
So at this point, PBM is usable to me, even though it's not perfect because I can't access HELP, and also cannot use a different browser other than webkit.
So here are a couple of specific questions.
1. Are help files available somewhere outside of PBM? Is it possible to extract them separately from the PBM download package (the zip file) and use them? Since there are many new functions in the latest version, it would be nice to know what they do, and what to input in settings (which now largely works).
2. There is obviously still some issue preventing JavaFX from working correctly. I note in the downloaded PBM package that there is a file called FindFX. It seems to be some sort of script that helps PBM find javafx. Does anyone think that might help me?
Any brave souls that would like to take a crack at helping me will of course get good karma, which Bill already has mountains of.
Thanks much, Fred
www.jai2.com
Carl Miller
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