XP Pro emulation for SP2+FP2007 should not have component "FrontPage Server Extensions"
jimt
My target displayed this message during FBA:
"Unable to access configuration for MS personal WebServer"
According to this NG Post:
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded
From: "Andy Allred [MS]" <andy...@online.microsoft.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 09:04:16 -0800
Local: Tues, Jan 25 2005 10:04 am
Subject: Re: *Unable to access configuration for MS personal WebServer'
the message comes from the component "FrontPage Server Extensions", and this
component should not be used.
The runtime was designed using the xp pro emulation pkg from xpefiles.com.
The .SLX file has the component, and it should be removed.
I used the version of the xp pro emulation proj file that comes with the
xpproemulation_186.zip file.
Bye,
--
jimt
PS: The above NG post may be found here:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded/browse_frm/thread/46180e62c48b55e5/04eda60ad375c375?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#04eda60ad375c375
KM
That is a known issue (well, easy to notice if you run the XPProEmulation image on a target device at least once :-) ).
The time I developed that image the main purpose was to make sure *none* of software components are left out of the config. That
would also include the "Frontpage Server Extensions" component, even though it is not pretty and really annoying to see that message
box during FBA.
If you remove a component from the config, trying to get rid of an annoying message, someone else may be missing that component
functionality trying to get an app working on XPe that requires it (in our case Frontpage or IIS functionality).
Again, although I personally hate that message box and I disabled the "Frontpage Server Extensions" in every single instance of
XPProEmualtion image I created for variety of platforms, I don't think it is a good idea to remove it from the config. Please keep
in mind that the main purpose of the project is to verify if XPe has enough components to satisfy your app static and dynamic
dependencies. In other words, it helps proving your app can run on XPe.
I'll document the fact in the project readme.
--
=========
Regards,
KM
jimt
Initially I thought the component was included for completeness too.
However the NG post by Andy implies to me that the "Frontpage Server
Extensions" is not supported on XP Pro or XPe. From Andy's post,
discussing the error message that I reported:
"This is from the "FrontPage Server Extensions" component which isn't
supported and won't work properly and should have been End of Life'd i
guess
but instead had it's visibility dropped to 50 to prevent you from
inadvertently adding it. It was not supposed to ship with this client
release, as you know there was no componentized version of Windows
Server,
so this component is useless." --Andy Allred [MS], 25 Jan 2005
Microsoft still ships it as part of the SP2+FP2007 Xpe component database.
I went into XPECMD and dropped visibility to ten, and then queried the
component. I found it. Based on the above post, it seems like MS should
probably have deleted it from the XPe database when FP2007 was released.
There is no component help for it. With a visibility of 50, it should not
be pulled into an image, right? And if it was pulled into someone's design,
it is apparently not supported by Microsoft.
If you still feel it should be left in the xp pro emulation SLX file that's
ok. It is easy to deal with if the README warns you. I just wanted to
bring Andy's post to your attention. I'm sure that whatever solution go
with will work fine.
Bye,
--
JimT.
"KM" <konstmor@nospam_yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eGu91eP...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
KM
The XPProEmulation image was built with Visibility set to 0 (not 100).
If you like, you can explore components and their dependencies at such level with DependencyExplorer component of XPeTools kit. It
allows you to change the visibility and drop it down to 0.
There have always been a few components at least with the vis < 100 (search NG archive, we discussed a few components like that).
Those are pulled in the XPProEmulation, although I didn't check how many were left in FP2007.
I understand that Frontpage Server extension component is not supported on XPe but that wouldn't be the reason to remove it from the
project. It is often easier to fight with issues at run time having all the required binaries include, even though they may not work
100% as expected, rather than be missing some components.
Also, please keep in mind that XPProEmulation does NOT guarantee your app is going to work there as on XP Pro. XP Pro, driven by
setup, has lots more - proper component ordering during setup, some registry entries prepopulated/deleted, etc. Main purpose of the
XPProEmulation though is to have as much software binaries you can include in TD as possible.
And I did read Andy's post long time ago. I mean I was fully aware of that issue when I intentionally left that component in :-)
Thanks again for keeping an eye on various issues of XPProEmulation. Who knows, maybe someday we'll end up with a good quality
project that will be a value-add for XPe :-)
--
=========
Regards,
KM