ID:1558724
 
Resolved
The pager relied on file associations to launch .dme files, which didn't exist if BYOND wasn't installed.
BYOND Version:506.1244
Operating System:Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
Web Browser:Internet Explorer 11
Applies to:BYOND Pager
Status: Resolved (506.1246)

This issue has been resolved.
Descriptive Problem Summary:Using the "Open" button on stuff like byond://Xerse.RiseofHeroesSource doesn't do anything.

Numbered Steps to Reproduce Problem:
1.Download byond version 506.1244 as a zip file and extract it to the desktop, don't install BYOND in the normal directory, and don't have any version of BYOND installed at all.

2.Click here. byond://Xerse.RiseofHeroesSource

3.Install it and try to "Open" it to watch nothing happen.

Code Snippet (if applicable) to Reproduce Problem:
Not Applicable


Expected Results:
Even if BYOND isn't installed, when you click "Join" on a game through the pager, the version of DS that's in the same folder is used and launched for use with the game.

I would expect similar behavior opening for example the RoH source in Dream Maker even if BYOND hasn't been installed normally.

Actual Results:Pressing Open results in nothing happening at all.

Does the problem occur:
Every time? Or how often?Every Time
In other games?Not Applicable
In other user accounts?Yes
On other computers?Yes

When does the problem NOT occur?Always/Untested if having BYOND installed with the .exe would help, but if it launches but launches the version you have normally instead of the one in the same directory it can make testing older versions for certain bugs harder, by having to launch stuff like Dream Maker separately by hand instead of being able to go through the pager normally.

Did the problem NOT occur in any earlier versions? If so, what was the last version that worked? (Visit http://www.byond.com/download/build to download old versions for testing.)
Untested

Workarounds:Unknown.

I'm pretty sure these are actually separate issues, Lummox.

Superbike32 is referring to the Open button on the pager tab for hubs, rather than the "Open location/file" menu item - I'm able to do what he's trying to do without any issues, though.
@Super Saiyan X, you are right, but did you install BYOND using the .exe EVER? I have never installed it, but I am running the files from the zip, simply extracted, and ran the pager by double-clicking the .exe for it in the extracted files...

This works fine when joining games, the pager will launch the game fine, but when I click open on the page for the source files, or any content which I expect to open Dream Maker, nothing launches.

I assume it would work fine if I ran the .exe version though and not simply by unzipping the files and using it that way. However running it the way I do allows me to more easily test multiple versions should something go wrong, by simply navigating to a new folder and starting up the pager for a different BYOND version.
Also @Super Saiyan X, I have your issue as well...nice catch, I have no problem typing a URL into the box for a BYOND:// URL but if I go to select a file I get the popup that keeps showing up for you, and the file dialog stays open after showing the message as well.
Lummox JR changed status to 'Unverified'
I tried this with a fresh install (moved my BYOND data dir to a place it wasn't seen) but had no problems at all.
With a fresh install you mean what...exactly? Because all I did was unzip the files to my desktop, and run byond.exe from the bin folder.

Also what OS did you test on, I am running Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center.

*** For testing purposes though, when you install BYOND normally, where do all the files get stored at normally?

Is it just what's in the .zip file put into C:\Users\[UserName]\Documents\BYOND and then add the "bin" folder to there, is there how it would install normally?

Because if I move the "bin" folder there from the zip version, it still doesn't work...

Oddly enough another issue I had got fixed, although the other issue may be an OS issue...when I was right clicking Dream Maker to open another project, when opening the extracted version on the desktop, the context menu wouldn't appear...

When I moved it to the documents folder, that context menu will popup and I can now run a 2nd instance easily...but that's probably unrelated and possibly an OS issue...

But regardless dream maker doesn't launch at all, so maybe it's not even looking in a default place...maybe it's checking the registry/OS to check where BYOND was installed to, and if it doesn't see it, it doesn't launch, but if it does find it to be installed, it will launch from the current directory(if available) or fallback to where it's supposed to be installed otherwise...

So I really advise you to uninstall BYOND to see if the issue happens then as simply moving the files may not be enough. It may happen because it knows it's not installed, but never falls back to see if the files in the directory I'm running the pager in, because it seems the app it wants isn't there to run.
BYOND should always execute from whatever path you run it under. What I did was rename the MyDocs/BYOND folder to something else, so all the config files were hidden from it and had to be recreated from scratch. Whenever I run byond.exe from an alternate dir, the programs I launch with it are launched from that dir.

The bin files from the zip should not go in the user data dir; they should be in a separate path.

As far as testing, that was in Windows 7. I have no means to test in Windows 8.1 but I strongly doubt that the OS is the issue.
I understand what you are saying Lummox, I am saying however maybe it doesn't attempt to launch it at all (even from the same dir) until it establishes BYOND is actually installed.

The order in which it could do things to not work properly.

*Check if BYOND is installed.

If it's not installed, do nothing.

Else launch Dream Maker from the folder in the same directory as the pager.

If Dream Maker isn't found(maybe this isn't part of the code at all) then try and launch Dream Maker from the default install location(if found).

Which is why I was going to see if an actual uninstall would help.

It does launch Dream Seeker fine when joining a game, so either Dream Maker isn't trying to be launched, or maybe launches(possibly with incorrect parameters passed to it) so it closes instantly?
Actually upon more testing, I unzipped the VS2013 version on my desktop to see if it would work. (506.1245)

I installed the stable release on the BYOND download page...

When I click open now it launches Dream Maker when I click open, but it doesn't open the version in the same directory, it launches it from "C:\Program Files (x86)\BYOND\bin\dreammaker.exe" which is 504.1234

I confirmed this using the about dialogs in both programs.

It indeed does launch a different version of DM when launching using the pager.

***Interestingly, it doesn't launch at all if I uninstall BYOND, even if I recreate the directory and put the files there...I assume because windows knows it's uninstalled, and it uses windows to find out where(if anywhere) the program installed to.
It doesn't make any sense that the OS would launch a program other than the one you double-clicked. Is there any possibility your antivirus software could be interfering?

[edit]
Doh, I misread what you said. So the pager you've opened is the right version, but the programs it launches are the wrong ones?
I've got a lead here. It appears to be caused by the byond:// protocol not being handled correctly. Specifically it looks like the program isn't handling this internally as I'm expecting it to, which means it's routing through the OS, which looks at the install dir if there is one. And if there's no protocol installed, nothing happens. I'm looking into it.

[edit]
Interestingly, this does not appear limited to the VS2013 build. I've seen this at least as far back as 504.1234. Accordingly, I'm moving this over to Bug Reports as it's no longer strictly a beta issue.
Lummox JR changed status to 'Verified'
Lummox JR resolved issue with message:
The pager relied on file associations to launch .dme files, which didn't exist if BYOND wasn't installed.
@Lummox JR

Thanks for the quick tracking down and fixing of this bug...I tested it in 506.1246 and it's working good now, great job :)

Also while using the VS2013 build pressing F1 and bringing up windows help and an error message was very annoying, so those 2 issues especially being fixed has helped a lot.

I was just about to test for crashing under lots of different circumstances to see if DS is still going to crash on me, but hopefully the fix you made for the other crash will have fixed most of the crashing I was seeing.