Yesterday for some reason the grid simply stopped working, I.e. no data was rendered to it at all. At first I thought this was either:
1) An issue with the .lic license files being out of date. By the way what is supposed to happen when the license file does run out?
2) A timeout issue, I’m doing dev on a VPC image, and even though its pretty beefy (1.25 GB RAM for VPC) things do timeout sometimes.
3) A permissions issues for the cassini web server, but moved it over to IIS under its own app pool and got the same result.
4) I tried to debug and everything looked fine MS Web Services and report WS as well as other ASP.NET2.0 Apps running fine …..just no data in the c360 grid

I was getting this c360 error in the application event log

______________________________________________

Event Type: Error
Event Source: c360
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date:  13/09/2006
Time:  5:15:56 PM
User:  N/A
Computer: CRMSRV01
Description:
******[ BEGIN LOG RECORD ]*******

            Message: AvailableProductsGridSample
          Log Level: 1100: SEVERE
          Timestamp: 13/09/2006 5:15:56 PM

       Source Class: c360.Toolkit.MsCrm.Controls.Grid
      Source Method: ᜀ
    Source Assembly: c360.Toolkit.UI, Version=3.0.6.175, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
               Code:

******[ EXCEPTION ]*******

Exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at c360.Toolkit.MsCrm.Controls.Grid.ᜀ(HtmlTextWriter A_0)

******[ CONTEXT DATA ]*******

   Application Name: c360 Toolkit Controls
     Application ID:
            User ID:
     Transaction Id:
           Sequence: 6
       Host IP/Name: crmsrv01
      Instance Name: 6d267c5-1-128026048620915696
         Process ID: 3200
       Process Name: C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\WebDev.WebServer.EXE
   Win 32 Thread ID: 4520
          Thread ID: 4520
Thread Authentication type: NTLM
    Thread Identity: CRM\Administrator
Process Authentication type: Kerberos
  Process Identity: CRM\Administrator
  Screen Resolution: 1264x664
  Web User Identity: CRM\Administrator
   Is Authenticated: True
Server Machine Name: CRMSRV01
  Request Timestamp: 13/09/2006 5:15:48 PM
        HTTP Method: GET
                URL: /c360SDK/ProductGridActionSample/AvailableProductsGridSample.aspx
      User Hostname: 127.0.0.1
  Secure Connection: False

*********** HTTP Headers *************

  Connection: Keep-Alive
  Accept: */*
  Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
  Accept-Language: en-au
  Host: localhost:1983
  User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
  UA-CPU: x86

**************************************

   Application Path: /c360SDK
            Browser: System.Web.Mobile.MobileCapabilities
   Content Encoding: utf-8
     Content Length: 0
       Content Type:
Execution File Path: /c360SDK/ProductGridActionSample/AvailableProductsGridSample.aspx

*********** HTTP Form Data *************

***********************************

*****[ END LOG RECORD ]*****

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

______________________________________________

Anyway after pulling my hair out I went off to have some lunch and when came back decided to try running the page again and everything is working fine again.

Does anyone have any idea what might have happened to cause the grid to stop displaying view data, or should I just leave a mince pie and a small glass of port beside my desk for the IT fairy folk next time I go to lunch

Cheers




Jeff Fane
MBS KAZ-Group

1. I get the error after making code changes which causes VS 2005 to recompile my application which causes the app pool to be recycled.
2. I press the refresh button and normally the problem goes away.
3. After the problem goes away, it doesn't come back until the next time I recompile my application

This leads me to believe that the problem is related to the initialization of the SDK. Presumably, there is an issue reading a config file, loading some value in memory, or something similar.

...or should I just leave a mince pie and a small glass of port beside my desk for the IT fairy folk next time I go to lunch

Jeremy if you ever figure out why this is happening, we are experiencing the exact same problem with one of our clients.

VS2005, latest version of SDK (before 10-31-2006)...

Thanks

Kim

Seems 50/50 if I get the null reference exception logged but it never shows the data even though the XML from the fetch data page is fine.

It displays fine on my local machine but when I deploy to the server it doesn't show anything.

This is all I need any c360 product to do right now. What's it doing as it's trying to be clever?

Here's the code of the areapage:

public override void BuildContentArea()

Grid1.SearchingStyle = SearchingStyles.None;

Grid1.ViewsSelectorStyle = ViewsSelectorStyles.None;

Grid1.ShowJumpBar = false;

Grid1.EntityId = companyid;

Grid1.FetchDataPage = "FullHistoryXml.aspx";

Grid1.IncludeStandardActions = false;

Grid1.AllowCreateNew = false;

Grid1.ViewsSelectorStyle = ViewsSelectorStyles.None;

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Subject", "subject", 200));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Activity Type", "activitytypecodename", 100));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Activity Status", "statecodename", 100));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Regarding", "regardingobjectidname", 150));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Company", "accountname", 150));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Priority", "prioritycodename", 50));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Due Date", "scheduledend", 80));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Actual End", "actualend", 80));

Grid1.ColumnHeaders.Add(ControlFactory.CreateColumnHeader("Created By", "createdbyname", 150));

Instance.ContentArea.Controls.Add(Grid1.Control);

}

Here's the XML returned from my datapage

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<queryResult>
  <stats>
    <pageNumber>1</pageNumber>
    <pageCount>1</pageCount>
    <fromRecord>1</fromRecord>
    <toRecord>1</toRecord>
    <recordCount>1</recordCount>
    <sortCol>regardingobjectidname</sortCol>
    <sortDir>ascending</sortDir>
    <moreRecords>false</moreRecords>
  </stats>
  <resultset>
    <result objectType="4201" primaryIdField="activityid">
      <activityid sortvalue="e3781cc2-e9bc-db11-91dc-0003ff4d55b8" value="e3781cc2-e9bc-db11-91dc-0003ff4d55b8">e3781cc2-e9bc-db11-91dc-0003ff4d55b8</activityid>
      <activitytypecode sortvalue="4201" value="4201">4201</activitytypecode>
      <activitytypecodename sortvalue="Appointment" value="Appointment">Appointment</activitytypecodename>
      <subject sortvalue="asdsad" value="asdsad">asdsad</subject>
      <statecode sortvalue="1" value="1">1</statecode>
      <statecodename sortvalue="Completed" value="Completed">Completed</statecodename>
      <activityid1 sortvalue="e3781cc2-e9bc-db11-91dc-0003ff4d55b8" value="e3781cc2-e9bc-db11-91dc-0003ff4d55b8">e3781cc2-e9bc-db11-91dc-0003ff4d55b8</activityid1>
      <regardingobjectid sortvalue="7bc11070-16a7-db11-91d7-0003ff4d55b8" value="7bc11070-16a7-db11-91d7-0003ff4d55b8">7bc11070-16a7-db11-91d7-0003ff4d55b8</regardingobjectid>
      <actualstart sortvalue="2007-02-15T03:43:31.0000000-00:00" value="2007-02-15T03:43:31.0000000-00:00" date="02/14/2007" time="7:43 PM">02/14/2007, 7:43 PM</actualstart>
      <scheduledstart sortvalue="2007-02-15T04:00:00.0000000-00:00" value="2007-02-15T04:00:00.0000000-00:00" date="02/14/2007" time="8:00 PM">02/14/2007, 8:00 PM</scheduledstart>
      <actualend sortvalue="2007-02-15T03:43:40.0000000-00:00" value="2007-02-15T03:43:40.0000000-00:00" date="02/14/2007" time="7:43 PM">02/14/2007, 7:43 PM</actualend>
      <scheduledend sortvalue="2007-02-15T04:30:00.0000000-00:00" value="2007-02-15T04:30:00.0000000-00:00" date="02/14/2007" time="8:30 PM">02/14/2007, 8:30 PM</scheduledend>
      <prioritycode sortvalue="1" value="1">1</prioritycode>
      <prioritycodename sortvalue="Normal" value="Normal">Normal</prioritycodename>
      <createdby sortvalue="e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8" value="e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8">e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8</createdby>
      <createdbyname sortvalue="CRM Admin" value="CRM Admin">CRM Admin</createdbyname>
      <ownerid sortvalue="e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8" value="e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8">e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8</ownerid>
      <owneridname sortvalue="CRM Admin" value="CRM Admin">CRM Admin</owneridname>
      <regardingobjectid1 sortvalue="7bc11070-16a7-db11-91d7-0003ff4d55b8" value="7bc11070-16a7-db11-91d7-0003ff4d55b8">7bc11070-16a7-db11-91d7-0003ff4d55b8</regardingobjectid1>
      <regardingobjectidname sortvalue="Barclays Group" value="Barclays Group">Barclays Group</regardingobjectidname>
      <regardingobjecttypecode sortvalue="1" value="1">1</regardingobjecttypecode>
      <modifiedby sortvalue="e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8" value="e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8">e6938802-8a8b-db11-91d2-0003ff4d55b8</modifiedby>
      <modifiedbyname sortvalue="CRM Admin" value="CRM Admin">CRM Admin</modifiedbyname>
      <modifiedon sortvalue="2007-02-15T03:43:40.0000000-00:00" value="2007-02-15T03:43:40.0000000-00:00" date="02/14/2007" time="7:43 PM">02/14/2007, 7:43 PM</modifiedon>
    </result>
  </resultset>
</queryResult>

To be honest, I also bought a more powefull laptop in the mean time so the combination of the new SDK version and the faster laptop and faster VPC seem to have taken care of the problem for me.

It's probably something I've done wrong but I'm clueless as to what it might be.

The log shows a 404 error so I think it was a configuration error as I fiddled with the web service URLs in c360.config.

I tried adding the /2006 after the /MsCrmServices and noticed by looking in the IIS log that it still used this even after I removed it so it was getting server:5555/MsCrmServices/2006/2006

Reseting IIS solved this so it was getting cached somewhere. 

Having said that, I have experienced the same problem that you described where changes to the c360.config do not take effect immediatly and a IIS reset is required. Our SDK asks .NET to monitor the config file and to clear the values cached in memory when a change is detected but for whatever reason, this does not always work as expected and I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that I don't know why.

I heard that there may be a bug in the .NET file watcher which may explain this behavior and during my SDK conference, I always joke that I will buy dinner to whoever finds a solution to this problem but it's been more than a year now and nobody has proposed a solution. I guess I'm not the only one who's puzzled by this issue!