Preview Form fails

Panorama X
1

I thought this error was caused by working on my Pan database in the cloud. So, I began doing everything on a local copy. But now, it has happened locally.

After some changes to a formula in a text display object (which may or may not have anything to do with the problem), I get this upon choosing Preview of my form:

Could not open file: /var/folders/ff/h0jzvwgx1n95fvjm_71y0xnw0000gp/T/AlbumsCatalog-071619.2019.07.16.17.38.27.200.pdf

I’ve already rebuilt the form a couple of times because I had no other choice. Any idea why this keeps happening?

I’m also noting that while I can arrow-key thru records in the data sheet, the form appears frozen and does not update the data in graphics mode.

Karl

2

This part is easy – data updates in a form only appear when the form is in data mode, not in graphics mode. Switch to data mode and the data will update.

The Mac has a special invisible temporary folder that programs can use to temporarily store a file. The system will automatically delete any files in this folder after a period of time. A program like Panorama can call the system to find out the location of the temporary folder. This folder location may change and will definitely be different on different systems, but it is always similar to the path you are seeing

 /var/folders/ff/h0jzvwgx1n95fvjm_71y0xnw0000gp/T/

So, when you ask Panorama to display a preview, it makes a PDF file in this special folder and then asks Preview to open the PDF file. Preview has special provisions for this, so it hides the fact that the PDF is in this invisible folder.

Normally all this proceeds without a hitch, totally invisible to the user. In fact, I’ve never heard of a problem like this before. The only thing I can think of is that there is something wrong with your system and it isn’t allocating the temporary folder properly, or there is a permission problem on this folder.

It is possible to display this folder in the Finder. To do this, open a new Finder window, then choose Go To Folder from the Go menu. Then copy and paste the folder location, in your case this is:

 /var/folders/ff/h0jzvwgx1n95fvjm_71y0xnw0000gp/T/

If your system is like mine, there will be a bunch of files in this folder, but the most recent one should be the PDF file you just tried to preview (at least it would have been if you opened this folder right after choosing File>Preview in Panorama).

If you look and this PDF file isn’t there, maybe there is something in your form that is causing the PDF generation to fail. As I say, I’ve never heard of that or seen that, so if that is the case I would be interested in getting a copy of the database with this form to see if I could duplicate the problem on my system while running with the Xcode debugger. If rebuilding the form from scratch consistently fixes the problem for you then maybe this is a possibility.

3

Hi Jim.

The file does appear to be working correctly on my desktop… so, the MacBook Pro could well be the issue here.

The MBP is up-to-date (OS 10.14.5). Did clean install just a month ago. Perhaps Intego Virus Barrier or Drive Genius are interfering. I’ll troubleshoot further.

Thanks,
Karl