UNC - White Screen

[PGPhantom]

I am trying to run WPI from a network drive but just get a white screen UNLESS ... I first map the network drive. Is there any way to run it from a UNC without having to map a network drive?

[zorphnog]

Nope. You gotta map it. Check out this topic.

[PGPhantom]

I had already read that particular topic and was hoping that there was a way to do it but all the commands there are not Windows based so do not run when running from a Windows share. Unless you might now of a Windows based equivalent batch file - Otherwise I will just have to revert back to my non-gui days and figure it out

[AlBundy33]

All of the commands are windows-commands.

Here is my last version of the script:

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

SET SHARE=
IF NOT "%~1"=="" SET SHARE=%~1

IF "%SHARE%"=="" (
	TITLE Running local WPI...
	CALL :RUN
) ELSE (
	TITLE Running WPI from "!SHARE!"...
	PUSHD "!SHARE!"
	ECHO.Mounting "!SHARE!" to "!CD!"...
	CALL :RUN
	ECHO.Unmounting network-drive...
	POPD
)

GOTO :END

:RUN
	PUSHD %~dp0WPI
	ECHO.Starting WPI...
	START /wait wpi.hta
	POPD
	GOTO :END

:END

I tested it only on Windows XP - don't know if it work on 2k but think that it works von windows server 2003.

TITLE can be removed it doesn't work.

PUSHD is very important because it does the same like cd but has UNC-support

START should be available on all sindows-os - you can try to replace it by mshta.exe.

For this method I I don't know if the script waits until WPI has finished.

SETLOCAL could eventually removed - but then you have to replace !SHARE! and !CD! by %SHARE% and %CD%

If you change the script as mentioned aove you should have this code (not tested):

@ECHO OFF

SET SHARE=
IF NOT "%~1"=="" SET SHARE=%~1

IF "%SHARE%"=="" (
	CALL :RUN
) ELSE (
	PUSHD "%SHARE%"
	ECHO.Mounting "%SHARE%" to "%CD%"...
	CALL :RUN
	ECHO.Unmounting network-drive...
	POPD
)

GOTO :END

:RUN
	PUSHD %~dp0WPI
	ECHO.Starting WPI...
	mshta.exe wpi.hta
	POPD
	GOTO :END

:END

Don't know if this work but you can try it.

Or better: write what error you get by the original script.

Greetings

Al

[PGPhantom]

Something interesting - I just the famed 'White Screen". Your batch file does seem to work though ... Thank you for that. In reading the forums I saw mention that IE7 causes the white screen and that WPI will evenutally come up - TRUE, it does BUT ... Here is the real kicker: If I run WPI from any local drive - It is instantaneous, comes right up with no issues. If run from any mapped network drive - Anywhere from 2-10 minutes to come up? Is this a bug in the program that it will only recognize a set range of Drive Letters such as c-f or something?

[zorphnog]

Something interesting - I just the famed 'White Screen". Your batch file does seem to work though ... Thank you for that. In reading the forums I saw mention that IE7 causes the white screen and that WPI will evenutally come up - TRUE, it does BUT ... Here is the real kicker: If I run WPI from any local drive - It is instantaneous, comes right up with no issues. If run from any mapped network drive - Anywhere from 2-10 minutes to come up? Is this a bug in the program that it will only recognize a set range of Drive Letters such as c-f or something?

I have noticed a bit of a lag by running it on the network (30 seconds max), but not nearly as long as you're saying. I think it mainly comes down to network speeds and the number of config entries you have. As far as WPI only recognizing a set range of drive letters, I do not believe that holds any truth. I won't say for sure, but I have gone through much of the code and have seen no such limitation.

[PGPhantom]

A 100 Mbit connection so definitely not a speed issue. The config only has about 30 entries so is small in comparrison. When the program loads - Does it read into memory all the programs etc in the config file?

[zorphnog]

Yeah. It loads all the config stuff into arrays in memory.

[PGPhantom]

I don't think I was explicit enough - My apologies - What I am getting at - If your script includes installation files such as ad-aware, adobe etc, do they somehow get read into memory or do the installation files get verified before the interface loads? I am trying to figure out WHY it would be so slow on a network connection?

[mritter]

No, only the JavaScript code is loaded. There are no file existance checks unless you have specidfied them. That could be the culprit, but not too likely since only 30 programs. But turn them off and see if it helps.

[zorphnog]

Hmm...Here's an interesting test. Try running WPI from the network with your config file on your local machine. Download your config file then run "WPI.hta config=C:\config.js". I wonder if that would make any difference.

I've tried it on my network share (1Gbit/s network on to a XP client 2.00GHz, 2GB RAM), but I haven't noticed a discernable difference in times. Of course I'm not seeing the same issue either, I have about 40 programs and it loads in about 1.5 seconds either way. I guess its worth a try though.

[PGPhantom]

No difference but I was following the task- MSHTA.EXE takes up an initial 24Mb RAM and increments upwards to about 27Mb and uses 25% consistent CPU. The CPU may be one processor as I have a quad core. Eventually the error comes up: 'Glossy theme does not exist. Switching to glossy, the default theme." Click on OKay and the same message comes up again. Click on okay again and the final error "Glossy theme could not be loaded. Re Install the theme". Click on Okay and it closes.

I copy the directory over to my computer and viola - No errors and immediate load. Could IE7 be interfering? At first I though Anti-Virus but even when turned off and no firewalls in place - Exact same issue.

[PGPhantom]

I should also mention - Burn the directory to CD and run it - Immediate and no issue?