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Resolved Disabling Accessibility Functionality in Older Versions of PB

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  1. Lance Brand
    Lance Brand
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Friday, 5 February 2021 06:55 AM UTC

Does anyone know whether the ACCESSIBILITY parameter does anything in pb.ini for PowerBuilder Classic applications built using earlier versions of PowerBuilder, such as SAP PowerBuilder 10.5? If not, is there a similar method for disabling Section 508 accessibility features in older versions of the PowerBuilder Data Window?

Background:

My company has a Windows application developed on PowerBuilder, which has been randomly crashing when running in a new hosted environment. A message box appears, "A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Please close the program."

The problem has been occurring in an environment running certain versions of Windows Server, Citrix VDA and Citrix Receiver. It does not occur on a native Windows workstation, and does not occur when run under a pure Remote Desktop Protocol. 

Appeon Support have analysed our Windows crash dumps and have suggested that the issue can be resolved by turning of Accessibility features, as described here:  ttps://www.appeon.com/developers/get-help/knowledgebase/powerbuilder-datawindow-hangs-temporarily-after-retrieve.html

We tried adding ACCESSIBILITY=0 to pb.ini, located in the same folder as our application's runtime executable, built using PB 2019. While I note that the application was previously "randomly crashing" - meaning that any testing without crashes is not 100% conclusive - we have not been able to crash the application with Accessibility disabled. Kudos to Appeon Support for suggesting this resolution.

Unfortunately, our application is currently built on a much older version of PowerBuilder. We tried the same parameter with our application built on PB 10.5, but crashes still occur.

Migrating to a later version of PB should always involve a comprehensive re-test of the application, which we don't have time to do right now. We will do so if we have to, but it would be faster if we knew if there was a way to disable the Microsoft Active Accessibility functionality - which, according to earlier PowerBuilder manuals, is supported by the PB 10.5 Data Window, but information is yet to be found on how to disable such functionality in PB 10.5.

Error using Autocompiler 2019R3
PowerClient Project > External Files > Add Files.....
Accepted Answer
John Fauss
John Fauss Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 5 February 2021 15:04 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # Permalink

Hi, Lance -

I have all of the PB 10.5 product documentation/manuals in PDF form and in searching these I was not able to find any information on disabling Accessibility in PB 10.5.

Since the Accessibility functionality is implemented via the PBACCnnn (PBACC105, in your case), maybe try removing or renaming this one DLL. If your v10.5 application does not make use of any Accessibility features, it seems feasible that it might be safe to do this. No guarantees this will work, however! 

Regards, John

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Miguel Leeuwe
  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Friday, 5 February 2021 16:15 PM UTC
The accessibility features have changed a lot, even recently with windows 10. So even if you'd find the documentation of pb 10.5 on how to disable it, it probably won't work anymore. If you want to save time, upgrade your pb 10.5 application now! It's going to save you time in the long run.

just my advice.
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John Fauss
  1. John Fauss
  2. Friday, 5 February 2021 16:42 PM UTC
I agree 100% with you both. I would not categorize my suggestion as a true solution; it is only a possible answer to the question and conditions that Lance has described, particularly if there exists no other feasible way for him to accomplish what he asks.
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Lance Brand
  1. Lance Brand
  2. Thursday, 11 February 2021 03:25 AM UTC
Thanks everyone.

We didn't try John's suggested solution, with our customer agreeing that it's a hack and they'd prefer to go with a solution supported by Appeon. (So for anyone reading this in years to come: we're not sure if removing or renaming PBACC105.dll would have worked.) Thanks again.
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