Chapter 11 Using the VF Reporter Tool

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This chapter contains the following sections:

• 11.1, What Is VF Reporter?
• 11.2, Starting VF Reporter
• 11.3, User Information Dialog Box
• 11.4, System Information Dialog Box
• 11.5, Manually E-Mailing Problem Reports
• 11.6, Problems Mailing Files with VF Reporter

11.1 What Is VF Reporter?

VF Reporter is an automated, simple, e-mail mechanism for reporting suspected problems or sending suggestions to the Visual Fortran team. If you encounter a problem you believe is caused by Visual Fortran, you can use VF Reporter to report it to Compaq.

VF Reporter is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows Me, Windows 98, and Windows 95.

You can use your e-mail package's MAPI support to mail your report directly from VF reporter, or manually e-mail the information yourself after VF Reporter has collected it.

VF Reporter is automatically installed when you install Visual Fortran. When installed, VF Reporter files are copied into:

\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Df98\Vfrportr 

Note:

To read this chapter in a Web browser, open the file Readme.htm in the Vfrportr directory.

If you remove Visual Fortran, VF Reporter is automatically removed.

VF Reporter automatically gathers system information, including the product identifier, version number, path information, and other system information.

11.2 Starting VF Reporter

To start VF Reporter:

1. Click Start.
2. Click Programs.
3. Click Compaq Visual Fortran 6.
4. Click VF Reporter.

This brings up the User Information dialog box shown in Figure 11-1.

Figure 11-1 VF Reporter User Information Dialog Box

Initially, the User Information dialog box does not contain information. When you start VF Reporter, if existing user information is found, a dialog box appears asking if you want to use that information. To reuse or edit the displayed user information, click Yes. To enter all new information, click No.

If you say Yes, you can edit the user information. It will be saved when you click Save or Mail.

To use VF Reporter to send in a report to Compaq, follow these instructions:

1. Fill in the requested user information in the various tabs in the User Information dialog box. (See Section 11.3.1, Tabs in the User Information Dialog Box.)
2. Click the System Information button at the bottom of the User Information dialog box to display the System Information dialog box. Click the various tabs and view the system information collected by VF Reporter.

If a tab contains information that you don't want to send to Compaq with your report, turn off the checkbox to prevent the information from being sent. (See Section 11.4, System Information Dialog Box.)

3. Click the User Information button to display the User Information dialog box again.
4. After you review the user information, click Save to save the current set of information to an ASCII text file. Both the user information and the system information are saved in the text file. You can specify a file name when you save the information. See Section 11.3.2, Buttons in the User Information Dialog Box, for information about the Save button.
5. If you have turned on the checkbox I want to use my e-mail package's MAPI support to email reports, you can click on the E-Mail button to send the report.

If you have not turned on the toggle, you can send the e-mail manually. Be sure to attach the text file that you saved.

11.3 User Information Dialog Box

The User Information dialog box contains tabs and buttons to help you create your report to send to Compaq.

11.3.1 Tabs in the User Information Dialog Box

The User Information dialog box contains the following tabs that you need to fill in:

• User: Enter the name, address, e-mail address, and phone numbers. If you choose to use your e-mail software's MAPI support, the e-mail address must be correct, because this is the address that Compaq will reply to after you send in your report.
• Severity: Specify the category of the problem (such as run-time error or suggestion), whether the problem can be reproduced, and whether you are porting code from another platform.
• Description: Briefly describe the project type, the structure of the application, and the problem. You can include the steps needed to reproduce the problem in the To Reproduce tab. You can attach source and project files using the Attach Files tab instead of including the actual code in the Description tab.
• Workarounds: If you found a workaround that allows you to avoid the problem and produce the intended results, describe it.
• Attach Files: Supply only the code needed to reproduce the problem. For example, you might try to show only the main program, relevant module definition or included files, and any subroutines or functions needed to reproduce the problem. You can attach multiple files. VF Reporter will create a zip file from the attached files that will be attached to the e-mail message.

You should avoid sending sensitive source code. In most cases, reducing the size of source code that can safely reproduce the problem minimizes the possibility of sending sensitive source code.

• To Reproduce: List the steps needed to reproduce the problem in detail. Refer to any attached files by their file names. With command-line examples, include the compiler options used.
• Comments: Include any comments needed.

11.3.2 Buttons in the User Information Dialog Box

The User Information dialog box contains the following buttons:

• Previous: Moves to the previous tab. This button is dimmed if the first (User) tab is displayed.
• Next: Moves to the next tab. This button is dimmed if the last (Comments) tab is displayed.
• System Information: Displays the System Information dialog box and its set of tabs. See Section 11.4, System Information Dialog Box.

You can choose to exclude the contents of one or more System Information tabs from the mail message by checking the check box at the bottom of the appropriate System Information tab. After viewing the system information, click the User Information button to display the User Information dialog box.

• Load: Loads a previously saved text file. After you load a file, the current file name is displayed in the top part of the User Information dialog box.

You are asked about saving the existing file before loading the new file. If you answer Yes, the action is the same as if you had clicked the Save button.

You then operate exactly as if the file had just been created. Note that when you save the file, you are asked whether to overwrite the file that was read or to create a new file.

• Save: Creates the report that will be sent to the Visual Fortran team and also saves all the files specified in the Attach Files tab as a zip file.

The information in the User Information dialog box and the System Information dialog box is saved to an ASCII text file.

By default, the text file is saved to the following directory: Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Df98\VFRPORTR\VFmail. You can specify a different directory.

The text file is similar to the online BUGREPRT.TXT file. (See Section 10.3, Guidelines for Reporting Problems.) In contrast to the BUGREPRT.TXT file, VF Reporter omits some of the extraneous instructions and appends the gathered information to the bottom of the file in ini file format.

The names and path names of the files to be mailed are displayed and the names are copied to the clipboard so that you can paste them into the appropriate fields of your mail package.

You should inspect the files to make sure that the information included is exactly what you want the Visual Fortran team to see.

It is your responsibility to assure that no sensitive information is compromised.

The Save action also writes information entered in the User tab in the User Information dialog box to the user's area in the registry.

• E-Mail: Implicitly clicks the Save button, which prompts you for the file name of the file. It then attempts to initiate a mail session with your MAPI-compliant mail client.

Enter a meaningful subject for the message (such as the software component that might be causing the problem).The files are automatically attached and e-mailed to the Visual Fortran team at vf-support@compaq.com.

If the VF Reporter cannot access your MAPI-compliant mail client, see Section 11.5, Manually E-Mailing Problem Reports.

• Exit: Ends the VF Reporter session.

11.4 System Information Dialog Box

In the User Information dialog box, you can click the System Information button to display the System Information dialog box.

The tabs in this dialog box contain information that VF Reporter has collected about your system and environment.

Any tab that contains information that you might not want to send with the report has a checkbox. If you check this box, the information in that tab will not be included in the report.

The tabs are:

• Registration: The Visual Fortran Registration information that was placed in the registry when the product was installed.
• DF /What: The information that was gathered by running the DF /What command. It contains version information and file path information.
• Environment: The information from the operating system's environment block. You can get this information by entering SET in a command prompt.
• Autoexec.bat: The contents of the file, if you have an Autoexec.bat file in the root of C:.
• Config.sys: The contents of the file, if you have a Config.sys file in the root of C:.
• OS: The information about the Windows operating system found in the Registry. The Windows Product ID, which is the license number, is not collected, displayed, or used in any way, to avoid any violation of license agreements.
• Drives: A list of physical and logical drives found on your system. The display includes the drive letter, an indicator of the drive type, the file system, volume size, and volume free space. If you have set a Temp variable in the Environment, the phrase `Temp points here' is next to the drive that is being used.
• IMSLLibs.Ini: The contents of the file, if you have installed IMSL Library support (Professional and Enterprise Editions only).
• DFVars.Bat: The contents of the file. The Do not include checkbox is checked by default because the contents are quite lengthy and generally do not provide insight into problems or suggestions. However, if the contents of the DFVars.Bat file might help clarify a problem, clear the checkbox to include the file in the report.
• Memory: All of the memory information that is provided by the system level APIs.
• System: The system information found in the registry.
• Registry (CVF): All of the information found in the registry under the Visual Fortran heading.
• OpenGL: The information pertaining to the Video Graphics Library that might be important in diagnosing Array Visualizer problems.
• Autoexec.NT: The contents of the Autoexec.NT file, if you have one.

11.5 Manually E-Mailing Problem Reports

Instead of clicking the E-Mail button in the User Information dialog box, you can manually e-mail your report to Compaq. You might need to do this if your mail client is not MAPI-compliant. (See Section 11.6, Problems Mailing Files with VF Reporter.)

To e-mail your report:

1. In your e-mail software, start a new message to be sent to:

   vf-support@compaq.com 
   

2. Enter a meaningful subject for the message (such as the software component that might be causing the problem).
3. Either attach the text file you saved (by default, it's saved in \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Df98\VFRPORTR\VFmail) or copy the contents of the file into the message.
4. Attach to the e-mail message the zip file containing the files you specified in the Attach Files tab of the User Information dialog box. (When you clicked the Save button, the files were saved as a zip file.
5. Send the message.

11.6 Problems Mailing Files with VF Reporter

VF Reporter's ability to mail files automatically relies on the Microsoft MAPI control.

The system determines the availability of a MAPI-compliant mail client by attempting to load the file Mapi32.dll. A failure to load that file indicates that the MAPI session will not succeed. Consequently, the E-Mail button is dimmed and a message is displayed.

If the Mapi32.dll file is found, but subsequently there is a failure to initiate a session, a message is displayed. The E-Mail button is not dimmed, so you can retry if an incorrect ID or password caused the error.

If a problem is encountered, the name of the report file and the name of the zip file (if you attached files) are put on the clipboard so that you can simply paste the names and manually mail the files. See Section 11.5, Manually E-Mailing Problem Reports.