TMG V8 opens with "The file **** does not appear to be a valid PJC file!

[Dave Dalton 0]

I installed TMG V8 Gold, upgrading from V7 Gold, a few months ago and this message just started showing up in the last couple of weeks. After I click the "OK" button TMG will either 1) disappear at which time when I restart it it properly reloads my family database file with no apparent problems or 2) load the file without first disappearing. I find this problem annoying and somewhat unsettling but haven't been able to find a good description of just how to fix it.

I am running XP Pro SP3 and, as I always do with all my data (when I installed TMG V8, if I remember correctly ), relocated the entire TMG V8 Project folder, all the subfolders, and all the files to a Data folder off of my root C. The Preferences>>Options>>Current Project Options>>Advanced File locations all point to this location, although when I checked this morning I found that they all pointed to the default "Documents and Settings" location. I changed them again to my Data folder locations, but it still reacts the same way when I open it.

How do I fix this problem?

Thanks, Dave

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Dave -

 

For the 'not valid pjc file' try starting TMG using the Welcome Window if you are not doing that now, and see if the message goes away. That is a pesky glitch on startup which seems to be less likely if you open TMG first and then open the project (Welcome Window option).

 

I don't know what to think about the file locations except that you might doublecheck the paths are valid and click on Apply after you make the changes in Preferences.

 

Virginia

[Jim Byram 0]

In addition to what Virginia said, very rarely, the PJC file is actually damaged. If that's the case, it will need to be replaced with the PJC file from your last backup or repaired.

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Dave -

 

The .pjc file (a text file) contains your Preference settings along with some other information about your project. If your .pjc file were damaged, that might explain why the Advanced settings are not being retained.

 

You can view a copy of the project .pjc file in the Trouble Report which is accessed from the project: Help / Technical Support / Trouble Report (button at lower left). Cursor down past the list of printers and other info until you see the section for the .pjc file.

 

Virginia

[Dave Dalton 0]

Virginia and Jim,

Thanks for the quick responses and helpful replies. I couldn't find any obvious problems with the .pjc file or any others such as the .ini file. So I will try a few point-in-time restores of the entire project folder (my backup program takes a backup every night of anything changed and I can go back as far as I have backups to do a restore). I will start recently at about when I believe the problem started and go back as far as I need to to get a good copy. But I have made a number of updates in the last several weeks that will be lost if I can't capture just what those updates were. So two questions:

1. Should I restore anything other than the project, such as documents and settings files like the .ini files and others that have been altered in the last several weeks?

2. Is there some way I can configure a report to give me a list of project updates made over a specified time range?

 

BTW, the problem manifests itself now only as giving me the welcome screen on startup, upon which when I select the problem project, it fails with the above message. Then when I acknowledge the message and then kill the welcome screen it goes ahead and loads the same project without me selecting it, without any apparent problems. So I always eventually get to access the project. Still unsettling, however. It must be fixed.

Thanks

Dave

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Dave -

 

Do not do a restore at this time! If the problem is with the .pjc file there would be no need to restore your project data files or any other TMG files.. Your project contains about 100 files; the .pjc file is just one small file - a simple text file which, as Jim indicated, could be repaired or replaced with the .pjc file from your last backup. Jim can advise you, but I think it would be a matter of restoring your last backup to another folder (so as not to overwrite your current project) and simply copying that .pjc file to the current project folder.

 

Virginia

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Dave -

 

Again - Jim can advise you about restoring the .pjc file. There may be some constraints on the procedure and exactly how it is done.

 

Virginia

[Dave Dalton 0]

Thanks. I'll wait for Jim's counsel. In the meantime, hopefully there a positive answer to my second question: Is there some way I can configure a report to give me a list of project updates made over a specified time range?. That capability would be handy for a lot of reasons, but I suppose it would rely on Foxpro time-stamping and logging changes to the database.

Dave

[Michael Hannah 0]

Sorry, Dave, the only thing TMG tracks by changes are people, not transactions, and only via the "Last edited" date. So you could generate a List of People report sorted by that date, but I don't think that is what you want. FoxPro does not do "transaction" logging.

[Dave Dalton 0]

Michael, that should work (I knew about this once and used it, but...). I set up a people report to include and sort on the last edited date, with a "last edited date" ">comes after" and it will at least show me what has changed since that date, enough to jog my memory and for me to pull out the hard copy sources of these updates so I can do them again. It probably would not be useful for anything that was last edited more than a couple months ago, but for my purposes it is just what I need. That is, as long as the database is accessible before I need to restore it.

Thanks much,

Dave

[Jim Byram 0]

It is probably unlikely that you need to reinstall TMG or to revert to an older backup and lose your edits.

 

The first thing to determine is whether your PJC file is intact.

 

A quick check is to compare the size of the Sample project PJC file and the size of the PJC file in your project. If your PJC file is very small as compared to the Sample PJC file, then likely it is damaged.

 

You can retrieve the PJC file from one of your project backups and replace the current PJC file with that. The TMG backup SQZ file is simply a ZIP file. If you use a ZIP file utility, that should be able to open the SQZ using the right-click open option in Windows explorer.

 

You can also change the SQZ filetype to ZIP temporarily and browse the backup using Windows Explorer and copy the PJC file.

 

If you get nowhere, I'll do an analysis of your project and check it for errors if you wish.

[Dave Dalton 0]

Jim, that did it, very simply. My family .pjc file was 146 lines, the sample is 180, restoring a backup made a few days or so before I made any recent significant updates (provided by last edited dates from the report setup in my above post) yielded a family .pjc file of 196 lines. I replaced the "damaged" .pjc file with the restored version and everything now is back to normal.

Thanks for your assistance.

Dave