running AbleCommerce 7 on .net 3.5

[rafekemmis]

Has anyone had any luck running AbleCommerce when you have the .net Framework 3.5 installed? I was able to run the installation, but I can't get the captcha image to display on the login screen. I get this error in the event log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0
Event Category: Web Event
Event ID: 1309
Date: 7/25/2008
Time: 3:16:36 PM
User: N/A
Computer: I1512
Description:
Event code: 3005
Event message: An unhandled exception has occurred.
Event time: 7/25/2008 3:16:36 PM
Event time (UTC): 7/25/2008 7:16:36 PM
Event ID: aa9f85336a684ce2930141173157ea4a
Event sequence: 7
Event occurrence: 2
Event detail code: 0

Application information:
Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/1/Root/AbleCommerce2-1-128614866974809358
Trust level: Full
Application Virtual Path: /AbleCommerce2
Application Path: C:\Documents and Settings\rkemmis\My Documents\Websites\AbleCommerce2\
Machine name: I1512

Process information:
Process ID: 6056
Process name: aspnet_wp.exe
Account name: I1512\ASPNET

Exception information:
Exception type: TypeInitializationException
Exception message: The type initializer for 'CommerceBuilder.Web.CaptchaGenerator' threw an exception.

Request information:
Request URL: http://localhost/AbleCommerce2/Captcha. ... 7&t=031636
Request path: /AbleCommerce2/Captcha.ashx
User host address: 127.0.0.1
User:
Is authenticated: False
Authentication Type:
Thread account name: I1512\ASPNET

Thread information:
Thread ID: 1
Thread account name: I1512\ASPNET
Is impersonating: False
Stack trace:


Custom event details:

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[NC Software]

It should have nothing to do with .NET 3.5. .NET 3.5 is still a .NET 2.0 web site, the additional technologies in .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5 only come into play if the project references those assemblies which AC7 does not. So it's a problem other than the .NET framework - in fact I'm hoping AC 7.future will be provided as a VS 2008 solution compiled against .NET 3.5 so we can take advantage of the robust features in 3.5 such as LINQ, etc.

[rafekemmis]

Thanks for the RE NC Software. That makes a lot of sense. Maybe you could help me figure out what I am doing wrong.

I have .Net Framework 2.0 installed, along with 3.5. The 2.0 is selected for the virtual directory in IIS.

I downloaded and installed the "ASP.NET AJAX Extensions 1.0" from this page: http://www.asp.net/ajax/downloads/

I downloaded and installed the Microsoft Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0.

The accounts ASPNET, IUSR_XXXX, NETWORK SERVICE, and SYSTEM all have full permission on all the website folders and files.

Installation went fine.... Captcha just doesn't work. I get this error in the event log:

The type initializer for 'CommerceBuilder.Web.CaptchaGenerator' threw an exception.

And the CommerceBuilder.Web dll is there, and this line is active in the web.config:
<add verb="*" path="Captcha.ashx" type="CommerceBuilder.Web.CaptchaGenerator, CommerceBuilder.Web"/>

So is there anything else that I might want to try or check? Any help would be very appreciated!

Thanks again!

[rafekemmis]

Well, well, well....

I navigated directly to the captcha.ashx path, and found to my surprise:

Font 'Times New Roman' cannot be found.

Why do fonts muck up my universe day after day?

[Logan Rhodehamel]

Why do fonts muck up my universe day after day?

Crazy! I checked the code, confirmed these fonts must be present:

Times New Roman
Georgia
Comic Sans MS

I created a bug, but it likely won't be fixed until a future version. In the meantime, make sure these fonts are present on the system.

[rafekemmis]

So, here's the deal. My company uses a program called Extensis Suitcase to manage fonts. When that program "activates" fonts, it copies the font files to a cache location on the PC, and then places a shortcut to the font file into the c:\windows\fonts\ folder. What I had to do was deactivate those three fronts in Suitcase, and then copy the actual font files for those fonts into the system fonts folder. After a reboot those fonts were activated and the captcha now works!

So, maybe add to the bug information that the captcha code doesn't follow shortcut files in the system fonts folder.

Another 3 hours of my life wasted on font-related problems

[Logan Rhodehamel]

So, maybe add to the bug information that the captcha code doesn't follow shortcut files in the system fonts folder.

Then this might be an issue for Microsoft, as the exception occurs within .NET framework library. (It's outside of code we wrote.)

Maybe the best we could do for this is to document which fonts have to be available.