Chronic issues with Macros

Question

Good morning -

Apologies if the issue I'm presenting has been resolved in prior discussions.  I have not been able to track down a definitive source for my question yet.

I'm having chronic issues with macros in my environment - specifically, the "Wait a Second" macro.  They keep disappearing from my workflows at seemingly random intervals.  I add these macros at the end of my logic to slow down the output and prevent collision with open-files in the file system (when exporting to Excel).

Normally, these macros work like a champ.  Every once in a while, I open the workflow and they've all disappeared.  I've checked my settings, my temp folder, etc - I can't quite pin this one down.

I've scoured the forums and attempted several fixes and other options, which seem to help, but don't actually solve the issue completely.

Am I making a fundamental mistake with my usage of macros, or is my temp file floating (staging areas) and causing the dependency to break?  How can I prevent this from happening in a shared environment where multiple developers may be working on the same workflow?

Thank you for any advice you might provide - again, I know this is probably a simple fix and will ultimately be a head-slapper moment for me, but I'm struggling and would appreciate the expertise of this group.

KGT · Answer

I don't know for sure... I'll say that straight out of the gate.

However, my suspicion is that someone else is saving the workflow with the tools not available, or in a location that you can't access. How I've seen this happen is that 2 people reference the macro from different locations (maybe one from CReW Macros and one just independent for instance), and when they save it with that location, you don't have it mapped.

In the team that I came into, a couple of the CReW Macros (like Unique Only), were also saved in the team macro folder. That folder wasn't mapped for everyone because it stopped getting used/updated/primarylocation a year before. Several of the team workflows would have the black boxes... and it took me a little to figure out about the old macro location.

Theoretically, this shouldn't happen, as macro repositories should have universal references, but there are funny things that can happen. When it next happens, don't save the workflow and open the yxmd in Notepad. Loook for the "ToolId:" of the Macro and see the location it's referring to. It will either be a location you don't have access to or a mapping you don't have mapped in your Macro Repositories.

OllieClarke · Answer

@steenhoekgd when you say your WaS macros have disappeared, what do you mean? Are they the black question mark missing macro icon, or has any sign of the tool disappeared? (I'm going to assume the former).

Do you know where you installed the CReW macros? Are they in a mapped repository (in your user settings), or in a network drive, or in your C drive, or somewhere else?

Is it just the WaS macro that disappears? or just CReW macros? or all macros?

Thanks,

Ollie

Pilsner · Answer

Hello @steenhoekgd

I apprechiate this post doesnt solve the disapearing macro issue, so appologies if its not helpfull. However, if you are looking for a way to ensure inputs have been read in / finished processing before the outputs run, you could use controll containers. By putting the input in one controll container and the output in another and then connecting the controll containers together, you can achieve this sequencing of events.

Please let me know if you have any question.

Regards - Pilsner