Error "Smart Builder cannot connect" occurs when opening an Excel section in a NuGenesis LMS document - WKB29751

SYMPTOMS

• The following message appears when opening an Excel section:
  • "Smart Builder cannot connect.  Please close all Excel instances before opening an LMS Section!"
• The Excel section opens but Smart Builder does not function
• Once the error occurs, it persists until the user completely exits (not just logs off) and reloads the NuGenesis LMS client

ENVIRONMENT

• NuGenesis 9 LMS
• NuGenesis 8 LMS SR2

CAUSE

In NuGenesis 8 LMS SR2, a change was made to the client so that, by default, it starts an Excel automation process when the LMS client starts, and the Excel process keeps running until the LMS client shuts down. Previously, an Excel process started on-demand each time a user opened an Excel section in NuGenesis, and the process was closed when the section was closed. The LMS client and Smart Builder communicate by sending messages to local host and a dynamic port number. Because SmartBuilder is keeps running, its port number for internal SDK communications can become out of sync with the LMS client, leading to these symptoms.

FIX or WORKAROUND

1. Defect report CRI-25 was filed for this issue.
2. Revert to pre-SR2 behavior by setting the "PrestartExcelAndKeepAliveForEdit" registry key to FALSE

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This registry key has no effect on NuGenesis 8 ELN SR1. The behavior described in this article was implemented in NuGenesis 8 LMS FR1. The key reverts the behavior of LMS to that of ELN 8 SR1; therefore, these keys have no effect on SR1.

The LMS client sets the dynamic port number when a user logs in to LMS.  The port number is stored in the user's hive in the registry:

• HKCU\Software\Waters\Vision Publisher

That key contains 0, 1, or more entries, depending on the number of sessions that the user has open on the system.  The data name is the user’s session ID in Windows.  The data value is the port number.