ComponentOne VsFlexGrid 7.1 crashes CA Plex

Products

• CA Plex

Issue/Introduction

Whenever CA Plex tries to use the ComponentOne VsFlexFrid 7.1 ActiveX control, CA Plex crashes. This article explains why and provides some workaround.

Environment

CA Plex 7.2.1 and higher

Cause

The mentioned ComponentOne VSFlexGrid ActiveX control is not compatible with latest VS compilers built objects, possibly VS 2005 afterwards.

Resolution

The ideal solution would be to get the latest version of ActiveX control compatible with the latest C++ runtimes. For example version 8.0.20241.672
 
If, for what ever the reason, you have to use version 7.1, please find the workaround below:

Note: This is a manual process, and user need to follow the below steps as and when a new version of Plex.exe or other respective binaries gets built/installed.

1. Disable DEP (Data Execution Prevention) for Plex.exe, e.g.,
--- (Visual Studio 2013) > "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\bin\editbin.exe" /NXCOMPAT:NO C:\temp\Plex.exe
--- (Visual Studio 2022) > "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Professional\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.41.34120\bin\Hostx86\x86\editbin.exe" /NXCOMPAT:NO C:\temp\Plex.exe

Note: This may fail to update the EXE in the Plex installation folder, better copy the file to some temporary folder to make changes and later move to the installation folder. After executing the above command, copy the Plex.exe in Plex installation folder after taking backup of existing Plex.exe.

2. Open Plex function hosting ComponentOne VSFlexGrid ActiveX control.
--- open panel 
- If the panel opens without any problem, Generate/build/CreateEXE the function in question; if panel open crashes CA Plex, please contact Broadcom Support
- Disable DEP for the built function's EXE in question that is hosting ActiveX control. Please see step 1 above.
Note:  If no EXE is present for this function, then disable the DEP for the EXE that calls this function hosting ComponentOne VSFlexGrid ActiveX control, in calling hierarchy :
--- (Visual Studio 2013) > "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\VC\bin\editbin.exe" /NXCOMPAT:NO C:\temp\AA1F.exe
--- (Visual Studio 2022) > "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Professional\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.41.34120\bin\Hostx86\x86\editbin.exe" /NXCOMPAT:NO C:\temp\AA1F.exe