PROBLEM

Upgrading custom ArcPad applications from ArcPad 6.0.3 to 7.0.1 may result in ArcPad crashing

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Description

Custom ArcPad applications after upgrading to ArcPad 7x environment may crash the ArcPad application when launched. This could be a result of the ArcPad XML format change which occurred with ArcPad Application Builder 7.0 and later releases.

Cause

All of ArcPad's customization files are stored in ArcPad XML format.

The ArcPad XML format is designed as a protocol for automation and customization of ArcPad. It is based on the XML 1.0 specification and uses the same syntax as ArcXML wherever possible (especially for symbology). ArcPad XML files can be ANSI, UTF-8, Unicode, or Unicode Big Endian encoded.

Although ArcPad and ArcPad Studio take care of writing the ArcPad XML code to the customization files, some developers may find it useful to edit the customization files directly, either manually by way of a text or XML editor, or programmatically within a script.

Solution or Workaround

Replace incorrectly commented comments from XML code for each affected custom ArcPad file(s) (.apl, .apa, .vbs).

Comments in ArcPad XML files need to be entered as follows:

<COMMENTS>Prepared by DK</COMMENTS>

and not as

<!-- Prepared by DK -->

    Article ID:000009644

    Software:
    • ArcPad Prev
    • Legacy Products

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