SA: 12.1.277: Custom Menu Items will not persist

SA: 12.1.277: Custom Menu Items will not persist

I upgraded my version of SQL Sentry Plan Explorer, and I guess SolarWinds owns them now so the install path changed.

I've tried to change the "External Program" in the custom menu item, it doesn't stick.

I've created a new menu item, it doesn't stick.

I closed S.A and re-ran as Administrator and tried to change the "external program" or create a new menu item and it doesn't stick.

I've tried to delete all the custom menu items (I only have one). That doesn't stick either.

Is this a bug in 12.1.277?

*Edit: I got it by exporting the config, changing the path in the backup .sas file and re-importing just the "common" section.

If you face it again, please try temporarily disabling UAC, making config changes and re-enabling it.

	SysOp wrote:
	If you face it again, please try temporarily disabling UAC, making config changes and re-enabling it.

I just tested this by disabling UAC, adding a "output file" to the custom menu item, applying the change, hitting OK to close the S.A options dialog and re-entering the dialog to see my output file change did not persist.

Also tried this with UAC disabled and S.A "run as administrator"

Here is some additional information that might be useful.

If you don't see an error, from the Options dialog point of view it saved changes to the file successfully without operating system reporting an I/O error. Why file changes are silently reverted or somehow virtualized, isn't known to the process saving the changes.

There is also an important difference from where changes are saved. For example, if you use SSMS, and from the plugin's SQL Assistant menu access Options dialog, make changes and save them, most of them are saved by the SSMS/plugin (not all, but most), I would expect it to see the saved changes until SSMS is restarted. But if they are made from systray app, or other editor, in other words fro ma different process, and UAC or something else interferes, then you might be unable to see them in SSMS. You may want to try experimenting with that and checking if it makes a difference in your case.

SysOp wrote:

Here is some additional information that might be useful.

If you don't see an error, from the Options dialog point of view it saved changes to the file successfully without operating system reporting an I/O error. Why file changes are silently reverted or somehow virtualized, isn't known to the process saving the changes.

There is also an important difference from where changes are saved. For example, if you use SSMS, and from the plugin's SQL Assistant menu access Options dialog, make changes and save them, most of them are saved by the SSMS/plugin (not all, but most), I would expect it to see the saved changes until SSMS is restarted. But if they are made from systray app, or other editor, in other words fro ma different process, and UAC or something else interferes, then you might be unable to see them in SSMS. You may want to try experimenting with that and checking if it makes a difference in your case.

In this case I'm only using the systray app to make the changes and using SQL Editor 64-bit (which I've tried having closed while making the changes and seemingly made no difference)

In that case, please try changing them from SQL Editor without restarting the process. Same process instance saves them and the same instance reads them. If changes get saved it should show them. If you restart it and they are gone, something reverted them or made them saved to a temporary virtualized copy of the file.

	SysOp wrote:
	In that case, please try changing them from SQL Editor without restarting the process. Same process instance saves them and the same instance reads them. If changes get saved it should show them. If you restart it and they are gone, something reverted them or made them saved to a temporary virtualized copy of the file.

Tried it from Options -> SQL Assistant.

Did the same thing, changed the "Output file", hit OK to save.. went back in to confirm, change did not persist.

I added msedge* to the target exclusion list on the same common settings page and that stuck. But the other stuff does not

https://www.screencast.com/t/VuHDvz0E

Also I'll note not in this video: If I add msedge* to the target exclusion list AND try to modify the custom menu items before hitting "OK" to save the changes, I lose both.

But if I do the ignored targets, hit OK.. it sticks.

Thank you very much for the useful video. I managed to reproduce the issue after watching it. Indeed this has nothing to do with the UAC. The issue appears to be with Custom Menu editor widget in the Options, which somehow looses all its changes if nothing else is changed before that, and changed specifically in some particular order.

Last edited by SysOp on Wed Apr 27, 2022 10:19 am; edited 1 time in total

	SysOp wrote:
	Thank you very much for the useful video. I managed to reproduce the issue after watching it. Indeed this has nothing to do with the UAC. The issue appears to be with Custom Menu editor widget in the Options, which somehow looses all its changes if the if nothing else is changed before that, and changed specifically in some particular order.

Cool. Hope it gets fixed. :)

I'm sure it will, can't be too complicated :-)
Here is a tracking issue number #SA0042937

FYI, we expect new build for 12.1 version released over the weekend. That build fixes the menu stickiness issue, i just tested it on my system.

	SysOp wrote:
	FYI, we expect new build for 12.1 version released over the weekend. That build fixes the menu stickiness issue, i just tested it on my system.