Sonny Software

If the Bookends Folder under /Applications is owned by anyone but the current user (root, another admin on the same computer), I get a "Nil Object Error" on startup (bookends 8.0.1). Opening a database (owned by me in my Docs folder) then gives an "Out of Bounds Error". If I use chown to change the ownership of the entire Bookends Folder to myself, I get no errors and everything works OK. Is there a solution to this since it's a shared computer with various users and constantly changing ownership is not a good idea?

First, upgrade to 8.0.3. It fixes a number of issues, one of which could result in loss of data when deleting references.

Second, I don't know the answer -- perhaps someone else can come up with a solution.

Jon
Sonny Software

Upgraded to 8.0.3 and it still happens. I tried some more variations on file permissions, and it seems to be trying to read a file that a non-owner doesn't have access to, but I haven't been able to find which one yet.

Does anyone else see this? I'm seeing it on two computers.

Well, in the absence of informed opinion...if you give "others" read/write access to the Bookends folder, does that solve the problem? (I'm using Get Info in the Finder on the Bookends folder to see the options.)

Jon
Sonny Software

This is going to be slightly long since I'll post all my trials trying to nail this down...

• recursive all+write: "Nil object error"
• recursive all+execute: "Can't open format - The format is open in the Format Manager". No other errors, but loads library OK.
• recursive all+write, all+execute: loads fine, no errors

So something is requiring both write AND execute permissions.

Actually, after some more testing, I've narrowed it down to the Bookends Folder/Formats folder only having read/write permissions for members of the group admin, while others (owner and non-admin users) have read/write/execute. In unix, you need execute permissions to enter directories. Also, the files inside the Formats directory are read only for everyone (read/write for owner root). If I change them to read/write for everyone, then I no longer get the "Format is open" error.

So that seems to be the issue. The Formats folder apparently needs to be executable by everyone (currently only owner and others have this privilege - Group is excluded), and then the files inside need to be writeable by everyone (currently owner has read/write, and Group/Others just have read permissions).

I did all this testing from the Terminal with the chmod command, but using Get Info from the finder, I need to 1) give Formats Read/Write permissions to Group (originally at No Access for Group while Owner/Others are OK), and then give all the Format files read/write access to Group/Others.

I hope this info is useful.

Thanks for the detailed followup.

I'll change the Formats folder permissions accordingly in the next build.

Jon
Sonny Software

The same error is occuring with the Import Filters folder. I could not import from an XML file (from Endnote7). I always got the "Nil object error". After adding +x permissions to group/others to the "Import Filters" folder, then I could import that file. I did NOT try to import from other file formats.

Thanks for the info. I change permissions for all folders in 8.0.4.

Jon
Sonny Software