vadoola / pv-unlocker

Unlock PanelView Files

PV Unlocker

This is a program used to check the version of an MER PanelView runtime or FactoryTalk View PanelView archive file (APA). If the MER is locked or marked as Never allow conversion back into a Project file. This can strip that, and allow the project to be recovered.

My initial crude version of this I had set up to right click on an MER or APA and get the version and unlock it. I manually edited the registry on my machine for this to work. Right now as I haven't created an installer, unless you manually set this up in the registry you won't be able to right click an MER or APA and run this.

To Use

Run the executable, click 'Select Files', and pick the files you want to open. A list of files will appear with the file name, version number, and an icon representing the locked/unlocked status. If you want to unlock a file, click the red locked icon next to it to unlock it (this will directly modify the file, so if you are worried about it breaking, work on a copy).

You can also run the file from the command line and pass it a list of files such as: pv-unlocker.exe *.mer and it will show you the status of those files.

Future Goals

I had thought about instead of a small app, making this a windows shell extension, overlay a lock icon if the file is locked, allow you to right click and unlock it, Maybe see the Runtime version in the File Details pane. I have never made a windows shell extension before, and haven't had the time to dig into it.

pv-unlocker's Issues

Add a Readme

Some reports of Windows Defender flagging the CI zip file as malware

Add some sort of about page

Some way of showing in the GUI when an error occurs

Right now if an error happens it just logs it and moves on. Not much else happens. For example if it fails to unlock a file, the file will continue to show as locked, but you would have to go in and look at the log file to see that it failed.

I need someway to present this to the user so it's more obvious, like a toast message or something?

Create an Installer

Figure out what's up with the release workflow

Figure out how to get the Linux and Mac builds working in CI

The Release CI Linux Musl build only works on X11 not Wayland

I'll need to dig into how this works a bit, but the MUSL build generated by the Release CI only seems to work on X11, and by that I mean I've actually only tried running it on Wayland, but it gives an error. I'll need to grab the error and paste it here.

Figure out a better icon

Better way to handle file errors

Right now for example a file is skipped if either the version or the protected status fails. However what if one fails and the other succeeds, it would be good to show this info.

So Maybe for the version if that fails show ?.? Or "Unknown", and if the protected status fails show a question mark icon?

Need to add in some Logging

As simplistic as the application is, I should add in some logging for when things fail.