Opening a Lookout 6.0.1 .lks file in Lookout 5.1

[Travis_K]

Hello all,

I have a customer that has Lookout 5.1. I am trying to help him get some programming changes made, but I have Lookout 6.0.1. Is there a way to open a Lookout 6.0.1 .lks file in Lookout 5.1? OR, is there a way to convert the Lookout 6.0.1 .lks file to a .lks file that Lookout 5.1 will open? OR, is there a way to save a Lookout 6.0.1 .lks file as a Lookout 5.1 .lks file?

Thanks in advance,

Travis Kinard

Kinard Control Systems, Inc.

[Khalid]

Hi Travis,

I don't think there is, but it would be nice to have a "Save for previous version" feature in Lookout. 

However, you should be able to open the 6.1 LKS file in 5.1 just fine (from File Open dialog select LKS as the file-type) -- as long as you did not add anything 6.0.1 specific to the LKS file.  Here's what I would do:  Make a backup of the 5.1 LKS file.  Open it in 6.0.1, make the minimal changes needed.  Save the process to get the updated LKS file.  Open the two LKS files (the original 5.1 and the new 6.0.1 one) and compare the changes.  You may want to use a "diff" utility to do this (a Google search for "text diff utility" returns a bunch). 

Hopefully, the changes between the two are isolated and haven't changed many things all over the file.  You will also want to change the first non-comment line of the new LKS (#version) to say 5.1 (or whatever the 5.1 file says). This file should then, hopefully, open fine in 5.1.  If you get errors, you can try to go that line number and try to figure out any issues.  The errors reported by the CBL (LKS) compiler are, for the most part,  surprisingly helpful.

Also, use Notepad (or any other raw text editor) for making any changes to the LKS file directly, and NOT MSWord or Wordpad -- these tend to add some formatting/hidden (line-breaks?) characters which Lookout may not like. 

Good luck!

-Khalid

[Paul M.]

Travis,

So I have both Lookout 5 and 6 on my machine, and unfortunately whenever you save a .lks file from 6, it adds 6-specific features to the lks file that lookout 5 does not recognize (and it returns an error).  You might be able to go through the file and manually remove 6-specific parts, but this will probably lead to unexpected (and unsupported!) behavior. Your best bet will be to get the client upgraded to the new version, or somehow get a copy of Lookout 5 for your machine. 

So, there is currently no way to use Lookout 6 files in in Lookout 5.

[Khalid]

Hi Paul,

When you have a moment, can you post a Lookout 5 LKS file (with couple of objects and expressions, etc.).  Just want to see how different it becomes on saving in 6.0

Thanks,

-Khalid

[Paul M.]

Khalid,

Files attached. From a cursory glance, the Lookout 6 adds some header definitions, but I haven't had time to try removing them and opening them in 5.

Good luck.

[Khalid]

Hi Paul,

I took your v5 LKS and added to it (using my Lookout v6) a Modbus Object, and an expression to display register 40001 on the panel.  After these changes, the LKS saved by v6 are minimal and very cleanly isolated -- only 4 differences.  See the screenshot from my diff program below:

I am pretty sure if I just change the headers on my v6 LKS file to match those of v5, it will compile fine in Lookout 5.0.  Of course, that's assuming Modbus object's signature hasn't changed since v5. 

Regards,

-Khalid

Message Edited by Khalid on 03-31-200606:29 PM

[Paul M.]

Khalid,

Looks good.  We just haven't had the resources to test this scenario completely as it is relatively uncommon, so it's considered "unsupported" functionality. If taking those lines out makes the new version compile file, then great!  Just keep in mind if you run into any unexpected/unusual behavior in the process, we probably won't be able to help too much.  I'm not sure what's actually changed on the Modbus object's source code from 5 to 6.

Good Luck!