Automation Blocks - Errant "Shadow Block"

[m1jackson]

Been "blocking" (defintely not coding) much of the morning and got to a stopping point and tried to save my work and got the following.

There is a text "Shadow Block" that somehow go out of it's container and I can't save the file. Is there any thing I can do besides screen caps and rebuilding?

[Mathias Moehl · Accepted solution]

Hi,

no idea how this could happen, but here is what you can do:

You can open the xml file in a text editor like VSCode or Notepad and search for a text looking like this:

<shadow type="text" id="someUglyTextHere">

<field name="TEXT">Can't Delete Can't Move</field>

</shadow>

If you know the text "Can't Delete Can't Move" of that block, then you can search for that text and then find the entire <shadow...> context around it and delete the entire part from <shadow ... to </shadow> from the file.

Note that in order to minimize file size, the xml files are stored in a single line. You can cut & paste them into a prettyprint tool like this one to make the xml more readable:

https://www.samltool.com/prettyprint.php

There is no need to "undo" the pretty printing after you changed the file - Automation Blocks can also read pretty xml.

Background on shadow blocks:

"default values" in Automation Blocks are implemented as shadow blocks in Automation Blocks. Those shadows always live inside other blocks and you can drag other blocks on top of them to overwrite the default. Not sure how you managed to separate such a shadow from its parent block, but it shows how extensively you use Automation Blocks 🙂

[m1jackson]

I had to move on with screen shotting and redoing the work when your response came in, but now I know for next time (hopefully it doesn't happen again).

Yes, I've been using Automation Blocks extensively on my File Ingester.

This isn't even my final form. Haha!

[Mathias Moehl]

Oh, wow! Now I know that it was a good idea to add the function blocks to Automation Blocks. Without structuring your code that way, you would probably be lost 🙂

[m1jackson]

Re: function blocks. I also use them as a way to cordon off sections of blocks that I don't want to use while I'm working thru a section. As long as I don't pull the final function into the pasteboard, it can't run, and I don't have to waste clicks to "disable block".