Defensive programming with Inventor Server

[anthony_pizzigoni]

Hi all,

I am relatively new to the Inventor API, and I am currently working on a tool to open files using Inventor Server and obtain metadata and references from said files.  For ease of use for the user, what are some defensive practices that would be best to put in place to make sure that the file does not crash on open? Some of the checks that implemented are:

• Ensuring that the file attempting to be read exists
• Making sure the user has read permissions for the files attempted to be read.
• Confirming that the file attempting to be opened is an Inventor File
• Checking the version of the file to be read to ensure that it can be opened in the current version of Inventor.

Are there any other defensive practices that you would implement, or are there any references or documentation for the best defensive practices for something like this? Thanks!

[CGBenner]

@anthony_pizzigoni 

Welcome to the Community.  I've moved your post here for greater visibility with the programming experts.  Good luck!

[JelteDeJong]

Not so many tips here. But be aware that all inventor files implement the interface "Document". If you get a document then you always need to check what kind of document you have. For example the list Inventor.Documents can have  PartDocuments, AssemblyDocuments or Drawing documents.  Instead of checking for the interface you could also check the property Document.DocumentType.

Many list in the Inventor api are List of Object. Always check if you get the type that you expect.

Inventor API throws only 2 or 3 meaningless different exceptions. I use a lot of try/cathch blocks just to rethrow the exception with a bit more sensible description.

[CGBenner]

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