C#•13mo ago

❔ "string was not recognised as valid DateTime"

trying to make a super simple custom backup program that backs up my win user folder to a network share, I can run the program fine on my pc but as soon as i try the build/publish on another pc, i get the error "string was not recognised as valid DateTime." I have parsed the string so it should be good, but obviously not. am i blind? and yes everything is shoved together, im not the cleanest coder in the west and ive had chatgpt help me along the way. https://paste.ofcode.org/LeEn8UGHtixCHGKq9hGsJb

20 Replies

TheRanger•13mo ago

which line throws that error and what is the value of the string?

Angius•13mo ago

Is the string ISO8601?

JarskiOP•13mo ago

no idea, i reference datetime strings a couple times. trying to find where it actually saves the properties. heres the properties:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
            <section name="FileBackupApp.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false" />
        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>
    <userSettings>
        <FileBackupApp.Properties.Settings>
            <setting name="SourceDirectory" serializeAs="String">
                <value />
            </setting>
            <setting name="DestinationDirectory" serializeAs="String">
                <value />
            </setting>
            <setting name="LastBackupTime" serializeAs="String">
                <value />
            </setting>
            <setting name="UserDefinedBackupTime" serializeAs="String">
                <value>00:00:00</value>
            </setting>
        </FileBackupApp.Properties.Settings>
    </userSettings>
</configuration>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <configSections>
        <sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >
            <section name="FileBackupApp.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false" />
        </sectionGroup>
    </configSections>
    <userSettings>
        <FileBackupApp.Properties.Settings>
            <setting name="SourceDirectory" serializeAs="String">
                <value />
            </setting>
            <setting name="DestinationDirectory" serializeAs="String">
                <value />
            </setting>
            <setting name="LastBackupTime" serializeAs="String">
                <value />
            </setting>
            <setting name="UserDefinedBackupTime" serializeAs="String">
                <value>00:00:00</value>
            </setting>
        </FileBackupApp.Properties.Settings>
    </userSettings>
</configuration>

TheRanger•13mo ago

wrap ur xml like this ```xml // your xml ```

JarskiOP•13mo ago

apologies, using wrong key

TheRanger•13mo ago

i mean visual studio can tell you which line throws the error and you can debug its value

JarskiOP•13mo ago

It's not throwing the error on visual studio. It works just fine running as a build from vs

TheRanger•13mo ago

i assume its trying to parse this? 00:00:00

MODiX•13mo ago

TheRanger

REPL Result: Success

DateTime.Parse("00:00:00")

DateTime.Parse("00:00:00")

Result: DateTime

11/4/2023 12:00:00 AM

11/4/2023 12:00:00 AM

Compile: 562.029ms | Execution: 41.161ms | React with ❌ to remove this embed.

MODiX•13mo ago

TheRanger

REPL Result: Failure

DateTime.Parse("")

DateTime.Parse("")

Exception: FormatException

- String '' was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

- String '' was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Compile: 491.920ms | Execution: 30.205ms | React with ❌ to remove this embed.

JarskiOP•13mo ago

That looks like my error.

TheRanger•13mo ago

yeah LastBackupTime seems to be empty was there a ' ' between String and was?

JarskiOP•13mo ago

Yeah. Looks to be the issue. I'll give it a go now and check.

JarskiOP•13mo ago

JarskiOP•13mo ago

Changing it to 00:00:00 like the other one isn't the solution apparently. What format should I need to give this thing

TheRanger•13mo ago

are u using DateTime.Parse or DateTime.ParseExact? and what do u expect the DateTime's value to be when it parses 00:00:00 ?

JarskiOP•13mo ago

I just manually set it properly to a random date and time. Turns out I needed the time too. Eg: "00:00:00 00:00:00" That part looks to be working now. If I have the program in the startup folder, will it autolaunch with admin privileges? Or should I need to add something to the code?

Chiyoko_S•13mo ago

I'd suggest you use ParseExact and specify the format you expect like HH:mm:ss, instead of letting Parse figure out which is user culture dependent no the app can't magically elevate itself on its own; additionally, an executing process cannot be elevated, instead it has to get started elevated tricks some apps use is to check if the process is elevated, then if not, start a new process that is elevated (through cmd command runas) though the best way is to explicitly specify your app requires elevated privilege through app manifest though, both solutions does not solve the problem that Windows will still regardless display UAC prompt when the application is run I think you should be able to use Task scheduler to register your app to be run on startup because you can configure the task to start up elevated that would probably happen on installation through the installer

JarskiOP•13mo ago

Task scheduler on startup. Gotcha. Will look into this later. Appreciate the help.

Accord•13mo ago

Was this issue resolved? If so, run /close - otherwise I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.

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❔ "string was not recognised as valid DateTime"