RAD Studio 10.4 Community Edition - missing Delphi.Personality

[TCH 0]

Hello,

 

I would have to take over the development of some medical management system, written in RAD Studio 10.1.
- First i've tried the Trial Version of RAD, but due to the lack of the FireDAC units, the program is not compiling.
- Currently i try to compile it with the Community Edition, but that cannot even open the project, complaining about the lack of some kind of "Delphi.Personality" file.
- The original developer could not help, he said, he used the Pro version without problems. (I have no money for the Pro version, but since this is a paying job, not a favor for some fellow dude, i refuse to pirate it.)
- I tried to get some help from Embarcadero, but they had refused to give any kind of help, all they replied each time was WONTHELP, CLOSED.
- Internet didn't help.

 

Any ideas?

[corneliusdavid 214]

It sounds like, perhaps, you have no experience with Delphi. So I have to wonder why you would take on a project that requires Delphi? And by talking with the previous developer, you'd realize you would need the Professional version and that it costs money--which is another reason to question why you would take on this project. So either get a down-payment from the customer or use the trial and get some billable hours in--you will very likely need to own a purchased copy of Delphi Professional. Maybe there's more to this story than that...

 

The Trial version is the Architect version which has all the FireDAC components (the CE version does not). Perhaps it's just not installed correctly?

 

[TCH 0]

I worked with Delphi a lot before 2008, but then i had switched to Linux and moved to Lazarus/FreePascal. Still, i could manage to deal with modern Delphi code, if i could compile it. The previous developer never said it needs the Professional version, just that he uses that. The customer cannot pay that much what the Professonal version costs.

 

I installed everything what the Trial version offered.

[corneliusdavid 214]

Well, it sounds like you're up against a no-win situation if the customer can't pay enough to support a professional development tool. Even if you did get the Trial working, it only lasts for 30 days. 

[TCH 0]

I can reinstall the Trial version after 30 days.

What is this Delphi.Personality file BTW?

[Remy Lebeau 1393]

10 minutes ago, TCH said:

What is this Delphi.Personality file BTW?

It is not a file.  In RAD Studio, Delphi and C++ are implemented as separate "personalities", each with its own toolchain, IDE settings, etc.  Each project specifies which personality it targets.  Think of personalities as the IDE plugins for implementing different programming languages.  So, the "missing personality" error means the IDE can't find the Delphi personality installed.

 

Which Community Edition did you actually install?  There is no RAD Studio CE, there are only separate Delphi CE and C++Builder CE.  This is covered in the Community Edition FAQs.

 

You can't open Delphi projects in C++Builder CE, as there is no Delphi personality installed.  To work with Delphi projects, you need either Delphi CE, or the full RAD Studio. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Remy Lebeau

[Zoran Bonuš 12]

I have encountered the "missing personality" from time to time too. A quick fix that works for me is:
In the IDE, open Tools - Manage platforms and hit Apply (without changing anything)

Close/open the IDE a then the project opens fine.

Hope it helps ...

[TCH 0]

21 hours ago, Remy Lebeau said:

It is not a file.  In RAD Studio, Delphi and C++ are implemented as separate "personalities", each with its own toolchain, IDE settings, etc.  Each project specifies which personality it targets.  Think of personalities as the IDE plugins for implementing different programming languages.  So, the "missing personality" error means the IDE can't find the Delphi personality installed.

 

Which Community Edition did you actually install?  There is no RAD Studio CE, there are only separate Delphi CE and C++Builder CE.  This is covered in the Community Edition FAQs.

 

You can't open Delphi projects in C++Builder CE, as there is no Delphi personality installed.  To work with Delphi projects, you need either Delphi CE, or the full RAD Studio. 

It is RAD Studio CE. See attached image.

3 hours ago, Zoran Bonuš said:

I have encountered the "missing personality" from time to time too. A quick fix that works for me is:
In the IDE, open Tools - Manage platforms and hit Apply (without changing anything)

Close/open the IDE a then the project opens fine.

Hope it helps ...

Unfortunately did not helped. Only an error message appeared after "loading" for some time. See attached image for the error message.

[corneliusdavid 214]

I'm suspecting you installed the trial then uninstalled and installed the CE, perhaps using an existing license--or some other scenario that confused the installer. It should not be possible--and Embarcdero does not intend--for there to be any way to use the CE of both Delphi and C++Builder at the same time. See their CE FAQ, specifically this one: 

Quote

2. Is there a RAD Studio Community Edition?

No. Only Delphi Community Edition and C++Builder Community Edition are available.

So what I would suggest is uninstall all remnants of Delphi and/or C++Builder and reinstall Delphi CE and be sure to enter a new CE license. If you already did this, you'll have to call Embarcadero for support.

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by corneliusdavid

[Remy Lebeau 1393]

6 hours ago, TCH said:

Unfortunately did not helped. Only an error message appeared after "loading" for some time. See attached image for the error message.

Are you installing the IDE on Windows 7, by chance?

Quote

HTTP Error 12175 during installation

 

Installation on Windows 7 might not work and show error 12175, unless TLS 1.2 has been specifically enabled at the operating system level. We are doing further investigations to see if the same happens on Windows 10 as well as finding a general solution. A workaround is to set the ServiceURL entry in the CatalogRepository registry section to refer to http rather than https.

Windows 7 (and 8 ) was dropped as a supported installation platform for the IDE in 10.4 Sydney (it is still supported as a target platform for compiled projects):

Quote

Operating System Requirements

You can run RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney on the following versions of Windows:

• Windows 10

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Remy Lebeau

[TCH 0]

21 hours ago, corneliusdavid said:

I'm suspecting you installed the trial then uninstalled and installed the CE, perhaps using an existing license--or some other scenario that confused the installer.

Confused the installer? How can i confuse the installer in a way to make it believe that a non-existent product is installed?

21 hours ago, corneliusdavid said:

So what I would suggest is uninstall all remnants of Delphi and/or C++Builder and reinstall Delphi CE and be sure to enter a new CE license. If you already did this, you'll have to call Embarcadero for support.

I've already installed, uninstalled and reinstalled these environments multiple times. Embarcadero only answered WONTHELP, CLOSED to all my mails/reports.

15 hours ago, Remy Lebeau said:

Are you installing the IDE on Windows 7, by chance?

I am, it is visible on the first attached image.

15 hours ago, Remy Lebeau said:

Windows 7 (and 8 ) was dropped as a supported installation platform for the IDE in 10.4 Sydney (it is still supported as a target platform for compiled projects):

I don't have windows 10 here. I don't get the reason behind this though; windows 7 and 8 are still being used by one out of six people...

[corneliusdavid 214]

4 minutes ago, TCH said:

Confused the installer? How can i confuse the installer in a way to make it believe that a non-existent product is installed?

RAD Studio is not a non-existent product. It's just that it's not licensed as a Community Edition. So somehow you have an installation of RAD Studio (valid for trial or purchase only) with a Community Edition license (valid only for a single personality; not valid for RAD Studio which contains both personalities).

 

7 minutes ago, TCH said:

I've already installed, uninstalled and reinstalled these environments multiple times.

And when you reinstalled, did you re-use an existing license or enter a new CE-specific license?

 

8 minutes ago, TCH said:

I don't get the reason behind this though; windows 7 and 8 are still being used by one out of six people...

It doesn't matter whether you understand the reason or not--it's not supported which is why Embarcadero won't help you. And remember, you can deploy to Windows 7 but you should not develop on Windows 7.

[TCH 0]

14 hours ago, corneliusdavid said:

And when you reinstalled, did you re-use an existing license or enter a new CE-specific license?

IIRC, it refused to install with the existing license, so i had to get a new. But i don't remember clearly, it was months ago.

14 hours ago, corneliusdavid said:

It doesn't matter whether you understand the reason or not--it's not supported which is why Embarcadero won't help you.

Embarcadero did not even know that i installed it on windows 7, because i did not say it, because i did not know that it is important. They did not help, because i am not a paying customer.

14 hours ago, corneliusdavid said:

And remember, you can deploy to Windows 7 but you should not develop on Windows 7.

I don't have windows 10.

[Ralf7 4]

You're in hell if you install a Delphi more than once. Tons of registry entries and file fragments are left on the PC, confusing the installer. The strangest error messages are appear. Never install a trial or CE on the productive PC. You can never get rid of it. Unless you do a Windows reinstall.

[PeterBelow 238]

14 hours ago, Ralf7 said:

You're in hell if you install a Delphi more than once. Tons of registry entries and file fragments are left on the PC, confusing the installer. The strangest error messages are appear. Never install a trial or CE on the productive PC. You can never get rid of it. Unless you do a Windows reinstall.

Oh come on, it's not that bad. There are even instructions on how to manually clean up after an uninstall in several blog posts on the emba site, e. g. https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi8r9iV0un5AhVC7rsIHTWvAQ0QFnoECAQQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.embarcadero.com%2Fmanual-uninstall-of-rad-studio-delphi-c-builder-10-2%2F&usg=AOvVaw0wqOftotNG03B76ft4LoXa

[Ralf7 4]

Thank you very much. Why doesn't the installer do this?