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chumbysphere forum → Widgets → Updated Widget
When updating a widget, does it need re-approval before it appears on a chumby?
For instance, I've resubmitted my .swf file, and thumbnail... The thumbnail has been updated,
but on my chumby / virtual chumby I still see the old widget.
Yes, it does need approval. Usually within a few hours, sometimes quicker.
A few of us have asked that the criteria for re-approval be lowered. But I guess they need to vet everything just in case some bad language slips through.
On the chumby, the channel needs to be reloaded fully. This means loading another channel and displayign a widget from it, then going back to your changed channel/widget. Or rebooting.
I've found that if you're in development, and keep your widget 'private', that the upload is immediately available to *your* chumby.
(and to avoid the Chumby 'caching' the old version, I also cycle (power off and power on) the Chumby as I'm uploading the changed widget - that way I'm sure of getting the new version of the widget on my real device. I also have a very small text box on the stage showing the version number so I can be *sure* that the new widget has loaded)
But any 'public' widget does need approval.
In my experience you only need to refresh the channel to get a fresh copy of a widget, which is much quicker than power cycling. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Yes, "reload" *should* clear the HTTP cache in the player and thus fetch the revised widget.
Perhaps it does refresh the widget, but I have not had much luck with it. Could be the data my widget uses not be getting refreshed?
I'm not challenging what should happen, but I find that reloading a channel doesn't do it for me.
Plus, from the point where I click 'publish' in Flash and then upload the changed widget, is a pretty perfect match for the on/off time of the Chumby, so I don't find it a hardship to have to do this.
Reload Channel doesn't do it for me, either.
I preferred the change channel, then change channel back method. But now I just develop locally and push files over scp.
Just been testing this... reload channel does definitely not work as advertised.
I have a Test channel with one Private widget in it.
I updated the widget via Chumby.com
Reloaded channel
Old widget still present
Changed to another channel
Switched back to Test channel
Old widget still present
Reboot
New widget at last!
Duane, any ideas if the widgets are being cached?
If they are being cached locally, and refreshed every so often for users, then please don't change that.
If every widget had to be individually reloaded every time it was played on anyone's Chumby, imagine the strain that would put on Chumby Industries servers and bandwidth costs ? And that huge cost would be for what ? To save a few seconds reboot time for a widget author ? Does that make any sense ?
The Chumby Network server sets a cache time of (I believe) 6 hours for widget movies, and the Flash player will honor those cache settings to the best of its ability, based on the available memory. This is done because widgets change *very* infrequently in the general case.
If we didn't cache widgets, then our bandwidth costs would go through the roof, and it's possible it would push some users over some bandwidth limits with their ISPs.
We added an ASnative call to the player to manually clear the cache, and this call is made when the "reload" button is used in the Control Panel, however, based on this thread, it appears that call is not working properly or the CP is calling it incorrectly. I'll ask QA to look into it.
Thanks Duane. That's good enough for me. I understand why the current system is in place.
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