Topic: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Hello -

Been using my Infocast Chumby happily for over a year, and developed a flash widget for talking to a Home Automation controller  that is private and loads from a USB stick. Widget was running fine since July, but after Dec 15 outages, it won't start from the control panel. If I go in via SSH and start it vi chumbyflashplayer, not problem, starts, runs fine, and the widget appears in my channel, but when I select it from the control panel, the log says this (HV control is the name of my Home Automation controller widget):

011-12-19 21:03:39 TRACE: WidgetPlayer.loadWidgetIntoProxy(): loading widget instance into player
2011-12-19 21:03:39 TRACE: WidgetCache: no entry for id: version:1.0
2011-12-19 21:03:39 TRACE: WidgetCache.loadWidget(): loading widget id: version:1.0 into cache
2011-12-19 21:03:39 TRACE: ScreenManager.widgetPlayerMode()
2011-12-19 21:03:39 TRACE: WidgetMode(): creating overlay intercom
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: WidgetCache.loadedWidget(): success, creating cache entry
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: - loading widget movie "HV Control" from /mnt/storage/widgetcache/
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_has_browser false
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_screen_height 240
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_screen_width 320
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_firmware_version 1.0.3454
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_hardware_version 10.7
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_software_version 1.0.7
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_clock_format 12
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_chumby_id 5B0EEB6C-2468-3F6B-A40A-F43F489BF727
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_chumby_name Paul's Chumby
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_profile_id 8a23c30b-56f2-1f73-3e42-a5ca23816492
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_profile_name Featured
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_user_id bac2948b-24a8-1fcb-5302-b3e439ff5ed1
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_user_name pmosinskis
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_widget_id
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_widget_name HV Control
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_widget_instance_href http://xml.chumby.com
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_widget_instance_id 1
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_widget_instance_count 3
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: _chumby_widget_instance_index 2
2011-12-19 21:03:40 ClientObject::LoadSwfToMem() - read failed, 0/4096 actual bytes read
2011-12-19 21:03:40 ClientObject::OpenSWFFile(): cannot open swf file /mnt/storage/widgetcache/
2011-12-19 21:03:40 >> 0x72c00198 still in use for 4096 bytes!
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: WidgetStats.start(): 1
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: - using widget instance timing:
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE:  - timeout, 30000 ms
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: - running the widget for 30 seconds
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: - expires at Mon Dec 19 21:04:10 GMT-0500 2011
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: Setting advance timer handler
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: WidgetPlayer.advanceTimerHandler(): widget died with error -1 (download failed)
2011-12-19 21:03:40 TRACE: WidgetPlayer.nextWidget(): loading next widget instance

Note the "Read Failed". I figure this has something to do with it. What I've tried:

1. Reloading my profile.xml, and .swf files from scratch.
2. A new memory stick
3. Resetting the chumby back to factory defaults.

Nothing seems to help.

Help!


Thanks,

Paul

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Ah - I think I broke the profile.xml code in the latest Control Panel - it had a conflict with some new caching code that was introduced because of some server changes.

I'll try and get it back in the next version.  Sorry about that.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Thanks Duane. Will my Chumby just start working (or will it require a reboot)?

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

It will require a reboot, in order to force the download the new Control Panel.

The Chumby 8 will notify the user when a new Control Panel is available, but unfortunately the 3.5" devices don't.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

What's the ETA for the new Control Panel revision. Is it a days thing, a weeks thing or??

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Not sure - I have a few other things on my plate to get through...

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

I'm having the same problem here on my chumby classic.  I thought it was my fault for hours and I kept trying different workarounds.

As it stands, my chumby classic won't load my 'private' widget that I'm trying to test.  I keep getting the following error messages:

ClientObject::OpenSWFFile(): cannot open swf file /xml/movies/...
WidgetPlayer.advanceTimerHandler(): widget died with error -1 (download failed)

I think the new chumby classic control panel doesn't interpret the following line from the instance XML file of my 'private' widget correctly:

<movie href="/xml/movies/..." contenttype="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>

In the case of 'public' widgets, the URL is absolute instead of relative.  I think the new control panel isn't handling relative URLs properly.

<movie href="http://s3movies.chumby.com/cdn/xmlmovie/..." contenttype="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>

If you're too busy to fix this right now, perhaps you can just revert the chumby classic's control panel to the last known working version.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

I've made the fix, and it's waiting until I get back to town to deploy it.

Since I'm out of town, I don't have access to the console that would be required to revert.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

I've just discovered that this bug also applies to 'public' widgets.  Can you tell me what date you'll be back in town?  I want to give my users an ETA on the deployment of your bug fix.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

It actually has nothing to do with private vs public.

When you upload or update a widget, it's added to the main database.  After some time, the widget is copied to S3, and served from there.  Between the time it's uploaded and the time it's moved to S3, it's served from the database.  URLs from the database are relative, URLs from S3 are absolute.  It can be anywhere from a few minutes to somewhere around an hour before a widget is moved and the device receives an updated URL.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

The 'movie' URL isn't being converted from relative to absolute in the case of my widget.  I uploaded the latest version nearly a day ago and the 'movie' URL is still relative.  Can you tell me what date you'll be back in town?  I want to give my users an ETA on the deployment of your bug fix.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

We'll heck on the scrip that moves the widgets - sometimes it stalls out.

I should be back early in the week.  Unfortunately, if the script that moves the widgets is not working, I can't deploy the new Control Panel, since it uses the same mechanism to promote to S3.  I'll have to coordinate with the server and IT guys to see what's going on, and I don't know what their schedules are, since I'm not in town.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

This problem appeared to be fixed earlier today, but it seems to have resurfaced now.  Due to all of this uncertainty, I've had to keep switching my widget between 'public' and 'private'.  Can you give me an ETA on when this problem will be more permanently fixed?

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

I've deployed the fix to the "Control Panel Beta" as 2.8.81 for Chumby Classic and chumby One devices.

Please confirm that it works, and I'll promote to release.

As far as I can tell, the widget promotion to S3 is happening properly.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

I've just retested this problem with the beta control panel (v2.8.81) and it seems to be fixed.  I restarted the control panel of my chumby classic while the 'movie' URL was still relative and the widget loaded correctly.

There's just one thing I'm unsure about.  The output from the control panel showed that it had loaded the widget from an absolute (S3) URL.  How would it know to do this, considering that the 'movie' URL was only relative?

Is the control panel software smarter now, meaning that it can formulate absolute URLs from relative ones?  If not, did it simply cache the instance XML file a few minutes earlier and recall the absolute URL from it now?

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Well, the script that promotes widgets is working now, and will typically promote them within 10 minutes.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Further testing has confirmed that the new chumby classic control panel (v2.8.81) handles relative 'movie' URLs correctly.  The output just showed that it loaded the widget from "http://widgets.chumby.com/xml/movies/...".  This means that you can probably promote this control panel edition to official release status.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Thanks for testing it.

EDIT: deployed

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Hi Duane -

Private widget is working successfully again with same profile.xml as before. Confirm beta code works successfully on Insigna using direction provided using link below for public/private integration:

http://wiki.chumby.com/index.php/Chumby … _a_channel

Thanks for fixing this.

Paul

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

Partly due to this problem, I decided to change my widget's status from 'public' to 'private'.  Once this problem was fixed a few days ago, I changed it back to 'public' again.

For some strange reason, it seems that my widget (World Weather Online) now has to go through the whole approval process again before it can become publicly visible.

My users are probably already wondering what's going on and I have no way of contacting them.  Given the circumstances, can you just let it bypass this lengthy and totally unnecessary reapproval process?

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

That's the normal behavior - it stops people from updating an innocuous public widget into kiddy porn.

I've made your widget public.

Re: Widget used to work but now doesn't!

I'm sorry to read that you have to contend with people spreading such inappropriate material via the chumby network.

Thanks for making my widget publicly visible again.  Thanks also for providing detailed responses to my recent queries.