Scrolling appointment plug in

[Guest fozzie]

@sullivanpt - The homescreen freezes. You can't use any keys or scroll. However, I can press and hold the action key to bring up xBar and terminate the home.exe process and re-start it, to recover. I'm using version 1.4 on my C500, pre ROM update. I'll try 1.5 now.

After a period of time, the home screen also goes blank with the OS error about no valid homescreens selected. If I go back into settings and select ok on the exisiting homescreen, the homescreen is back again.

I've only about 10 appointments in the next month of which about 3 are recurring.

I'll put up more detail as soon as I capture it.

[Guest sullivanpt]

After a period of time, the http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewforum.php?f=43>home screen also goes blank with the OS error about no valid http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewforum.php?f=43>homescreens selected.  If I go back into settings and select ok on the exisiting homescreen, the homescreen is back again.

Hi Fozzie, thatks for your efforts here. The issue no valid homescreen is similar to the error I was getting when I had the large memory leak. There is still a small memory leak in the 1.4/1.5 versions which probably would be noticeable if you are running lots of other applications. How much free memory do you have prior to the plugin locking up?

I wouldn't bother trying 1.5 for this issue. 1.5 adds the label requested support, but I didn't change the appointment lookup code (which is where all the previous memory issues have been located).

If you PM me your e-mail address I'll send you a test version of 1.5 that has recurring appointmet display turned off. I expect you will find it more stable. It will be an interesting test at least.

[Guest drblow]

Patrick - I installed version 1.5 last night, and have noticed the same effects as fozzie (I didn't notice it with previous versions, although they did not stay on my screen for very long). The appts scroll through the list until the last appt, then stop. The list does not return to the start. After a little while, the homescreen freezes up, and not having xbar installed I have to pull the battery to reboot the phone. I left the homescreen on last night, and this morning found the 'no valid homescreens ...' error. This may be a bug specific to the c500, as I have encountered this with other homescreens (most noteably the e200 plugin).

I have also encountered some alignment problems. On start up, the plugin displays your little advert ( :lol: ), but when it is not selected, the text doubles up with bold & normal font displaying over the top of each other. The text in the xml is defaulted to align right, which means that if an appt has alot of words in the title, the text runs off screen to the left. I changed the alignment to the left, & the text appears over the top of the 'when' & 'where'. I guess this could be solved by having individual x & y coordinated for each bit of text.

I can send you some screenshots of whats happening if you like.

[Guest drblow]

Patrick - i have been testing this all morning. here's what i've found.

the 'no valid homescreens' error has not reoccured since i copied the plugin into one of my own screen xmls. really dont know about that one!? except that the error message is usually associated with missing images.

is there meant to be a delay on loading for manually scrolling? at first the plugin does not manually scroll at all. it has frozen completely once this morning, but this time i was able to click start + change the homescreen without having to reboot.

the default xml font size settings seem to over ride the plugin settings + the text alignment has gone all over the place since i tried changing it. there is definately some doubling up of the text in the ad at the start.

the background image doesnt work with the way you have it placed in the xml, but does work if you add it to the background selected tag. it is still transparent on white though.

again, if you need screenshots, let me know. i hope this will help solve these issues.

Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest fozzie]

@drblow - I had the same problem as you but then noticed that the .xml for 1.5 is quite different from 1.4 I ditched the whole .xml that I had from 1.4 and then pasted in the example 1.5 code. After some personalisation, everything seems fine now :lol:

EDIT: Bit too fast with my fingers there. My blurry eyes thought both your posts were identical so only read your first one :oops: I must admit, I haven't seen text doubling up though and have the text nicely aligned to the top middle and bottom, with equal spacing between each line, and between the top and bottom of the plugin.

[Guest drblow]

oh! how have you done that? i'm having no luck at all with text alignment.

the doubling text is only happening with the advert bit.

i have tried adding unselected state font size, but it has no effect, + neither state is using font size 16 as specified in the xml.

fozzie - can you post your code? maybe i'm just up the left, like!

Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest fozzie]

My code is below. (Note: I am still getting lockups so at the moment, don't know if it's the code, the plugin, or combination of plugins on my homescreen. It's gonna take some time to narrow it down!

<plugin clsid="{1BC4FD2C-5B25-4f34-A4A8-58915667BF3D}" name="appointments" height="44"


  scroll-timer="20" scroll-speed="2000" scroll-days="14" launch="calendar.lnk" >


	<format padding-bottom="2" x="1" y="-2" font-face="Nina" font-size="14" font-weight="normal" />


  <format state="selected" font-face="Nina" font-size="14" font-weight="bold" />


  <background>


 	 <format state="selected" bgcolor="COLOR_HOMEHIGHLIGHT"/>


  </background>


  <label>


 	 <format state="noevent" visible="true" />


 	 <background bgimage="windowscards.gif"/>


 	 <text>No upcoming appointments</text>


  </label>


  <label>


 	 <text><time/></text>


  </label>


  <label valign="center">


 	 <text><subject/></text>


  </label>


  <label valign="bottom">


 	 <text><location/></text>


  </label>


	</plugin>

[Guest fozzie]

This is really getting confusing as to what is causing the freezes; just when I think I've sussed it, it does something to make me have to completely re-think! Anyway, I think I may be on to something. Running version 1.6 with the code above copied (replacing the exisiting .xml) in to the supplied plug-in homescreen seems to be working ok. It scrolls through the appointments fine and also manual scrolling works fine. Any other combination of homescreen with 1.5 or 1.6 and the scrolling is 'jumpy' - both auto scrolling and manual scrolling.

This seems to indicate that the other plugins may have something to do with the problem. My homescreen has got (along with other plugins) the Oxios ToDo, RJ tasks and the Orange Calender on it. Providing this test is OK for a while, I'll start deconstructing my Homescreen to try and locate the source of the freezes. Phew!

[Guest drblow]

OK - so it must be something to do with version 1.5, coz when I paste your code above directly into my homescreen, the text is all over the top of itself! :shock:

I'm also using Oxios todo plugin with it, and on a c500. & I'm using rjshortcuts and drfonz's smartmonitor. But the freezing & scrolling issues were happening to me with the default xml layout supplied with the plugin, so I don't think it's anything to do with them. There is however a possibility that it is a c500 related problem. The homescreen engine on it seems to be inferior to previous spvs.

[Guest fozzie]

Yeah, mine was the same with 1.5 and my code in the supplied .xml. But, 1.6 has been solid, with smooth scrolling, with 1.6 and my code in the supplied .xml

Now to start deconstructing my homesceen and try and locate the source of the problem. I'm guessing it must either be Oxios, or RJtasks. More to follow...

[Guest fozzie]

Ok, the first bit of .xml I stripped out was the Orange Calender and guess what... it's looking good...so far. Smooth scrolling (manual and auto) :lol: Not sure what type of appointments were taken out of 1.6?

[Guest lutzh]

@patrick - where can i donwnload all the newer (full)releases? i want to testtesttest...

cheers, lutz

[Guest drblow]

Ok, the first bit of .xml I stripped out was the Orange Calender and guess what... it's looking good...so far.  Smooth scrolling (manual and auto) :lol:  Not sure what type of appointments were taken out of 1.6?

So, you had both the scrolling appts plugin & the Orange appts plugin? Or, what do you mean by Orange calendar?

[Guest fozzie]

So, you had both the scrolling appts plugin & the Orange appts plugin?  Or, what do you mean by Orange calendar?

I had both the scrolling appointments plugin and the Orange calender plugin - this one:

Taking that .xml out has stopped the lockups.

EDIT: Cr*p - it's just locked up after about 10 minutes. Will keep trying... It must be related to another plug-in because it was rock solid for a couple of hours with my code in the supplied homescreen.

EDIT2: Whilst typing this, and not touching the phone with the homescreen frozen, it suddenly went to the no valid homescreens selected, white screen with black text, screen. I don't think this is a memory problem because there's plenty there when it's frozen but I can check with xBar.

...where can i donwnload all the newer (full)releases?...

There is no newer (full) release mate. It's a version to specifically try and resolve the problem with my C500 homescreen freezing. Does your homescreen freeze too?

[Guest lutzh]

thanks for clearing the dust fozzie. i think you can't have both plug ins running. i use 1.4 on my c500 with the lates orange rom and have no lock ups. this is the code i use:

<plugin clsid="{1BC4FD2C-5B25-4f34-A4A8-58915667BF3D}" name="appointments" height="24" x="5" scroll-timer="20" scroll-speed="2000" scroll-days="7" launch="calendar.lnk" >


<background>


<format state="selected" bgcolor="COLOR_HOMEHIGHLIGHT"/>


</background>


<format font-size="12" halign="center"/> 


<text>No appointments</text>


</plugin>

cheers, lutz

[Guest fozzie]

Use the 'code' button in the page editor Lutzh. I had the same problem posting my layout :lol:

[Guest lutzh]

done - thanks!

:-)

cheers, lutz

[Guest drblow]

I haven't been running both calendar plugins at the same time at all. I got the screen lock up with the default xml supplied with the plugin, which only contains MRU, messages & carrier ... I think! :shock:

[Guest fozzie]

There's one more factor that I'm about to look in too. When I thought I'd nailed it, my phone was Active Sync'd. I'm sure it was just after removing it that it froze! I'm going maaaaad :lol:

[Guest drblow]

Hmm ... bizarre! To get any alignment in the text I had to add align=top to the time label!

Haven't had it lock up since this morning, so hopefully it stays that way! But the scrolling is still very jumpy, and it seems to freeze every time on loading for about 30 seconds.

[Guest sullivanpt]

Wow, there's a LOT of quality testing going on while I slept. THANK YOU!

It will take me hours to digest all this. :!:

Lutz, The 1.6 version wasn't an official release, it's just like 1.5 (with the new tags) except recurring appointments are turned off. If you want to try it, I posted it here:

http://patricktrentsullivan.com/downloads/...uginDemo1p6.zip

(Anyone else who likes to play is welcome to try as well!

Maybe I'm going to have buy a C500 after all. What "brand" is showing the lock-ups?

Patrick

[Guest fozzie]

I'm using an Orange C500 pre- latest ROM update.

I think I've finally nailed it (at least with my phone). It looks like it's the RJtasks plugin that doesn't like the scrolling plugin, or vice versa :lol: I'm now running my homescreen with everything, less the RJtasks .xml

Fingers crossed...

If it stays ok then I'll go back to 1.5 and see if that is stable too.

[Guest drblow]

OK - there is no noticeable difference between versions 1.5 & 1.6 for the scrolling delay problem. I haven't had any homescreen freezing yet, but it's only been about 30 mins, so I'll let you know.

I seem to be getting the hang of the alignment. I have at least now got time, subject & location on seperate lines! OH yeah, and the doubled text on the wee advert has gone now in version 1.6. I'm not sure if that was something to do with setting default text sizes in the xml or not?? :?

Will let you know what transpires over the next while.

[Guest fozzie]

Ok, I'm out of time but have managed to find out the issues, on my phone at least (Orange C500 pre- ROM update).

v1.6 - with my full homescreen (less RJtasks) works flawlessly. Scrolling is smooth and regular, both on auto and manual. Manual scrolling can be done as quick as you like, left and right, and works perfectly.

If I put RJtasks .xml code back in the homescreen, the homescreen freezes, usually within a minute or two but sometimes longer.

v1.5 - even with my homescreen that works with v1.6, scrolling is jumpy, both auto and manual. If manually scrolling, sometimes it takes a few key presses to move to the next appointment. However, v1.5 does always ends up freezing the homescreen.

@sullivanpt - you mentioned that v1.6 has recurring appointments removed; I can see that because there is a birthday in a couple of weeks time that does show up with v1.5 (before it freezes!) but not with v1.6. The birthday is an annually recurring all day event. However, if I now create either a recurring all day event or recurring timed appointment, they both show up with v1.6. Am I missing something?

Anyway, feel free to mail me any other versions that you'd like testing. I really need to be able to run this plug-in alongside RJtasks and also display recurring events.

[Guest sullivanpt]

The way the built in Outlook database is structured, recurring appointments are only entered once (the first entry) and the rest are created "virtually" by the Outlook API. That's why some recurring appointments are visible and some are not.

The API for recurring appointments also seems very CPU intensive, which probably explains the jumpy scrolling (and the miserable battery life). I already have plans to work around that, maybe in 1.7 :lol:

I'm certain that the RJTasks plugin also used the Outlook database, which might be why there is a conflict. But since you also have issues with v1.5 and no RJTasks I'm not convinced this is the issue. I'll pursue this further. Thanks for the super investigative work!

The doubled banner advertisement is easy to fix. I'll take care of it, and add the banner skip option.

Patrick