XMBC 2.14 Beta

[phil]

I'm not sure how to take this silence... Is Beta 17 working? Has anyone tried it?
Have I fixed the missing icon issues (seems to be fixed here but I would like confirmation one way or another)!

[phil]

OK here is 2.14 Beta 18

You can use the check for update or download the full beta installation HERE. Note that this link will always get you the latest beta version!

Changes since v2.14 Beta 17:

• #404 - Fixed translation of labels on the layer tab, broken in a previous update.
• ...... - Updated the user manual to reflect the latest GUI changes.

There were no translation changes in this beta - no need for changes.

Any problems, PM me a copy of the log file (or post a snippet in a code block here).

Thanks,
Phil

[phil]

OK I hope we are pretty much there now - no doubt as soon as I release 2.14 there will be one or two bugs crawling out but I hope that its generally working quite well now.

With a bit of luck, release will be sometime this weekend.

Thanks,
Phil

[injtsvetkov]

Hi Phil, that's great news!
It's been quite busy week for me.
Briefly said, I updated to beta 16 and saw that there are problems, but since BriHecato had already reported them - I just reverted back to beta 15 coz there were some things I needed to get done fast.
After that, in beta 17 I haven't noticed the layer tab problem and now I got beta 18
I hope it's finally dead for good.

However I've noticed something else odd. I have a XMBC profile and since the Layer hotkeys are not working when the setup window is open (in fact I wonder why they don't work), I use the {layer:previous}/{layer:next} commands but it seems that they sometimes work and sometimes don't. Or if I go from Layer1 through Layer2 to Layer3 and then at Layer3 use the {layer:previous} command it goes back directly to Layer1 instead of Layer3. Now when on Layer1 the {layer:previous} command doesn't go the last layer (Layer5 in my case), which is the case if I use the Layer commands from the list, but unfortunately I cannot use them with Button chording. Could you please try and see if it's similar at your end.

Greetings!
Iliya

[phil]

I'll see if I can reproduce it - probably can - it wont be a new problem so I suspect it will hang on for the next release.

The reason the global hotkeys don't work when the setup window is open, is quite simply, If I leave them registered, it makes changing them very tricky! Perhaps that could be changed so they are only inactive when the global hotkeys tab is open but that's a bit more work than right now!

Phil

[injtsvetkov]

Oh I see, I was just interested in what the reason would be so whatever you decide is fine

[Kukurykus]

I think I didn't encounter problems with icons in last versions of XMBC too.

[phil]

2.14 has been released!
Thanks everyone who helped me get all the bugs squished - I wonder if we will need a 2.14.1 this time round!!!

Regards,
Phil

[injtsvetkov]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but ...

v2.14-tab content bug.jpg

Again several apps and 2 browsers were open for a few hours and when I switch to some app or tab in a browser, which has been minimised for a long time, the laptop struggles to visualize it and opening the XMBC's setup window at that precise moment results in this

v2.14-tab contents bug2.jpg

I thought that it might be happening with 5 layers only but it happened with 6 layers too (where the 'Layer' word is absent).
At least I am getting better at reproducing it but it takes time (I guess it needs all apps to get unloaded from the RAM and then switch to them from the taskbar and quickly open XMBC).

[phil]

Typical!

Oh well, its too late now - 2.14 is out there
I guess will have to wait and see how many complaints I get
The saving grace is that most people don't actually use the setup screen very often once its setup (I hope ).

Thanks,
Phil

[injtsvetkov]

Well I don't think there will be much complaints (if any at all) coz it happens so rarely (well probably it's gonna happen more often on slower machines) and it's not something functional that affects the work of XMBC. Plus you only need to reopen the setup window or change the layer and it's gone. I even wouldn't call it a problem, it's just a little glitch that is not harmful at all. It's just somewhat strange when it happens so probably the only thing you'll get is some feedback that this is happening but you already know that.
What's bugging me is that at the moment this happens, other apps are also drawing up their contents slowly but they always manage to draw up everything at the end . That makes me think that they probably have some mechanism to ensure that everything will be drawn up completely. Something that somehow checks whether the interface is complete and if not, attempts to redraw it again and again checks if it's complete and so on till it detects that everything is fine. I hope that's not some sci-fi I wrote but it seems to me that XMBC either doesn't know that the interface is not fully drawn up and doesn't try to redraw it, or it knows about that but again doesn't try redraw it for some reason . Probably it knows coz usually when you hover over the missing button it shows up, but I think there were times that some buttons didn't show up . Could you try to explain what exactly did you do when trying to fix it, coz it's interesting that you even couldn't make it worse?

Thanks
Iliya

[phil]

Could you try to explain what exactly did you do when trying to fix it, coz it's interesting that you even couldn't make it worse?

Not really no! I tried many different things - like calling UpdateWindow(), Invalidate(), RedrawWindow() APIs - changing the way the tabs work (my suspicion is that its something to do with child windows of the tab control).

I even tried changing the dialog templates. Pretty much anything I can think of!

Phil

[injtsvetkov]

Mmm, thanks for that! Not that I'm familiar with any of these but at least now I have a clue about your suspicion. These UpdateWindow(), Invalidate(), RedrawWindow() APIs sound like they regard to the main window and not the tab window itself, is that so or I have misunderstood?
As I think of it, before the implementation of the Copy/Swap/Reset buttons, there was only the 'Reset Layer' button and there was no problem. It wasn't an image button but a regular one with text. That makes me think that maybe the problem is image related. I would suggest replacing the image buttons with text ones to see if there will be any difference. If you move the drop-down menus a bit to the left (or squeeze them) you can fit 'Edit' instead of the 'Gear' button and you can squeeze a bit the 'Layer name' field to fit the Copy/Swap/Reset buttons. If it's not too much work I think it's worth trying. And if you decide to do it, you may make a test version and send it only to few of us for testing.

Thanks!
Iliya

[phil]

is that so or I have misunderstood?

Thats no it - every control, tab, button is a window in its own right. I think the image buttons may be related too - esp. as you say, it started happening after I added them. But it looks so much better - there are some other options, like using another image button control.

Still, right now I think I deserve a break - unless there are any significant issues in 2.14 (none so far!!) then I will take a relaxed stance with the next beat!

[injtsvetkov]

there are some other options, like using another image button control.

glad to hear that , I believe it will give you the solution.

Of course you deserve a break man! After all, 3 months of hard work and sleepless nights looks pretty stressful to me for a hobby project, I even wonder whether we could expect the beginning of the next beta phase till the end of 2016

I hope everything will be fine with v2.14, I just had a few spare moments apart from the wife and the kids so I decided to discuss some ideas