Author Topic: Some strange behavior  (Read 2111 times)

Scotty K

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Some strange behavior
« on: March 31, 2015, 07:07:11 PM »
I recently used a couple of features that I hadn't used in a few months, and when I started to use them again, I noticed some strange things.

First off, I tried to export html from the Game tab and found that my default Tournament Export file had changed back to the program supplied one. (I made my own file so that it would render html on our league website; I had been using this file successfully for a several years).  I went back to the Preferences tab and reset it to the file that I wanted, but when I went to another tab in the program, sure enough, it reset itself again.  Bottom line: the Default that I set it to doesn't stay set.

Now here's where it gets really weird:  I also discovered that, again when exporting html, as soon as I press the Save button, for some unexplained reason, the screen transitions engage themselves.  Again, I had previously disabled them, but now the screens were transitioning.  I went back and disabled them again, repeated the process, and they enabled themselves once again.

So, has anyone else experienced this?  If so, any solutions?

Corey Cooper

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2015, 05:24:11 PM »
This is really weird behavior, and I can't even come up with a way it could happen.  For example, if the application was unable to write out the preferences file, it would still retain those preferences in memory.  And you'd get an error about writing the preferences file.

Is this still happening?  Any way you could record the experience in a screen video capture and send it to me?

Scotty K

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2015, 05:51:51 PM »
Yes, I think I can do that.

I have some time off coming up after tomorrow, so I'll record it and send it to you then.

Scotty K

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2015, 04:01:43 PM »
OK Corey;

PM sent

Corey Cooper

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2015, 04:18:26 PM »
Got it, and thanks, that's perfect.  I can see exactly what you're doing, and I can reproduce it.  Digging into it now.

Corey Cooper

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2015, 04:46:48 PM »
OK, got it.  The bug is (bugs are) that the two preferences, one for the tournament export information, and the other for the screen transition information, have typos in the code that gets and sets the preferences.  This doesn't cause an error.  Instead, it causes the code to use the name "undefined" for the preference.  So BOTH of those preferences are using the same preference name.  When you make changes to one, the other gets wiped out.  When the preferences are retrieved, the code realizes something's wrong (it's not the right preference type), so it resets it.

Looks like I caught this for screen transitions in the in-development version, but I didn't catch it for tournament export information.  While still incorrect, it technically fixes the problem.  One is now using the correct preference name, the other is not, but at least they are no longer clobbering each other.  If that weren't the case I probably would have eventually caught that one of the preferences is still using the wrong name.

Very good catch ... very specific conditions.  And thanks for the video - it was very helpful!  I'll see if I can't publish a patch for this over this coming weekend.

Scotty K

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2015, 04:57:31 PM »
Wow, that was fast...

I'm glad the video was able to help.  I'm amazed, though, that no one caught it before I did.  I guess not too many people are exporting html.

Anyway, glad to help in a small way, and thanks for all of your help with this.

Corey Cooper

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2015, 11:26:30 PM »
OK, patch released.  You'll probably have to reconfigure one or both of those preferences.  Let's see how well the patch works...

Scotty K

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2015, 09:41:01 AM »
Hooray!  It seems to be working.  I reconfigured the settings, and they are not changing when I export.

Corey, thanks again for your help with this.  TD continues to be a great product, and I wouldn't think of using anything else for my tournaments.

Many thanks!

Corey Cooper

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Re: Some strange behavior
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2015, 11:13:31 AM »
Many thanks for an excellent bug report.  :)