Issues with Datasets not updating on Windows clients

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1

I have a Xibo CMS server running 1.7.8. My clients currently run Windows 7 32-bit with the Xibo Client 1.7.8.

I followed the tutorial on using Datasets to display various data in the regions on the clients.

The main layout has 3 regions each with seperate datasets to display the bookings in our 3 areas.

I have set up the client to check the CMS every 5 minutes. (There is only 1 minute option that is shorter.)

Each ticker in the 3 regions is set to display for 60 seconds, and the update interval (under Advanced in the Edit Ticker) is 120 seconds.

However the clients don’t seem to be updating properly, and displaying the new bookings according to the bookings. I am often forced to reboot the client machines, or to restart the clients, in order for the correct bookings to display. (which is a pain if there are several bookings throughout the day.

Advice, help or correction would be appreciated.

David Wiles

2

How often do you change the data in dataset?

What’s the longest duration on your layout?

Could you also double check the update interval in ticker, by default it’s set to 120 minutes (it’s in minutes, so if you want 120s you would need to put 2 there)

3

Peter, thanks for your help.

The longest duration of the layout is from 07h00-16h00 weekdays. This might be shorter but would never be shorter than 1 hour.

The data in the dataset is usually set up the previous week, but there are sometimes last minute cancellations and changes which can be on the spot or an hour or two prior to the scheduled booking.

I have double-checked the “Edit Ticker” settings and under General Tab the Duration is 60 (seconds) which is shorter than the client update interval of 5 minutes.

However when I checked your mail and saw that you used the term “Update Interval” and couldn’t see that field I poked around and found it “buried” in the Advanced tab and it WAS set to the default interval of 120 MINUTES.

That threw me as the Duration time is set in SECONDS but the Update Interval is set to MINUTES which is confusing. Timing units should really be the same unit throughout the interface.

I have changed it to 2 (minutes) on all three regions and I will monitor it to see if it changes properly at the next scheduled booking change.

As an aside, I think XIBO needs to check the standardization of timing units throughout the interface as it can get confusing. Perhaps move the Update Interval to the general Tab, or at least ensure BOTH are either minutes or seconds.

Kind regards,

David

4

I understand where you’re coming from on this, however we always try and pick a unit which is sensible for the typical value a user enters.

For example, if we standardised on seconds throughout, then working out how many seconds a typical caching interval would be (where we’d expect the user to be entering between 30 minutes and a day or so becomes difficult for the user). Similarly, if we standardised on seconds, then asking the user to express 1 second as fractions of a minute (or even 500ms in the case of a transition timer) would equally be difficult.

5

As a further feedback on clients not updating layouts with Datasets:

I have created a 1.8.0 CMS, and connected a Windows Client to it.

I set up a layout on the CMS with 3 fields. One field for each of the 3 computer areas in my centre. (Area 1…Area 3)

The Layout is scheduled to display for the whole day (08:00-16:00)

The top region displays the text “Current Bookings” with No Effect and the time displayed right next to it…It displays for 30 seconds.

Below that are the 3 regions. Each is a ticker (Marquee Left on speed 6, Duration 30 seconds) running one of 3 datasets.

Each dataset has 4 fields “examstart, examend, subject, group”.

The “examstart” and “examend” have the starting and ending time in the following format: YYYY-DD-MM HH:mm:ss (eg 2017-04-10 09:30:00)

The ticker is set up to display [subject|5] - [group|6] (IOW the Subject and then the Group seperated by a dash - “Cardiology Exam - MBChB IV”)

The filter is set to “Advanced Filter Clause” and set to “NOW() > examstart AND NOW() < examend” - which is I presume the SQL statement to display between the examstart and examend data?

Under Advanced in the Ticker settings, the Update Interval is set to 5 minutes, and an optional message is set to display when there is no data. This is merely the text “OPEN”.

Below the 3 areas is another region that runs a textbox with a left marquee with some “news” items, but this is pure text and not an RSS feed.

The client displays the INITIAL data correctly but does not update after the first initial connection. Only a reboot of the client would force the update if any, but rebooting a Windows client 10-15 times a day after every hour is not acceptable.

Even rebooting the client machine sometimes doesn’t update the layout correctly, which I put down to the client reading its local store in Documents, and tried to empty the “Xibo Library” with “some” success…

This problem manitested itself with the 1.7.+ CMS and you did give me a few suggestions which I implemented with no results. I thought the 1.8.0 would address this problem, and I am still looking for the XMR option.

David