As you all know, We fixed a bug in the Windows Player where the Player got stuck on webpages when offline, but there’s no feature to skip webpages when offline in either Player, they will still remain on the screen for the required duration, but the region will be blank.
It would be nice to have a feature to completely skip playback of webpages when the device is offline.
It’s a nice idea for a feature, however some thought would need to be given to how the Player would decide it was “offline”.
ie is it “offline” when it can’t see the CMS. In which case with a CMS hosted locally on the Player machine or within the local LAN it would still be trying to load webpages outside the LAN if there were problems with the LANs internet connectivity.
If it were offline when it can’t see some other server (and what would that server be?), then how is that decided ahead of the layout being shown?
2 Likes
Hi… maybe you could do a connectivity test to the “The Location (URL) of the webpage” = www.image.com/index.html…
Than u could have tested if that server was up “ping www.image.com” Or you could add a new "connectivity test IP adr " fiield on “Add Webpage” page…
Looking forward to have the function…
I’m not sure pinging will work - lots of sites don’t respond to ping but will work over HTTP.
We’ll certainly consider it.
Just to be clear, a Features post on the community site doesn’t guarantee a particular feature will be developed, only that it will be considered for development in the future.
So I guess this feature has never made it into the list of accepted ones? 
Anything that’s already been road-mapped or accepted you can see here:
https://community.xibo.org.uk/tags/accepted
Anything already implemented, you can see here:
https://community.xibo.org.uk/tags/implemented
This isn’t tagged as either, so it’s still in the pool to be looked at in the future. Unfortunately we can’t implement everything that people suggest, but we do look at all the suggestions.
Jesh just ping 8.8.8.8 if GOOGLE isn’t responding you arn’t online (Except for china)
Or behind a firewall that blocks ping, or using a proxy, or one of many other perfectly acceptable configurations that would prevent that working!
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tracert 8.8.8.8 there are 100 ways around this. or windows knows when it’s online.
OR
bool isConnected = NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable();
if (isConnected)
{
ConnectionProfile InternetConnectionProfile = NetworkInformation.GetInternetConnectionProfile();
NetworkConnectivityLevel connection = InternetConnectionProfile.GetNetworkConnectivityLevel();
if (connection == NetworkConnectivityLevel.None || connection == NetworkConnectivityLevel.LocalAccess)
{
isConnected = false;
}
}
if(!isConnected)
await new MessageDialog("No internet connection is avaliable. The full functionality of the app isn't avaliable.").ShowAsync();
I’m really sorry it’s not that simple I’m afraid.
So sure, you could detect if internet connectivity is present, but what if the website is on the LAN - no need for internet then is there? So the webpage would be skipped needlessly.
you are correct
. however you could have client “ping” the web server of your choice in client settings.
you will never be able to cover all bases, just allow A method to cover as many as possible.
as of now there are NO bases covered and if your client looses network for any reason your display runs dead air. or god forbid Page not found.
yes there are some networks that have ping disabled. but that is NOT normal. even IT needs a method to check network connection that is easy and reliable.
and i am sure that if you have web connected displays on a LAN or WAN then you at least have enough knowledge to go to your I.T department and sort that out.
I don’t really have a dog in this race as i NEVER recommend using web resources just for this reason. However as there is at this time no way to cache a webpage on xibo client, this is the next best thing for people who do…
Also using above method would not be on a before play of every web enabled message,(as that would just bog the system down) just routine checks would probably be fine. just so there is not dead air.
could also report to server that the page is not accessible. this would at least clue in to the display manager that a display cannot reach the intended site. (For remotes).
Heck for that mater you could just have the client ignore that message if it does not access the page. then only try it once in a set timeout period (again set up in display settings).
FYI
I also follow a “If you don’t like it that much, go build your own” mentality.
I am not trying to pick a fight, just suggesting possible alternatives.
as i said i don’t have a dog in this.
Cheers!
It’s very difficult to make the webpage cache, similar to RSS does it?
I would like to revive this topic. There have been a lot of advancements to the CMS in the last years.