CMS Version: 2.3.10 (also experienced on 2.3.5)
Player Type: Linux (Ubuntu snap package)
Player Version: latest/stable (1.8-R6 2021-01-12)
Issue:
We’ve been following the guide for setting expiry dates for widgets. Setting an end time works as expected - the widget stops displaying after the specified time, however the start time appears to have no effect (after the Player syncs with the CMS, the widget is shown, despite not yet reaching the start date/time).
The issue doesn’t seem to be layout-specific, as we’ve tried doing this on multiple different layouts with the same result. All of our Players are Linux-based, but I’m happy to spin up a Windows VM if needed for troubleshooting.
The forum is only allowing me to attach one image (new user), so I’ve attached a screenshot of the widget expiry settings, but I can also supply other screenshots if required.
Xibo for Linux is currently on version 1.8, whereas expiration dates are a feature for version 2 players. Below is a link to the road map for Xibo for Linux, which also includes milestones showing which features are expected for each future release. You will see that expiration dates are scheduled for the first version 2 release of Xibo for Linux:
I hope this helps to understand why the expiration dates on your widgets are not being obeyed, my apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Please note that Xibo for Windows is also open source and has the expiration date functionality included in the latest version 2 players. I’m not sure if this would meet your requirements but thought you should know your options in case an alternative platform is an option. Our licensed players (Android, Tizen and webOS) also support expiration dates, it is just the Linux player at this time that does not.
We were using the Xibo Player on Windows for a while, but switched our client machines over to Linux due to Windows 10’s ever increasing disk & RAM requirements (most of our client machines are Atom-based, and some only have 32GB of eMMC storage). Switching to Linux has also allowed us to streamline our deployment & management of clients.
We’ll hold off on using the expiration dates and wait for version 2 of the Linux player.
