• 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
DISASTER! - un-dismissable message box
#1
I don't know how it happened, but suddenly in the middle of the display a message popped up: Cannot find file ..... It named a .pdf file for the last song on the tablet (alphabetically; also the last one uploaded, a few minutes earlier). When I tapped that song, it came up just fine. But the message stayed on top. In fact, it stayed on top FOREVER, which is the disaster -- I cannot see the music beneath it.

A few minutes earlier I had cleared the entire library and was re-loading my songs. At the time it had 12 songs, all from PDFs on my laptop.

This message could not be dismissed, and it even remained on top of the home page. I had to shut down and re-start my tablet. Fortunately I was just working on my own. Had this happened during a performance I would have been screwed ROYALLY -- the orchestra is NOT going to wait for me.

Is there anything that can be done about such a message box? Quickly? Why doesn't it have an OK button to dismiss it? How can a message remain on top of the home page?

I have to re-assess whether I can keep using this system.
Reply
#2
Hello tjrob,

That message you saw is called a Toast on Android. It's a popup message that fades out after a short time. Unfortunately, if the application (in this case MobileSheets) repeatedly requests Toasts to be shown, it can cause the OS to keep the toast up for a very long time.

In the next update, I'm going to stop using a toast in the case that a file fails to load, and will instead put the error message up in the center of the page being rendered. This should eliminate the problem you ran into. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Mike
Reply
#3
Don't put it in the center, put it at the bottom. Color it to be noticeable, but don't blink. Do NOT play a sound. In the center it might obscure music; at the bottom it probably won't.

Indeed I would prefer that you move all messages to the bottom (e.g. "End of Song"). Due to the aspect ratio of my tablet (Hannspree 13"), music almost never reaches the bottom.

I'm not sure why it was displayed at all, as when I tapped on the song whose file it mentioned, the song came up just fine, underneath the toast. This is a 1-page song from a PDF (a placeholder for pieces in the concert in which I am tacet).

When do you expect the next update?
Reply
#4
I bit the bullet and bought a backup tablet. I bring both to all gigs (true, this won't save you in the middle of performing a particular piece of music).

I am looking forward to an easier way to keep them both in sync (I think Mike is looking into this in an future update).


(07-08-2014, 01:46 AM)tjrob Wrote: Don't put it in the center, put it at the bottom. Color it to be noticeable, but don't blink. Do NOT play a sound. In the center it might obscure music; at the bottom it probably won't.

Indeed I would prefer that you move all messages to the bottom (e.g. "End of Song"). Due to the aspect ratio of my tablet (Hannspree 13"), music almost never reaches the bottom.

I'm not sure why it was displayed at all, as when I tapped on the song whose file it mentioned, the song came up just fine, underneath the toast. This is a 1-page song from a PDF (a placeholder for pieces in the concert in which I am tacet).

When do you expect the next update?
Reply
#5
I, too, have two tablets and two pedals. I keep the tablets up-to-date, and bring all to every rehearsal and concert (does a symphony orchestra do 'gigs'?).

I keep the two tablets in sync by simply having my laptop be the master copy, and bulk-importing its directories to each tablet. I use annotations on my Mac, not in MobileSheets; I run the Companion in a virtual machine running Windows Xp. The only difference between the two tablets is that my Bluetooth pedal is connected to only one of them; the USB pedal of course connects to either.

BTW I also have about 600 songs uploaded. As a trombonist said when he saw that: "I guess this will make fake books obsolete." Personally, I do not improvise much and cannot play very well from a fake book, but I can read the piano part of almost any song.

Amusing anecdote: During our first rehearsal of one piece, necessarily playing from paper, my quick look-ahead showed me a piano solo with a page turn in the middle; so I sight-read it right-hand-only until after the turn. The conductor noticed that and joked to the violins: "that's what to do when the music gets hard -- just play one-handed!"
Reply
#6
Cool!

Yep, I think that a tablet with MS blows away paper sheet music pretty much every time, unless maybe if you have a dedicated page turner.

But, tech glitches can kill you.

It sounds like you are about as prepared as you can be for that.


(07-08-2014, 04:40 AM)tjrob Wrote: I, too, have two tablets and two pedals. I keep the tablets up-to-date, and bring all to every rehearsal and concert (does a symphony orchestra do 'gigs'?).

I keep the two tablets in sync by simply having my laptop be the master copy, and bulk-importing its directories to each tablet. I use annotations on my Mac, not in MobileSheets; I run the Companion in a virtual machine running Windows Xp. The only difference between the two tablets is that my Bluetooth pedal is connected to only one of them; the USB pedal of course connects to either.

BTW I also have about 600 songs uploaded. As a trombonist said when he saw that: "I guess this will make fake books obsolete." Personally, I do not improvise much and cannot play very well from a fake book, but I can read the piano part of almost any song.

Amusing anecdote: During our first rehearsal of one piece, necessarily playing from paper, my quick look-ahead showed me a piano solo with a page turn in the middle; so I sight-read it right-hand-only until after the turn. The conductor noticed that and joked to the violins: "that's what to do when the music gets hard -- just play one-handed!"
Reply
#7
When I said I will display a message in the center, I no longer mean a popup message. If the page can't be rendered (a given page of a PDF or other document type), that page will be rendered with the error message in the center. In the case you are describing, the error message was erroneous - it was probably being displayed not for the current song, but for the previous song that was cleared. In the next version, if any page can be displayed properly, there is no way an error message would be displayed at the same time (it would be impossible for both to occur, as it either renders a page, a loading symbol, or an error message).

I guess you'll just have to trust me that it's an improvement over what's there now Smile

Mike
Reply
#8
When do you expect a new release?

I have noticed that after putting the tablet to sleep, when I awaken it, go to the songlist, and select a new song, the new song displays for a second or two, and then it jumps back to the song that was displayed when I put it to sleep. VERY annoying! Yes, this could have been the problem. A workaround is to remember to always go back to the songlist before putting it so sleep (but I almost never remember).
Reply
#9
I expected a new release about a year ago Smile

In all seriousness, I'm going through a very big checklist of features I have to test, and I'm hitting way more roadblocks than I thought I would. It's amazing how even fixing tiny little things can take 5 hours if you are trying to do something outside the norm. I still have a lot of things left to test before I can release the beta, so I really appreciate your patience. I'll try to post a progress update this weekend on where things are at (I'm currently on travel for my day job).

Mike
Reply




Users browsing this thread:
1 Guest(s)


  Theme © 2014 iAndrew  
Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2024 MyBB Group.