Discussion: OR 4.1 release issues

An email below from someone hoping to use OR this weekend. This person is one of two of the people I am helping this weekend who have contacted me about OR 4.1 issues.

I have emailed Martin Flynn and the OR site webmaster, who I assume is also Martin. I know that it is later in Ireland, so I am not expecting an immediate response, however, I am posting here in case my emails ended up in Spam land.

OR has been “upgraded” to version 4.1 from the original version I downloaded. In the newer version I am unable to see the finisher results/splits until I actually save them as HTML files on my desktop. They used to print on the open field to the right of the registration. I am unable to make the program print each individual return to the default printer. It is probably a function of not being able to see them under the finishers screen when they punch in the master control.

Also, DO NOT download the latest upgrade to JAVA as it will corrupt the Or’ file and not allow the program to run. My IT guy had to go back to a previous save this morning and recreate the drive and Is unsure why it corrupted the Or’ file. When it rains it pours!

Martin has supplied a fix less then 4 hours after I reported the problem to him via email. Thank you so much, Martin!

yes..in my experience Martin has always been very responsive on any bugs that you report. The OR software keeps adding functionality and works well

My bug (and the main result why Day 2 of Sprint the Golden Gate was a near failure) was with Ór just plain not starting. It worked fine the day before on the same computer and there was no update to Java VM in the meanwhile as much as I know. Since you can't reinstall the thing without getting online, we switched to OE on a different computer (after trying yet another software on yet another computer). We probably should have just driven the original computer out to Starbucks to reinstall Ór, it would have taken less time. Still, because of this incident I won't ever use Ór again and won't recommend it to anyone; you are plain helpless if this happens (unless you have a stack of fallback computers, I guess).

See the FAQ:
Ór will not start unless I am connected to the Internet
seems that might have been the issue and the fix.

No, didn't start when I got online, either. I had to reinstall. There is no way to reinstall unless you are online.

We've used Or for a few years and one thing that makes me very nervous is that the software can update itself after we have tested it, even at an event (we tend to run events internet connected when possible, so that results are live to the web). In the event of a new problem, you are then in deep poop.

I know little about Java, but Googling about the JNLP file syntax, which is used to control the behaviour of Java web-start applications like Or, it does look as though its possible to make web start applications prompt before they upgrade themselves. The default is not to prompt.

Does anyone know enough about this to tell me if I'm right ? (in which case I'll ask Martin to turn it on).

I was looking at this.

If the jnlp file is local, can you not just edit it yourself and see?

Edit: Adding in this:

<update check="always" policy="prompt-update" />

somewhere within the jnlp tag should do the trick. Of course it's kinda hard to test until Martin actually releases a new version. :)

The JNLP file is local (its the file in cache that my WIndows shortcut pointed java at), but it contains a tag pointing to the "real" JNLP on orienteering.ie. So when I tried what you suggested, it still updated itself.

If I changed the URL that points at the "real" JNLP, it would probably prevent all updating, which would be a way to stop event-time updates, but is not so nice.

I'll email Martin.

I agree that it's a real pain to have a piece of software insist on updating itself just as you need to do some work. As most events are at weekends, I usually release updates on a Monday or Tuesday so people can pick up the change when they (presumably) check their laptop and setup the event in Ór a few days before the event. If you are using a club laptop which is rarely used, you should always start it up a few days before an event to make sure that Windows/Firefox/Flash etc. doesn't suddenly block you during an event.

Juffy's suggestion about the update policy looks like a good one. I will test it and add it to the jnlp file if it is useful. Please bear in mind, though, I cannot support anything other than the latest version. If you do not update and have a problem, your first action should be to update to the latest version.

Martin

Great - thank you very much.