things that 3.2 broke

[Colin]

I'm trying to fix some BEML things that v3.2 broke, and I'm not sure which things are rendering issues and which are script problems. For example, just opening the publishing template list in the BC3 console shows the errors below. Should Brightcove fix those before I start trying to figure out what remaining issues are in the BEML? Here's the errors that show:

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
    at com.brightcove.ui.controls.tabs::PagingTabBarAnimated/attachTabs()
    at com.brightcove.ui.controls.tabs::TabBar/refreshTabs()
    at com.brightcove.ui.controls.tabs::TabBar/onDataChanged()
    at com.brightcove.ui.controls.tabs::TabBar/set dataProvider()
    at com.brightcove.ui.controls.tabs::PagingTabBar/set dataProvider()
    at com.brightcove.player.ui.widgets::TabBar/set data()
    at com.brightcove.player.ui.widgets::TabBar/onContentLoaded()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.player.content::ContentItem/set item()
    at com.brightcove.experience::DummyContentProxy/onContentLoad()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.experience::DummyContentProxy/loadContent()
    at com.brightcove.player::PlayerInstance/onContainerReady()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui::UIObject/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui.containers::BEMLContainer/onElementComplete()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui::UIObject/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.player.ui.widgets::Widget/setReady()
    at com.brightcove.player.ui.widgets::Widget/render()
    at com.brightcove.player.ui.widgets::ThemedWidget/onThemeComplete()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui.managers::ThemeManager/onFontsLoaded()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::Theme/onFontsLoaded()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::StyleSet/onFontsComplete()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at com.brightcove.ui.managers::FontManager/dispatchComplete()
    at com.brightcove.ui.managers::FontManager/createFontLoaders()
    at com.brightcove.ui.managers::FontManager/loadFonts()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::StyleSet/loadFonts()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::StyleSet/onStylesLoaded()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::StyleSet/populateStyles()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::StyleSet/parseCSS()
    at com.brightcove.ui.graphics.theming::StyleSet/onCSSLoaded()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at flash.net::URLLoader/onComplete()

[BC-Todd]

Colin, could you include the BEML for the template that is giving you issues? Nothing should have broken with 3.2, and of course we will certainly work to resolve anything that inadvertently did.

[Colin]

I was going to post the BEML here, but the forum editor doesn't allow it, saying that it's badly formatted HTML. I'll email you direct.

[BC-Todd]

If you insert it as code the forum allows it. But I got the BEML directly. I will respond here.

[BC-Todd]

It looks like it all comes down to the includeMenu attribute in the TabBar. I will write up a bug and investigate how that was introduced, and push to get it resolved in a patch, but if you remove that attribute (if it works in your template) for the time being, the template should render without the exception.

[Colin]

Man, you work at strange times of the day! Although setting the menu true, or removing the item so that it defaults to true, does improve things a little, there are still gaps in the layout. Also the video (which I think is 16:9) is play top aligned above the top of 4:3 area, leaving a huge black space below the video. In doing that it partly hides one of the large white spaces, between the tabs and where the video should be located.

Worst of all, having the menu arrows be there and the drop down menu means that the carefully edited tabs no longer fit in the space, which breaks the look of the whole tab system.

I just noticed, that the tab background that should be black is actually white. I think that the tab background layer is being drawn further down the screen. So it's almost like the various layers that should be on top of each other are actually being spread down the screen. Any chance that some things that should be absolute coordinates are working as relative coordinates?

[BC-Todd]

Looking more closely through the code, the line that is throwing the null pointer is easily found. What is curious is that this code, and the TabBar UI element in general, has not changed signficantly in the last year. This line would have thrown a null pointer last month or six months ago. Is it possible that in fixing some other issues this attribute was changed by you?

I do notice that if a player is loaded that does not contain enough elements to require the nav (and so the nav is not drawn), then the exception is not thrown since that code path is not run. I am wondering if perhaps the Publishing module is putting more dummy data into the TabBar and this is why you would be seeing this exception now where you mightn't have previously? Do you see the exception in your own players with your own content, or just in the Publishing module?

Yes, the background colors of layout boxes being misaligned is a bug that has been fixed and will be in our next patch. Your best options now are to either use background images, which do align correctly, or to not use backgrounds in the layout boxes at all and just use a player background that has all the colors you need. Previously, the background images had not been aligning correctly, and it was in correcting this that the color alignment became off. I apologize for that.

[Colin]

I think there may be two issues, the errors that happen if the nav is drawn, which we wouldn't have seen because we don't want the nav, and the alignment problems caused by the update the other day.

I can't seem to hit a combination of BEML that will make it look right. Mainly the tabs don't seem to align correctly, and there's always a large white space below the tabs. I may just get Lifetime to contact whoever is their support person, to see if a workaround can be done without you spending time on it.

Off to bed for now!

Thanks. 

[Colin]

Setting the background image for the whole layout would work as a replacement for the background colors, but putting in a background image and removing the background colors doesn't fixed the layout issues. It's almost as if each element is being placed its absolute value down from the previous element. If a top element is 40 tall, the next element is appearing at 80 and not at 40. If the second element is 27 tall, the next one is appearing at 134 and not at 67, and so on.

The video image itself is appearing at the correct location, but the video controller, and the video items list, are appearing at the much lower location.

Until there is an update that fixes the issue, is there someone there who would be able to help with a work around version of the BEML, without charging our client? 

[BC-Todd]

Let me look into it further today, Colin. We haven't had any other customers (that I am aware of) with similar issues and our global templates, which use the exact same BEML interpreter at runtime, aren't showing problems, so there must be something unique in this BEML that isn't being accounted for by the player. I'll see what I can find.