Think I found a Model Group in Model Group bug

[nmiller0113]

To save confusion Jim statement applies to both xLights, FPP, and pretty much anything you do on a computer.

Still don't see what was so bad about this simple statement.  Jim made a typo.  He meant to say xLights.  You reacted as if this simple quote was "rude, condescending, and insulting" and you accused me of making false statements.  You have to admit that for this to set you off you are loaded for bear for anything I say.

My response around what I interpreted as rude or condescending was a mix of your two responses, but I was just messing around with the trolling statement to ya...as I know you like to mess with people.  When you mentioned "pretty much anything you do on a computer" I didn't agree.  I guess what really bothered me and eventually got me to say anything more is your second response saying "Why do you think most of us don't run into these problems?  Quit acting butthurt all the time"....less the butthurt portion though that was kind of insulting, but more the "Why do you think most of us don't run into these problems".  It is pretty much saying you're the outlier, you're the only one who doesn't get this...which is 100% not true.  Yes, I know you *didn't* say that, but a lot is implied there...even if you may not agree or see it that way.

So if I assumed something in reading too much into your response, I'm sorry.

[Gilrock]

Over analyze much?  LOL... dude I'm not even going to read something that long.  Get over it.

[nmiller0113]

Haha, ok

I’ll leave it with this. Whether you care to know this or not, I’m not the only one that’s taken exception to / over analyzed some of your comments and responses.  In case that means anything to ya for the future.

Then again. No one here is paying you to do customer service...the software and infrastructure engineers I manage would have a field day with this one haha

[bwinter]

Is this why we can't have random twinkles?

[Gilrock]

I hear Vixen3 allows commas...give it a try.

[nmiller0113]

Or -- This can be corrected or isn't the problem in the first place...we'll soon know

https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/issues/962#issuecomment-338039885

[nmiller0113]

Though i agree with Gil's statement...it's not a good practice to use those characters in a name.

[Gilrock]

I just got home and in 1 minute I confirmed my suspicions.  We don't allow the comma in the current version.  I just tried to rename a model group with a comma and we automatically remove it.  So if you have commas in your names it happened a long time ago or through manual XML editing.

[nmiller0113]

Thanks Gil.  Yep, a long time ago.  I've had them for the last 2 years.

[Gilrock]

So to fix an old file like that the model groups need to be fixed manually in an editor.  I attached a copy that will work.  But if you have any sequences that mapped effects to those groups you will be prompted when you open the sequence and will need to point them to the new names.  Shouldn't take that long to fix them.  Only one of those groups seemed to have any models in it.

[nmiller0113]

got it...Thanks again Gil!

[nmiller0113]

Sorry Gil, one last question...just out of curiosity.  Why couldn't I just rename all the groups in xLights?  You mentioned having to use an editor, so I just wanted to make sure I understood why that was a better way for future reference.  Thanks!

[nmiller0113]

So, I went ahead and actually recreated all my model groups with new names and repopulated them.  I'm doing general cleanup right now.  I fully understand I'll need to re-map when I load my previous sequences.

I've attached my xlights_rgbeffects.xml file.  If you look at the allhsenolmgahf1 model it has the model group allflakes in it which also contains model groups allgrflakes and allrfflakes.  What I've found is xLights doesn't seem to like double embedding of Model Groups as allflakes does not highlight in the layout though you can clearly see it's added in the XML file.

So maybe I'm just pressing my luck by placing a model group, within a model group and finally...within a model group, but as I said, I'm trying to cleanup my layout and make it a bit more organized so the fewer elements I need to add to each group the cleaner...but maybe I'm hitting a limit

Thanks again!

[Gilrock]

Sorry Gil, one last question...just out of curiosity.  Why couldn't I just rename all the groups in xLights?  You mentioned having to use an editor, so I just wanted to make sure I understood why that was a better way for future reference.  Thanks!

I just wasn't sure it wouldn't crash upon opening xLights.  If it doesn't crash and lets you change the names then that would work.  There have been a few things like this where we've prevented the issue from happening in the future but we didn't install code to detect and cleanup and old instances mainly because the problem would exist in multiple files.

[nmiller0113]

Ahhh. I understand. Better safe than add more issues. Did you see my last message in this thread regarding the model group, inside a model group, inside a model group result?  Sorry to keep throwing things I find out there.