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screen-scraper got bug via ubuntu?

hi kind men,
screen scraper works not so well on my ubuntu pc. its ok when i run a scrape session. but sometimes, after i export a scrape session, the scraper becomes uneditable. i can create new pattern,new scrape file,but i cant do any edit stuff,like renaming,coding. all the textfield, such as script body,scrape pattern name, all uneditable.
it will work well again after i restart screen scraper, but, after i export a scrape session,or after i run a scrape session, everything will be uneditable again.
waiting for you help,thanks!

‹ Set url in a scrapeable file? Commas in the URL replaced by plus ›
hibercom on 11/18/2008 at 4:30 am

You know what, I know exactly

You know what, I know exactly what you're talking about.

There is a strange bug in Java on Ubuntu. Many of us here at screen-scraper use Ubuntu as our primary OS, and we are constantly plagued with this bug.

The problem, if you want to get technical, is with Java Swing, which handles focus-switching when popups appear, etc. The consequence is that when Java Swing has a problem behind the scenes, the keyboard locks up. The problem has arisen for me only after I close a pop-up in screen-scraper, like the token editing window, or the settings window, or a dataset preview, etc, etc.

Here's the solution, as odd as it seems, to unlock your keyboard:

  1. Open a popup. I tend to use the Options > Settings dialog box.
  2. Click into a text field, like the "Connection timeout" box.
  3. Press the tab key once or twice until you see your cursor jump down to the next text box. Clearly, your keyboard is unlocked if it's responding to the tab key.
  4. Close the dialog box and go back to work.

You might notice from time to time, that the keyboard is still locked after you've gone through this process. Do it again. This has always unlocked the keyboard for me. Sometimes it will act just fine for hours, but then it'll begin a fit of rage, locking my keyboard every 5 minutes.

It's not something that we can fix in screen-scraper very well. If you google-search "ubuntu java swing" you'll be sure to find many many forum posts about how it's a big problem that Sun needs to address. I've never experienced the problem in Windows, and one of my colleagues at work using Ubuntu never has the problem. It is very hit and miss, it seems to me.

Terribly sorry that you have to suffer this problem with us.

If you want to verify the problem, you can open the "error.log" file in your log folder in screen-scraper's installed directory. Keep it open and then wait for the keyboard to lock up, and then refresh the file and check the errors at the end of the file. Assuming I've told you the right log file, you should see something to do with java swing in the stack trace.

Best of luck...
Tim

 timv on 11/18/2008 at 2:14 pm

Thanks your reply

Hi Tim
Thanks your reply :)

I didnt met this problem in 8.04 period. The 8.10 came,the problem comes.

And after trying and trying, it seems to me, all should i do is restart my X, then screenscraper will work fine, as in 8.04,as in Windows.

Thanks
Hibercom

 hibercom on 11/20/2008 at 7:34 am