Zionworx feedback - bug list...

[JonathanKnight]

I upgraded from Zionworx 2.0 to 2.5 on Tuesday and we ran it for the first time on Sunday. There was some wailing and gnashing of teeth so I thought I'd list the bugs we found.

1. Shared files

The first thing seems to be that the database in 2.5 isn't shared amongst all the Windows XP users. Our church PC has an admin account which has administrator rights and a set of normal user accounts. Zionworx 2.0 could be run by any user on the system, but 2.5 cannot find its database.

I'm assuming that this was a side effect of zionworx 2.0 putting its database directly under "Program Files/Zionworx" and windows automatically allows those files to be shared. Perhaps 2.5 could allow the database and settings files to be shared amongst all the Windows XP users. I got around the problem by enabling shared access to the database folder.

Related to this is the start menu items which need to go into "all users" rather than just the user that did the install, otherwise zionworx doesn't appear in the start menu. A quick manual copy fixed that one.

2. SLOW!!!!!

Wow! was 2.5 slow! A small mistake on one hymn meant that our words operator tried to fade out the song, change to to the right one and fade back in. We'd done two verses of the hymn before he got the words on the screen!

There seems to be a massive slowdown when fading songs which have images. 2.0 could fade in 128 steps in around 2 seconds, 2.5 is more like 20 seconds. There's no problem with the speed when there isn't an image on screen.

We also noticed that each hit on the space key would take 2 tenths of a second to respond when an image was onscreen but was instantaneous when using a colour background.

We've disabled fading for now but there's a general feeling that fading is important and they aren't happy about the delay in changing the words.

3. Widow and Orphan control

For some reason Zionworx splits a line across 2 screens. That doesn't seem sensible as it means the operator has to be really on the ball in hitting the space key so that people can see the rest of the line. Coupled with the slow response in 2.5 this caused a few hiccups on Sunday.

It would be nice if there was a "split lines across screens?" option as part of the style

4. What's with the "[Default]" styles?

We've got around 20 "[Default]" styles listed which we didn't create. How do we get rid of them? They were just there after the upgrade.

5. Changing style stops next screen

If you change the style of a song then the "next screen" display disapears from the right hand pane and you need 2 hits on the space key to bring it up. This caught out the operator a couple of times as he set the style, then brought up the display and didn't realise that the next screen wasn't ready.

6. Song scrolling jumps

The song display on the right doesn't scroll properly. It seems to jump to screen boundaries which makes it difficult to proof read a song when the display keeps leaping 8 lines at a time. Scrolling should be smooth.

7. Assigning default style doesn't re-layout the song

If you change the text style in a song to something quite small and then use the little icon to return to the default style then the song isn't laid out again and the display is messed up. Double clicking the song in the playlist corrects the problem.

[brainier]

You are correct about permissions, at least version 2.5.06 does not crash when run by a non-admin upon closing as version 2.5.05 did.

The database folder needs Read and Write permissions, which for a non-admin do not exist by default on the Program Files directory. Either change permissions or move the database somewhere that users do have permissions and update the properties of Zionworx to tell it where the database is.

So I take it you did no testing of the upgrade before you ran with it live on Sunday morning? Maybe you did not think to, but I suppose this comes from my career as a IT consultant - ALWAYS TEST FIRST. So if someone else is reading this and are still considering the upgrade, go for it - but test first and practice, and maybe run a training session for your operators before you use it live in church on a Sunday.

[brainier]

Images need to be the same resolution as the screen to provide optimal performance in fading etc.

[brainier]

Widow and Orphan Control

That is what the styles are for. Create a set of styles that tweak the font size slightly, and when you have a song that just does not fit on the screen, apply a style that allows it to fit.

[JonathanKnight]

Images didn't need to be the same size in 2.0 so I was assuming that the functionality wouldn't go backwards in 2.5. I think that the tech team would prefer having the faster images in 2.0 over all the enhancements that 2.5 has brought, so if it isn't fixable then I think we'll regress to the 2.0 version. We're not going to be going through the thousand or so photo's and re-sizing each one.

I did test before Sunday - the bug with the file permissions and the lack of a Start menu option I found after the install but I only tested solid colour backgrounds and so I didn't spot the massive slowdown. Nor did the tech team until the first song was painfully slowly displayed - that was when there were accusing looks being passed around the back of the church - mostly at me.

Changing a font style might manage to stop a line being broken across screens on one verse but there's little hope of it working for every verse in a hymn. If its going to be fixed then it needs to be fixed in the code rather than fiddling with font sizes.

[paulstokes]

I just tried some experiements with the "SLOW" issue, to see if I can duplicate them.

Fades (changing the settings under Preferences)
With 131k JPG background image:-
256 steps and 6 seconds - actually took about 8 seconds
128 steps and 0.6 seconds - actually took about 1.5 seconds
With 609k JPG background image:-
256 steps and 6 seconds - actually took about 28 seconds
128 steps and 0.6 seconds - actually took about 57 seconds

Conclusion : image size is the key factor. This is not surprising, since the programme has to repeatedly redraw the image to suit the screen resolution, and the bigger the file, the more time it will take.

I was (just now) easily able to BATCH RESIZE all photos in a folder to 800 x 600 (using Paint Shop pro 9). Obviously the process will depend on your software, but dealing with your 1000 photos needn't be a long task.


NB - this is using a Celeron 2.67GHz CPU and 128M ATI Radeon graphics card.

[JonathanKnight]

Judging by what people said the bug seems to be related to the image size not matching the screen resolution. There's no reason why it should be an issue because Zionworx can re-size the image to the size it requires as it loads it and presuambly under 2.0 this is what happened because 2.0 works perfectly.

The speed of 2.5 seems to suggest that the image is being re-sized repeatedly during a fade rather than doing it once. Presumably the code can be fixed to work the same way as it did under 2.0.

The idea of re-sizing the entire backgrounds section depending on which projector I'm using doesn't fill me with enthusiasm. I currently hold all the images in 1024x768 as that's the highest resolution projector I will be using for the near future, but the main church one is 800x600 which is where the problem is.

I could keey a set of 1024x768 backgrounds and a set of 800x600 backgrounds and load the right set into place each time, but as a programmer myself I tend to favour fixing the bug in the software instead.

[Williamting]

I also used "Nikon View" software (you have this if you have a Nikon digital camera) to bulk resize jpeg pictures. Alternatively you may buy one of those bulk resize software from http://www.download.com for a less than 10 quids. http://www.download.com/Bulk-Image-Resi ... ag=lst-0-2 or
http://www.download.com/Bulk-Image-Proc ... ag=lst-0-6 (This one has unlimited features while on trial). Disclaimer: I have not used any of these two software myself. This is placed here for your information only.

[JonathanKnight]

I think everyone has missed the point. We already have a workaround for the image fading bug. Version 2.0 works perfectly with no problems with any image size. We can fade to our hearts content.

If the 2.5 image fading bug isn't going to be fixed we can stay on 2.0, it isn't a problem. There's nothing in 2.5 that we desperately need and 2.0 is faster and can fade images so I'll regress the system over the Christmas break.

[Christian]

Thanks for the discussion folks - this is all very helpful information...

Jonathan - I agree with you, this is definitely something which needs to be fixed in code. I had no idea that there WAS a performance difference between v2.0 and v2.5 when using background images at a higher resolution than the screen resolution!! Clearly the figures speak for themselves though...

I'll look into the detail of this issue as soon as possible and we'll get a fix into the next maintenance release.

Thanks to all,
Christian.

[IanL]

Johnathan - whilst I haven't suffered the same problem as yourself with slow fades (I tend to stick to plain simple backgrounds) I must agree with you on the problem of lines being split over 2 screens. You are right - the chances of a particular font size giving all the splits, where needed, is highly unlikely. I have resorted to editing the songs and inserting blank lines to force a new screen where the music/timing of the song suits. Frustrating and time consuming. (where our minister decides to insert an unplanned hymn on the spur of the moment now makes for a few uneasy moments!). I am sorry to say I am currently evaluating Song Pro and Easy Worship, as possible replacements to Zionworx, primarily because of this problem.
However I don't wish to appear totally negative over what is a good package overall.

Ian

[paulstokes]

What font & sizes are you using? Obviously this becomes more of an issue as one gets into bigger font sizes or smaller screen resolutions. FWIW we use:

Font = Arial Narrow, 36, Bold, 2px Outline.
Screen = 800x600 (projector's native resolution).

At this setting, the lines get broken up like this (eg: from "Lord of the Dance"):
it's hard to dance with the devil on your back.
They buried my body and they thought I'd
gone,
and it also allows us to get 9 lines of text per screen.

I'm happiest with this font because, when Bolded (?!) it is darker than simply Arial, yet takes up much the same width. Hence it's more easily visible.

[chris_h62]

Hey guys,

Have those with the problem of ZW splitting the text in annoying places realised that it is possible to manually change the split point?

To move a slplit point up, so that not just 1 word is left on the 2nd screen, simply click in the section with only one word or phrase and then click the "Move previous verse split point up" button (the upwards arrow, next to the cross, underneath the current song lyrics). If you go too far, just click into the higher verse section and click the downwards arrow to move it back down.

Please note, these settings are not saved when you load another song, however, it is useful for "on the fly" presenting in the situation described above.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[Williamting]

I have never used style setting in ZW. I used a relatively smaller font (40 point; approx 1280x900 screen resolution) probably because my church is not that big - about 250 people. If I find that the lines are split at awkward places, I could do the following:

1. Adjust the font size; preset font size may not be ideal. Just type in any size for the best fit
2. Adjust the margin
3. Insert blank line to force a break

I always set up the service list well before (usually Saturday afternoon) the service and make sure that I go through every song/screen to ensure that they are properly setup - margin, no awkward split, etc. I found that ZW 2.5 actually indicates on the lyric window the place where a split is taking place an extremely useful feature.

To proof read the lyrics, I always use F6. This allow me to scroll as many lines as I wish. There is no need to unlock the db to do this anymore.

The above is very much personal preferences and style of working.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

[brainier]

Ditto the previous