Shoutbox

Hi, like a few one start to know, I'm creating a plugin to read rss feeds (in visual basic.net).
In first versions, since the displaytoast function can be called only from the main thread, I was using a forced status change (and my displaytoast() call was in the onStatusChange function). After a few weeks, I noticed (and at least one user also did) that msn sometimes hanged after displaying the notification. Since I didn't see any error in my code, I though it was the quick status change which was making msn freeze.
But now I've completely rewritten this part, and I don't use the status change anymore (I instead use System.Windows.Forms.Form.Invoke function to make the main thread call the function I want). It worked well for a few day, but now I've again this damn freeze.
Since my code to display notification is really short, I'm really starting to think that the problem come from the DisplayToast() function.

code:

---

   
Public Function show_notification()
        If (rssreminding = 1) Then
            DisplayToast("Last News : " + remindrss, "RssPlug", remindurl, True)
            rssreminding = 0
        Else
            DisplayToast("News : " + titlerss(index_to_show), "RssPlug", urlrss(index_to_show), True)
            remindrss = titlerss(index_to_show)
            remindurl = urlrss(index_to_show)
            index_to_show = -1
        End If
End Function

---

If I put a Msgbox before and after the displaytoast call, only the one before is displayed. I've checked the variables I used to call DisplayToast, but there is nothing special in it.

So, do anyone ever got the same problem ? Can a messenger plus developper tell me if that's really the DisplayToast function which is making my plugin freeze ? Since I don't have the function's source code, I can't do anything more than ask :/

I've done some test, and that's definitely a messenger plus's bug. When that starts to happen, messenger hangs on no matter what I ask it to display with Displaytoast(). Restarting msgplus doesn't change anything, I must reboot to (sometimes) solve the problem, or just wait for a long time.

Well, Patchou, I think you've got some work to do

I have exactly the same problem, as soon as I do a DisplayToast() function MSN freezes =(

Anyone know if there's a fix for this yet? I want my damn toast!!!

- KokiriChild

I can confirm that I had this same exact problem when creating plugins.. Was really annoying.. Though the exact same plugin that were hanging on me didn't always hang on others... And also sometimes it seems to be "Random" times it does it.. That means if it starts doing it, it can be stopped by a restart, other times a restart doesn't help.. At one point I really had problems with it hanging.. All the time... So.. Because of this I really hate using the DisplayToast() Function...
To clarify, it's in VB, and MSN didn't Freeze completly.. Just a 10 secs hang.. Or there abouts..
I didn't really know this was a problem that other users also faced, so i've always thought that it was a problem with my computer.. Now I see it might not be... So.. I hope this can fixed.. .... Would really be nice...

Thanks for reporting. Can you please email me with your plugin source code (if that's ok with you) so that I can work on a sollution with you (mplus@patchou.com)? also, please specify is Messenger hangs always before or after displaying the popup.

quote:

---

To clarify, it's in VB, and MSN didn't Freeze completly.. Just a 10 secs hang

---

Mine's in VB too, although mine is a total complete freeze, only way to resolve is to kill MSN and restart it.

Source code on the way Patchou! Thanks!

- KokiriChild

I didn't try this, but instead of using the SendMessage API, try to use the PostMessage API. SendMessage works syncronical, PostMessage asyncronical. In English this means that SendMessage doesn't return immediatly and waits for the call to finish (hence a possible freeze/delay if something went wrong with the called function), PostMessage doesn't wait and returns immediatly... See MSDN library... (all this is just theory, didn't tried it out yet. Furthermore, this wont solve the actual possible bug in the plugin API of Plus!, but it is a way to avoid freezing)...

PS: Patchou, about the VB example source in the plugin docs, it can be made much shorter, faster and more ermmm... "according to the proper VB programming rules" (It contains a lot of redundant code and isn't such a great example of proper efficient programming in VB so to speak; aka can teach bad practices to beginners)

I'm very sure my VB code sucks, I'm just not a VB developer. However, you have to also realise that I need to somehow connect to my C++ program and send unmanaged data like structures. It creates ugly VB code but at least, it works the way I want it to work . Of course, if you know other methods to do the same thing better, I'll be glad to replace my file with your modified one .

As for SendMessage(), it's used to be able to return a value to the caller. This shouldn't make anything freeze simply because when the message is received, a thread is created to display the toast and the function does not wait for the thread to end before it returns.

I really need all of you who are experiencing problems to tell me roughly how often it crashes and to send me the code you use to make a call to DisplayToast(). I'll investigate and I'm bound to find where the glitch is .

Sorry I didn't participate to that topic, I've lost my connection for many months.
About the problem, messenger hangs after displaying the toast. Precisely, it hangs WHILE displaying. Messenger is freezed, and the toast disappears a few seconds after, as if there wasn't any problem.
It occurs randomly, but when it starts happening, it will hang every time you retry until you reboot. So it can be a memory conflict.
I've done several tests to make sure that the string we try to display in the toast isn't responsible. No matter how many characters, ou which code I use, there is still the same problem.

If that can help you, I can send my plugin source code, but I've also tried with a simple plugin (just a toast displayed periodically) and it still randomly freeze. So I don't think you'll learn anything from it.
If you have any debugging function (like logging or backtrace) on messenger plus that can be used, I can give it a try.