Gadgets 7.6.1 - inspired by AddGadgets.com Sidebar Gadgets

[SilverAzide]

Thanks, but actually the bug is still there. Only English (CA) fixes it perfectly.

If you switch your skin to Automatic, can you look at the Rainmeter About > Skins tab and select the Weather Meter skin, then in the pane on the right scroll way down to the variables section and look for this:

Screenshot 2022-09-25 105739.png

Are any of the "LocChkStepN" variables set to zero? They should all be 1 when using the "auto" mode, or all zero when selecting a specific locale/language.

[Israeli]

If you switch your skin to Automatic, can you look at the Rainmeter About > Skins tab and select the Weather Meter skin, then in the pane on the right scroll way down to the variables section and look for this:
Screenshot 2022-09-25 105739.png

Are any of the "LocChkStepN" variables set to zero? They should all be 1 when using the "auto" mode, or all zero when selecting a specific locale/language.

Yep, exactly LocChkStep8 & LocChkStep9 are then zero for me, all others are 1.

[SilverAzide]

Yep, exactly LocChkStep8 & LocChkStep9 are then zero for me, all others are 1.

AHA! OK, I see the problem, although I'm not sure what to do about it yet. It looks like something is odd with your registry (or Rainmeter's attempt to read it). The code is attempting to determine your time and date format preferences from your registry, and for some reason appears to be failing.

The registry keys it is trying to read are:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\iTime
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\iDate

The measures that are calling the registry are [MeasureTimeStyle] and [MeasureDateStyle]. If you look at the About > Skins > Weather Meter screen and find these two measures (they are somewhat near the top), do these have any value? It is possible that they are returning blank (an empty string) if these two keys are are missing. They should return a number. Can you confirm these keys exist? Do you see any errors on your About > Log screen regarding these two measures?

[Israeli]

AHA! OK, I see the problem, although I'm not sure what to do about it yet. It looks like something is odd with your registry (or Rainmeter's attempt to read it). The code is attempting to determine your time and date format preferences from your registry, and for some reason appears to be failing.

The registry keys it is trying to read are:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\iTime
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\iDate

The measures that are calling the registry are [MeasureTimeStyle] and [MeasureDateStyle]. If you look at the About > Skins > Weather Meter screen and find these two measures (they are somewhat near the top), do these have any value? It is possible that they are returning blank (an empty string) if these two keys are are missing. They should return a number. Can you confirm these keys exist? Do you see any errors on your About > Log screen regarding these two measures?

Actually..... I have zero problems of the system, tho a bit non-standard.

iTime and iDate in registry are both 1.
MeasureTimeStyle and MeasureDateStyle are empty when Automatic (Default).

But also remember that I never had problems, only now since v7.4.0.
And also ALL installed softwares (200+) have never any problems of time & date.

Plus most funny: Your Clock and Calendar also have no problems and work perfectly, too. So they can for sure read time & date nicely.

[SilverAzide]

Actually..... I have zero problems of the system, tho a bit non-standard.

iTime and iDate in registry are both 1.
MeasureTimeStyle and MeasureDateStyle are empty when Automatic (Default).

OK, I think we are zeroing in on the source of the problem. In your registry, what is the value of your key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\sShortDate. This is usually something like "M/d/yyyy" or "d/M/yyyy" (can be many different things really, including something you define yourself).

But also remember that I never had problems, only now since v7.4.0.
And also ALL installed softwares (200+) have never any problems of time & date.

Plus most funny: Your Clock and Calendar also have no problems and work perfectly, too. So they can for sure read time & date nicely.

Yes, the problem comes about because in 7.4.0 I added code to disable the WebParser measure that fetches weather data when I detect a discrepancy between your registry and your skin configuration. I did this because WebParser is a little fragile, and refreshing skins while it is in the middle of fetching data can crash Rainmeter. What seems to be happening in your case is the code is detecting a format discrepancy (probably erroneously) and getting stuck, unable complete the reconfiguration and restarting the fetch process. The Clock and Calendar skins don't have any visible issue (though they might be having a hidden one since they use similar code) because they are not fetching data from a website, so they just default and continue on.

[Israeli]

OK, I think we are zeroing in on the source of the problem. In your registry, what is the value of your key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\sShortDate. This is usually something like "M/d/yyyy" or "d/M/yyyy" (can be many different things really, including something you define yourself).

Bingo!!

My sShortDate is "d MMM yyyy".
And such is very standard at Europe for example (not created myself).

BUT: Until v7.3.0 for example the "Updated: ....." line was always US system I think, so somehow converted. Coz the european style might be too long.

[SilverAzide]

Bingo!!

My sShortDate is "d MMM yyyy".
And such is very standard at Europe for example (not created myself).

BUT: Until v7.3.0 for example the "Updated: ....." line was always US system, so somehow converted.

OK, I think that might be the key to this bug! I'll verify that format string works properly (I'm betting is doesn't). The "Updated" line being in US style could be a clue that the date formatting failing (it at least should follow your preference of M-D-Y instead of US-style D-M-Y, but yes, it does need to be the short all-number version so it will fit in the space available).

[Israeli]

Yes, the problem comes about because in 7.4.0 I added code to disable the WebParser measure that fetches weather data when I detect a discrepancy between your registry and your skin configuration. I did this because WebParser is a little fragile, and refreshing skins while it is in the middle of fetching data can crash Rainmeter. What seems to be happening in your case is the code is detecting a format discrepancy (probably erroneously) and getting stuck, unable complete the reconfiguration and restarting the fetch process. The Clock and Calendar skins don't have any visible issue (though they might be having a hidden one since they use similar code) because they are not fetching data from a website, so they just default and continue on.

Btw this might sometimes also a different reason. Sometimes when booting up the system of fetching data is stuck, but it simply happens because it changes IP and based servers (for example starts VPN). But it works perfectly again when the user does a manual refresh of the Weather Meter (icon click). Maybe you could simply do a 2nd time a few seconds later again (short delay and retry) when the gadget starts and error came instead of the data! But 2nd time should really be enough always.

[SilverAzide]

Btw this might sometimes also a different reason. Sometimes when booting up the system of fetching data is stuck, but it simply happens because it changes IP and based servers (for example starts VPN). But it works perfectly again when the user does a manual refresh of the Weather Meter (icon click). Maybe you could simply do a 2nd time a few seconds later again (short delay and retry) when the gadget starts and error came instead of the data! But 2nd time should really be enough always.

Yes, I've tried this in the past, but I've had some occasional issues that I've never been able to work around. The WebParser measure can hang or get stuck (or can crash Rainmeter) in cases like this. Then again, it can work perfectly too... you never can be sure what you are going to get. It is easiest and safest to simply give up right away and let the user refresh manually.

So with your debugging help I think I've got this solved. I had to make a bunch of changes; there were multiple cascading issues at work here (mainly due to a known issue with measures that read the registry). I'll add this fix to a new release later on. For some strange reason, I have not gotten feedback on this from anyone else, which is a little surprising.

[Israeli]

I'll add this fix to a new release later on. For some strange reason, I have not gotten feedback on this from anyone else, which is a little surprising.

Great and thanks a lot!!

But sadly most of the world at moment is not communicating too much.
Probably too many phones and the minds already downgraded, can only bomb smilies or such... LOL