Trend colours have changed

[stevendt]

Hi folks,

I've noticed a weird change this morning, the colours used in the trends on my Cumulus web page have changed, seemingly overnight. I have not updated Cumulus (b3079) or the Windows (7) OS, but the trend colours shown on iPad, iPhone and Edge (Windows 10) browsers have all changed. The other display colours seem to be unchanged. The trends shown locally, over the network from the Cumulus PC have also changed.

Has anyone seen this before or have any idea what might have caused it?

regards
Dave

[HansR]

I noticed the same and have been trying to find the cause. Not sure, only changed CumulusMX.exe because of the 3083 update.
I know the colours/layout of those graphs are defined by the theme. Did not have time to analyse it completely though.

The debugger says:

Code: Select all

        setOptions(Highcharts.theme);

in grid.js has a problem:

Aantekening 2020-06-10 124552.png

So having said that, it seems something has changed in the includes which are fetched somewhere else. Recently something changed in the reference of the highcharts libraries and apparently it does not match the grid.js which is already from the dawn of MX. So maybe just too old and needs review?

But I did not get any further than this.

[stevendt]

Hi,

thanks a lot for the reply - I'm glad that it doesn't appear to be something wrong at my end then. I have not updated CumulusMX since I installed b3079, so it shouldn't be a Cumulus.exe change that caused my issue.

I did a quick check of the dates on script files that I think are used by the trends and there doesn't seem to have been any changes there, but you obviously know more about how the graphs are generated than I do, so thanks for the info.

Hopefully, Mark may be able to shed some light on this if it is more than a single user problem

regards
Dave

[freddie]

An announcement post shows the changes in Highcharts references made at release 3.5.0. Looking at the post, it appears that the highstock javascript is fixed to version 8.0 - whereas grid javascript is set to download the latest version, which currently is 8.1. So it looks like a version mismatch between highstock and grid. You could either pin your grid version to 8.0 by editing the reference in your page. Or, alternatively, make both "latest version" by removing version information from the URL.

[HansR]

To be honest @freddie, I think this should be done in the release as the interface is definitely part of MX. It should not be a users problem.

And in your reference it is clearly stated

Code: Select all

As mentioned previously, this will only affect users whose interface and/or website do not have an internet connection - therefore this will affect very few users.

Well, I have internet which means as far as I understood that no action is required.

Apart from that, I am not sure the 8.x grid.js would be the same (or similar) as the old grid (which dates from 2015 I think). So if it is setup like this the look and feel of MX changes when highcharts changes. Doubt if that is what is intended.

To be honest, in my CumulusUtils, I caught this issue by making my own HighChartsDefaults. Whatever happens, it always will look the same.
Maybe MX should take a similar approach.

[stevendt]

Hi Freddie,

I agree with Hans. I read that Announcement before I installed CumulusMX - my install post-dated the Announcement and was release 3.6.3 (b3079). Having read the comments that :

"Under most circumstances this will not affect the functionality of your website or interface."
"this will only affect users whose interface and/or website do not have an internet connection - therefore this will affect very few users."

I did not expect to be affected, but obviously am.

It seems that this issue will impact ALL users unless they customise the charts?

regards
Dave

[sfws]

An announcement post shows the changes in Highcharts references made at release 3.5.0. Looking at the post, it appears that the highstock javascript is fixed to version 8.0 - whereas grid javascript is set to download the latest version, which currently is 8.1. So it looks like a version mismatch between highstock and grid. You could either pin your grid version to 8.0 by editing the reference in your page. Or, alternatively, make both "latest version" by removing version information from the URL.

Actually, Freddie, your announcement possibly needs an update.
It was right for that version 3.5.0; and as far as I recall for other 3.5.x versions, but I am not bothering to check back.

However, I have noticed when updating for every version 3.6.x, that the Highstocks library is included in the CumulusMX/webfiles folder in each distribution, and is therefore restored during install of a new release, despite that I then delete it to match what your announcement implied.

You are right in what you say, the trendst.htm file is currently coded to load the mismatch from the cdn, instead of using the files in the distribution.

But your announcement is now wrong in respect of the files being excluded from the distribution, and the only source being a cdn.

[freddie]

To be honest @freddie, I think this should be done in the release as the interface is definitely part of MX. It should not be a users problem.

I agree. This is just a quick fix.

And in your reference it is clearly stated

Code: Select all

As mentioned previously, this will only affect users whose interface and/or website do not have an internet connection - therefore this will affect very few users.

Well, I have internet which means as far as I understood that no action is required.

That was referring to the fact that the files were no longer stored locally, so is not really pertinent to this discussion.

Apart from that, I am not sure the 8.x grid.js would be the same (or similar) as the old grid (which dates from 2015 I think). So if it is setup like this the look and feel of MX changes when highcharts changes. Doubt if that is what is intended.

Hence my comment on pinning the URLs to a specific Highcharts release (as a quick fix only, of course).

To be honest, in my CumulusUtils, I caught this issue by making my own HighChartsDefaults. Whatever happens, it always will look the same.
Maybe MX should take a similar approach.

Pinning to a release will have the same effect - but I defer to Mark on this matter.

[freddie]

But your announcement is now wrong in respect of the files being excluded from the distribution, and the only source being a cdn.

I haven't heard anything from @mcrossley to suggest that the JS files were deliberately added to the distribution, so will await a response before changing the announcement.

[freddie]

I did not expect to be affected, but obviously am.

The intent of the word "affected" in the announcement was to address those users that do not have an internet connection but wanted to keep their charts working. This issue is different, and is easily resolved - but I will hang fire on suggesting the precise mechanics of the resolution until I hear from Mark.

[stevendt]

OK, thanks . . .

I will wait with bated breath

[freddie]

It will be looked at on Friday.

[freddie]

In the meantime you could change the reference in CumulusMX/charts.html (and the equivalent on your web site) to 8.1, as a quick fix.

i.e. change https://code.highcharts.com/stock/8.0/highstock.js to https://code.highcharts.com/stock/8.1/highstock.js

Just as a quick fix, of course, until the distribution is sorted.

[mcrossley]

I'll change the distribution on the next release to pin the grid.js file to the same version as the main HighCharts version. I have now discovered the undocumented (afaics) path for version specific theme files...
i.e.

Code: Select all

		<script src="https://code.highcharts.com/stock/8.0/highstock.js"></script>
		<script src="https://code.highcharts.com/8.0/themes/grid.js"></script>

[HansR]

Aha... had been looking for something like that already. To speed up I created my own grid
Undocumented is always tricky, but as long as it works it works