Opensong freezes

So, what happens when you start OpenSong now?

• Does it partially or completely start and then freeze (i.e. it does not respond to keyboard input and mouse clicks).
• Does it display any messages?
• Did you configure it to start up in Set mode?
• Did you configure it to automatically load the last Set and / or Song?
• What does the main window show when OpenSong is frozen

I have not heard of any problem causing OpenSong to freeze. So I suppose you run some software on your system that misbehaves, or your system is broken. The latter is relatively unlikely because other programs would suffer in a similar way.

You may try to reset OpenSong by selecting 'Reset OpenSong Preferences' in the installer (that option is on a page after you have selected normal, full or custom installation). You do not need tu uninstall first. you can install over your current one.
This replaces a file in AppData, where OpenSong saves some settings and states. OpenSong does not use the registy, so I don't know, what you cleared from your registy.
You can create a backup of this file and remove it yourself, without the help of the installer. To do so

• open Windows Explorer
• enter shell:appdata\OpenSong in the address bar
• move or rename the file called preferences.plist (or preferences with Type PLIST-File if you have extensions hidden) while OpenSong is not running
• start OpenSong
• OpenSong will ask you for it's document folder. Unless you moved it, it is at {This PC}\{Documents}\OpenSong and OpenSong will likely suggest this folder i.e. open the dialog to this folder. If Windows interferes and opens the dialog to some other place, you may enter shell:personal\OpenSong into the Folder textbox or the address bar. Confirm with Select.
• OpenSong will now complain that it did not find Bible "" and then tell you which bible it loaded instead
• If this configuration store was at fault, OpenSong should now be up and running again.

If the above helped, please post the preferences.plist file which you moved or renamed here for me to analyze. This might help us to prevent the same from happening to others.

Thanks for your suggestion. However, it didn't work. I renamed the file in question "preferences.plist-old" and restarted Opensong. It looke fine, but what I used to di, was take the previous week's playlist and update it with new songs and images, also changing the date. I do this by opening the set from the previous week. I have an item {date (custom} with specific information. As soon as I select that item, it freezes up and nothing works - not the keyboard, not the mouse, except killing the application via Taskmanager. Extremely frustrating.

Thanks for reporting back.
It looks like you narrowed the source of the problem down to that set, or even the set item.

It is probably easiest to use an older version of the set as a base for new edits.

You may try to find the part within the set, that causes the problem, but that is likely not that easy, especially when you are not used to edit xml files in a text editor.

From what I understand, you are able to load the set into OpenSong, but problems appear as soon as you make that particular set item the current one. This indicates that the structure of the file is in tact, but there is some problem with the slide text.

The file is an XML file, a text file with special "tags" giving the contents structure. We had problems in the past with characters our XML processor did not like and made an effort to check and avoid any of those characters making it into the file. Maybe in your case one made it through.

If you want to try to salvage this set, I suggest you first try am XML validator to see if the file is well formed XML. It is easiest to just search the internet for an xml validator and upload the file there for validation. If you get an error message, it might tell you exactly where within the file the problem is.

You can use a text editor to open the file. The text in the editor may be unwieldy, if the set contains embedded images (i.e. from a style set in a style set item, an image set item or a custom style set in any of the set items). These are ling stretches of character data which look like garbage. If this is the case, you might want to try to delete those items in OpenSong first.

The file is UTF-8 encoded. If your editor does not detect this automatically, you should instruct it to load and save it as UTF-8, preferably without BOM (byte order mark). Windows Editor (Notepad) works well for this.

Here is an sample from the Example set, that is installed with OpenSong.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<set>
  <slide_groups>
  <slide_group name="Announcements" type="custom" seconds="10" loop="true">
  <title>Announcements</title>
  <subtitle>For April 26th, 2004</subtitle>
  <notes/>
  <slides>
  <slide>
  <body>-= Monday =-
12-1 PM: Prayer Meeting</body></slide>
  <slide>
  <body>-= Wednesday =-
6-7:30 PM: Prayer Meeting</body></slide>
  <slide>
  <body>-= Thursday =-
6:30-8:30 PM: Youth Group</body></slide></slides></slide_group>
  <slide_group name="Colossians 1:11-14" type="scripture">

 ...

 </slide_group></slide_groups></set>

It is the start of the file including the complete "Amouncements (custom)" item, the beginning of the second set item ... and the very end.

There are elements with names in <element_name> angle brackets which are closed with a matching tag </element_name>. If the slash is after the name <element_name/>, the element is empty and there is no matching tag. These tags are nested hierarchically, meaning they may be nested, but never overlap. Moreover, in this type of XML file, elements do not appear embedded within non-whitespace text.

The first line is special. The <set>element starts on the second line and ends on the last.

Within that, there is the <slide_groups> element, and within that several <slide_group> elements.

These slide_group elements have what is called attributes after the element name, but before the >. In particular there is a name attribute and a type attribute, that lets you identify your {date (custom)} item (name="{date}" type="custom").

Within that group are several more elements. Inspect all the contents of that slide_group element and remove any suspicious characters, any < and > that is not part of an element start or end tag and any & that is not part of the string &, leaving elements in tact, or removing them entirely.

Save the file, validate it, and if everything is ok, try to load it in OpenSong (after a restart) to see if you fixed it.

If this sounds too intimidating to you, and you can share the set file, I will have a look at it. Attach it to a post, or send me your email address by a private message (click my name, SvA on top of this post, then click the button "Send Message"). I will then send an email to you to which you can reply.

Thanks for your response and the extended explanation. I am familiar with HTML and therefore understand most of the code in the XML file. As per your suggestion, I validated the file and it passed 100%.

I deleted all the gibberish from the file, saved it under another name, opened that and had the same freezing result. I validated that file as well without a problem.

I then uninstalled 3.4.7, downloaded and installed 3.4.6 and tried everything again - and it froze. Next I restarted and opened the example set, which presented well. However, the moment I clicked on any of the set items, it froze again. I've actually done a short screen recording which shows that everything works well, up to the point I select any of the set items for changing or editing.

Even starting a new set from scratch causes the app to freeze immediately after selecting the first song. I also have a screen recording of that. Unfortunately I do not see a "Send message" link to send you my e-mail address, but I will put it here in a 'hieroglyphical' way: hein AT zentgraf DOT org. Both these short video files have been attached.

I honestly wish we can get to the bottom of this, since the app works very well and I would hate to go back to Libroffice Impress or something similar.

I installed 3.4.8 on a different computer where everything seems to work fine, even older sets that would freeze my main computer. It is possible that there is a glitch in my computer, but I wouldn't know where to start looking, apart from completely blow the OS and reinstall everything. Any ideas?

Hi
thank you for all the new information. This demonstrates, that my hunch about the reason for the lock-up was wrong. Sorry about all that all that talk about the innards of the set file, and making you to poke around it.

With your update, I can't think of any problem within the set nor with anything that would be saved in any of the configuration files. So for now, there is no point in sending me any of those, as I most likely won't be able to reproduce your problem.

What you can try, besides re-installing the system, is checking it's integrity. Follow these instructions by Microsoft, then fix any issues it finds.

You can try to start your system in a troubleshooting mode. I usually use System Configuration to do this. Try Diagnostic startup first. In order to edit a set, the most basic system configuration should do.

You can also try a different user on the same machine. The problem may be caused by some user specific setting, or even try to run OpenSong in portable mode with the original, or another user.

There is an option to create a portable installation towards the end of settings you make in the installer, after the "Select Components" page, on a page titled "Select additional Tasks". The installer does not allow you to tell it, where to create the portable installation if you have a regular installation already. So, you need to run the installer from the command line and add it with a parameter:
OpenSong-3.4.8.exe /DIR=E:\
There is no option, where you could pre-select the portable installation also, so you need to still make sure you set that checkmark. Also, the path is not displayed anywhere before the installation process is started, unfortunately.
The example assumes a thumb drive with drive letter E:, but this path may be adjusted as needed. You can even select a location on your hard disc. You must make sure you select a location you are allowed to write to, even as a non-elevated user. The program is then not portable in the sense, that you can take it along with you, but it is portable in the sense, that it is self-contained. All files and settings reside in that one folder tree. And you can then copy or move that folder to wherever you like, as long as you are still allowed to read, write and delete files in that location.

You may prefer to create a portable installation from your already installed installation. To do so,

• copy the OpenSong folder from the "Program Files (x86)" folder to a location you have full access to as a regular user.
• edit the file OpenSong Settings\Globals using a text editor. (The file has no extension, so windows will not know how to open it.) Change the portable setting from false to true. the line should look like <portable installation="true"/> in the end.
• Run OpenSong by double clicking the OpenSong application file. This will take you through the first run setup prompts (select language, copying sample files, scripture index). This will create a folder named OpenSong Data alongside the application file. This is the new OpenSong documents folder for the portable installation.
• If you wish, you can now copy some or all files from your regular OpenSong Documents folder (usualy shell:personal\OpenSong) to that new OpenSong Data folder.
• Optionally you may want to delete all unins.exe and unins.dat files that you copied from your regular installation. These are used to uninstall the regular installation and should not be run from this new location.

Thanks very much for all these tips. I will certainly try everything in succession and see what works.

I uninstalled 3.4.6 and removed any refence to Opensong, after which I installed 3.4.8, but this time on my cloud space, where I also store theWord and other Scripture files. This just makes it easier to use from the second computer. It opened well and works as I was used to - no more freezing in SET mode. Thanks for your tips, as the system integrity probably did the job.
My next question is: how easy is it to convert a bible in pdf to a format for Opensong? I've looked at other posts, but can't seem to find an answer.

Glad to hear that your problem is now fixed.

My next question is: how easy is it to convert a bible in pdf to a format for Opensong?

There are two bible formats supported in OpenSong. Both are based on XML.

OpenSong's own format is simpler, as it supports only the bare necessity for it to work in OpenSong.
Bibles in this format should adhere to the versification of the King James Bible, i.e. use the same number of chapters for each book, and use the same number of verses for each chapter respectively. There is a file format extension to overcome this restriction, but as far as I know there's no public example and no public documentation for it. I would have to reverse engineer it (or maybe @swampcat knows).

Zefania XML, the other format is somewhat more elaborate, but can be kept simple too. A format description can be found at Zefania-XML-Preservation on Github

Converting a pdf file to any format that can be used by a bible reader program is usually a time consuming manual process, as you usually cannot extract the the text in a way that you can be sure what is bible text, headings, footnotes, insertions etc. and where chapters and verses start and end.

The easiest route is probably to create a text file with one verse per line with a book number, chapter number and verse number on the start of the line. One such file format is the Unbound Bible UTF8 text file format that the Bible Drop Box can process. Then use a converter to build one of the other formats. The Freely-Given Bible DropBox has information about many common bible file formats and can convert between many of them.

Thanks very much. I will follow up on that. Unfortunately it looks as though the FG Bible DropBox website hasn't been updated for about 12 years... quite a pity. As you say, a time-consuming process. Hopefully I can pass it on to a youngster!

OpenSong's own format is simpler, as it supports only the bare necessity for it to work in OpenSong.
Bibles in this format should adhere to the versification of the King James Bible, i.e. use the same number of chapters for each book, and use the same number of verses for each chapter respectively. There is a file format extension to overcome this restriction, but as far as I know there's no public example and no public documentation for it. I would have to reverse engineer it (or maybe @swampcat knows).

I happend to stumble upon a description of this format extension on this site:
Feature Request #216 Scripture files

Hi Ed, thanks for your contribution and the barebones file. I will certainly see if I can get the translation I would like to use going.

In the meanwhile I had an entire dozen eggs over my face... 🤢

As mentioned above, I installed Opensong on a cloud server, thinking it would make things easier. All our admin files, playlists and other documents for our radio station are on the same server, facilitating people from different locations. I assumed this would work for Opensong, but for some strange reason, Opensong refuses to see the latest additions - the latest set as well as a new song added. Checking the information from an explorer window, the files are all there, but trying to open them via Opensong is impossible. Maybe someone can shed light on this. Alternatively I'll have to do a local installation on the other machine and use a flash drive every time to convey the necessary files. 😵‍💫

I installed Opensong on a cloud server, thinking it would make things easier. ...
Checking the information from an explorer window, the files are all there, but trying to open them via Opensong is impossible.

I am not sure how your installation / setup looks like exactly now.

• If you installed OpenSong on the remote (cloud) server, you will access OpenSong using a remote desktop connection. OpenSong does not know about this. From it's perspecivem everything is local.
• If instead you have a local installation and pointed the OpenSong Document folder to a location related to the cloud, several scenarios are possible
  1. You use a local folder that gets synchronized with the cloud
  2. You access the remote files through a link of some type. This is comparable to a network drive (or is one proper).
  3. Windows Explorer has a cloud extension, that shows you the remote content, but there is no true representation of it in the file system.
  4. some combination of the above.

OpenSong needs to be able to see and access the files, so 1. and 2. will work. Any partial synchronization (e.g. transfer on demand) will likely not work, and some explorer extension, that makes your cloud files visible by some non-files-ystem protocol will not work.

So, as long as OpenSong can access files as if they were local, OpenSong will work ok. If this condition is not met, there is likely no way to make OpenSong work.
I would expect this to be the case for any program that is not equipped to use some particular cloud service or at least access files over url links.

I have little experience with this myself, as I use cloud storage rarely, and if so, for backup purposes only. But I would expect from any decent cloud storage with windows integration, to provide true synchronization services, which will lead to a local storage folder that satisfies OpenSong's demands..

Thanks for your reply. I've found an anomaly and will check that after everything has synced.

For some strange reason, the installation went into another 'Opensong' folder: D:\Nextcloud\Opensong\Opensong on the new machine. That would obviously have caused a syncing problem.
Another question: will Opensong ever by made available for Linux? Microsuck is really ripping the lake from underneath the ducks and the soone I can get my machines free from all the bloatware and other nonsense, the better. Blessings in the name of Yeshua to all concerned with this project.

Another question: will Opensong ever by made available for Linux?

Yes, sure! You can download a copy from Sourceforge. it is available as a .tar.gz archive and as a .deb package for both x64 and armhf (intended for Raspberry Pi).

Even the latest binary version is rather old by now and has dependencies to libraries, that are no longer available in the most recent distros. There is a discussion on how to still make it work on those systems in this forum: #356 Linux deb libwebkit2gtk dependency.

On the other hand, you can compile your own from the sources. Xojo, the development environment used, is free on Linux systems for compiling linux binaries.

There is currently no write-up how to go about this. So, if you are interested, I can try to assist you with this. I am fairly new to linux, but I have a system up and running.

On the other hand, we are planning to release a new version soon.

Thamks, SvA, will wait for a while, as I have other projects needing attention right now.