Problems with InteractionDialog not being shown

[ThomasH99]

I've spend the last few weeks trying to figure out what happens and no success so far, despite pulling out quite a lot of hair. So I thought I'd create this ticket in the hope that better minds may be able to figure out what's wrong.

I use the InteractionDialog (ID) to implement a step-by-step demo of the UI, pointing to different parts and explaining what they do. So, one InteractionDialog is shown and when the user pushes Next it is disposed() and the next one is shown. The steps are animated to attract attention to the new element.

My approach is to simply use InteractionDialog.show(Component), however, I can't get them to appear consistently, sometimes nothing is shown. I've tried multiple times debugging the CN1 code but the logic with multiple layeredPanes depending on formMode or not, as well as the ainmation and the delayed adding using the changeQueue and ComponentAnimation() in Container.insertComponentAt(final int index, final Object constraint, final Component cmp) makes it complex and I haven't been able to figure out what's wrong.

I've also try to create a test case to reproduce this but (frustratingly) it doesn't reproduce the problem, probably because my real app has some additional aspects which somehow make the problem appear.

A few indices:

• I mix InteractionDialogs in formMode and not in formMode (since they may point to stuff both outside and inside the contentPane).
• When I show the InteractionDialog in a showSeriallyOnIdle, it sometimes works (but not consistently). So, I suspect that it may somehow be related to the queued updates of the content of the Layers.
• I also suspect that one source of the problem may be the InteractionDialog.cleanupLayer() which only seems to clean up formLayer and not the 'class' layer (supported by the observation that sometimes during debugging I noticed several layers were added at the same time). But I'm not sure this would be enough to explain the issue.
• Sometimes the ID shows up at another screen, like if the adding to the layer was delayed.

[shai-almog]

InteractionDialog share the same layer that is used by all instances and that can cause problems. To keep the change conservative I'm hiding it behind a flag InteractionDialog.setStackable(true) which is supposed to solve the problem.

[ThomasH99]

Thanks. It's difficult to nail down the issue so it's greatly appreciated that you help. However, I'm not sure the changes in #5195 will fix everything. A couple of reasons:

• doing the showPopupDialog(Component) inside a callSeriallyOnIdle() makes the dialogs appear very often and even when showing the very first InteractionDialog.
• when trying to show the very first InteractionDialog on the device, it doesn't appear at all, but if for example I move the app to background and then foreground it suddenly appears (even in another screen for which it was added).

This seems to hint at some timing problems or that the animation to add the ID it not being executed until later for some reason. (what I mentioned above re. changeQueue and ComponentAnimation()).

Otherwise I'm also taker of ideas for how to debug this more extensively myself. After wandering around in problem for weeks, I'm probably going a bit blind.

In particular, if the changeQueue/animation lacking behind is somehow behind this, is there a way to force it (I assume callSeriallyOnIdle() kind of lets the EDT finish its stuff, but it does not reliably solve the problem).

Also, this issue is really important since if I can't get the step-by-step tutorials to work, I can't really start the beta testing.

[shai-almog]

The core problem relates to two dialogs colliding since they share the same layer. It's timing sensitive since the collision might not occur if the dialogs are fully serialized which is hard to do with asynchronous calls.

[ThomasH99]

Not sure this is the only (or full) explanation since as I wrote even the very first ID shown has the problem. I’ll try to start building CN1 locally again to test the improvements faster.

[ThomasH99]

I just tried building with the master and I set setStackable(true) but I see no change (the first ID does not display or is displayed some time later, e.g. in another screen, so it somehow seems to linger in some void until it gets added to some other screen). If my suggestions in the previous comments are not possible explanations, is there anything I can do to debug or further nail down the reason for the issue? Btw, I have the issue both on device and in Simulator but not behaving exactly the same.

[ThomasH99]

I've done sone more debugging and I think I've identified the reason why the InteractionDialog does not get shown (well, maybe not the reason, but a pretty clear symptom).

What I show below is a debug session which is started several seconds after the Form has been shown, so there should normally not be any pending animations.

Here are the steps (screenshot showing the same at the end of this comment):

InteractionDialog.showPopupDialogImpl(Rectangle rect, boolean bias)
calls
InteractionDialog.getLayeredPane(Form f)
which calls
Form.getFormLayeredPane(Class c, boolean top)
which calls
Form.addComponentToForm(BorderLayout.OVERLAY, formLayeredPane)
which calls
Form.addComponentToForm(Object constraints, Component cmp)
which calls
Container.insertComponentAt(final int index, final Object constraint, final Component cmp)
which calls
Container. insertComponentAt(final int index, final Object constraint, final Component cmp)
which checks a.isAnimating()
which returns true because AnimationManager.anims.size()>1 (in my case size() == 3 !!)

So, it seems the animation is somehow ’stuck’??

Next, since isAnimating() is true, the insertion of the new layer is done using this code (in Container.insertComponentAt(final int index, final Object constraint, final Component cmp)):

a.addAnimation(new ComponentAnimation() {
@Override
protected void updateState() {
//…
    if (!alreadyAdded) {
        try {
            alreadyAdded = true;
            cmp.setParent(null);
            if (constraint != null) {
                layout.addLayoutComponent(constraint, cmp, Container.this);
            }
            insertComponentAtImpl(index, cmp);
        } finally {
            changeQueue.remove(insertion);
        }
        revalidateLater();
    }
}

which in turn (I think) is never executed since the animiation queue is stuck.

When I look inside the anims queue I see 3 instances of the MorphAnimation:

And each MorphAnimation seems to animate the content of the main scrollable container inside the Form's contentPane:

Screenshot of call three spelled out in the text above:

[shai-almog]

Since you're running on code can you try the branch in this PR: #5214 and see if it solves your issue? It's a bit speculative.

[ThomasH99]

Thanks, I thought I had to wait for you to merge it (not a big Github expert). I tried it and no change. However, I had more time to debug further and realized that the reason for the 3 MorphAnimations is that before launching my step-by-step demo, I trigger the expansion of some collapse sections (to ensure the demo starts with the right information visible). I turned the animation of that collapse off, and then it works. However, I also need to turn animation off for the InteractionDialogs, so there seems to be come kind of conflict around animations. I will test later without the version in this PR (I suspect it may not be necessary), so maybe continue holding your horses with merging it.