We are having difficulties with users missing communications from other users.
Scenario: A Broadcast message is sent to a group of users. On the recipient’s end, the name tab of the sender is not displaying in red as it would like a normal IM. Users are missing these broadcast messages and efficiency suffers.
A work around solution to lessen the impact this has is to this is to enable toast pop ups in notifications The problem we encounter is that the toast pop up does not display which user sent the broadcast. The receiving user must then search through open tabs to find sender of the broadcast, view the message and respond. This makes for an inefficient process as the tab name is not in red. Also when multiple tabs are open, “Broadcast from…” is truncated, furthering the negative impact on the user.
Similarly, task bar flashing does not happen with these broadcasts. Only with regular IM’s.
I have tried to look into it, but couldn’t figure out why it doesn’t make them red. I’m not a programmer. And Spark hasn’t had serious active developers for many years now.
I have added a name of a sender to a toast popup for broadcasts recently. You can test it in the latest build (will be included in 2.7.3 version released later this month) Ignite Realtime: Spark Nightly Builds
I wasn’t able to reproduce the not flashing issue. For me it flashes. I have Continuous flashing setting enabled. Of course, it will stop flashing after a few minutes or so and will only glow (this is by design). Wasn’t able to reproduce the truncating of names either. For me it always shows full names of tabs no matter how many i open. Are you using the default JTattoo Luna skin?
A few more points. New tabs usually open on a left side besides the last opened tab. So, if you close tabs after reading the messages, this can help finding new broadcast faster. Of course, if you have too many opened already, then Spark is stacking them in a weird order (this is a Java thing and not much can be done about it). Broadcasts also have “i” icon on them.
Thank you for your very quick response to my issue.
I have very limited programing experience myself and I do not know if this will be any help. But I know that in version 2.6.0 broadcasts were flagging in red. Maybe compare the current lines of coding to that version?
The flashing issue we are experiencing is in a Windows 10 environment and only happens with the broadcast. I do not know if that is of any help. It worked in 2.6.0 ok but back then we had Win XP and Win 7 machines.
There were tons of changes in the Spark code between 2.6.0 and 2.7.0. Also i’m not sure i’ve found the right place in the code which is affecting broadcast tabs. It could be in some other file amongst hundreds of them. And you can’t just replace current code with the old one as it may brake something else. Anyway, i will take a look at it later, but most probably i won’t be able to find a cause. It is too complex for my limited coding skills.
I was able to reproduce the not-flashing issue. It is not isolated to Windows 10. But it only happens when you already have a tab with that person opened. https://igniterealtime.org/issues/browse/SPARK-1637
I am sorry for the delay in responding to you. I appreciate all of your help for this issue. I will reply if I come across any work-arounds or any new information.