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Judging Technology » Post: WER offline mode not working

WER offline mode not working

Oct. 15, 2014 02:13:27 PM

Philip Schulz
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

German-speaking countries

WER offline mode not working

When I start WER and click “cancel” on the login screen nothing further happens. It appears to still be running and can only be closed using the task manager. Anyone else experiencing this behavior?

Oct. 15, 2014 02:50:53 PM

Dan Collins
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 5 (Judge Foundry)), Scorekeeper

USA - Northeast

WER offline mode not working

Working fine for me, although I haven't updated in a few months.

Oct. 15, 2014 02:58:43 PM

Scott Marshall
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 4 (Judge Foundry)), Hall of Fame

USA - Southwest

WER offline mode not working

From a theoretical / policy standpoint
Working fine for me
and
I haven't updated in a few months
are contradictory statements. :)

As far as I know, it's not currently the case - but WER could, at any point, receive updates that are required for proper operation and/or reporting of events. Updating regularly is a reasonable expectation, IMO.

Philip, I'm sorry I can't be of more help - the only things that come to mind are “trying to update (or verify current version) and unable to contact the update server”, or perhaps a system-level lock on a file that WER needs to update. In the latter case, a reboot should clear that up (or, more likely, prove that's not the cause); I don't know how you could test the first theory.

d:^D

Edited Scott Marshall (Oct. 15, 2014 02:59:02 PM)

Oct. 15, 2014 03:31:26 PM

Dan Collins
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 5 (Judge Foundry)), Scorekeeper

USA - Northeast

WER offline mode not working

Originally posted by Scott Marshall:

From a theoretical / policy standpoint
Working fine for me
and
I haven't updated in a few months
are contradictory statements. :)

As far as I know, it's not currently the case - but WER could, at any point, receive updates that are required for proper operation and/or reporting of events. Updating regularly is a reasonable expectation, IMO.

Philip, I'm sorry I can't be of more help - the only things that come to mind are “trying to update (or verify current version) and unable to contact the update server”, or perhaps a system-level lock on a file that WER needs to update. In the latter case, a reboot should clear that up (or, more likely, prove that's not the cause); I don't know how you could test the first theory.

d:^D
Sorry, it wasn't clear that I was testing on my personal install, which isn't used for live events. I just use it to test tiebreaker math and to test my API against. After asking the store to test offline mode on their up-to-date install, we can reproduce Philip's error. As far as we can tell, there's no hard drive or network activity that's blocking it, it just never gets past the splash screen. We'll be submitting a bug report.

Oct. 16, 2014 02:35:15 AM

Martin Golm
Scorekeeper

German-speaking countries

WER offline mode not working

I haven't tried the offline mode. But I get the same result as Philip when I click the login button.

Oct. 16, 2014 03:34:31 AM

Monsuporn Lauhaphand
Judge (Level 3 (International Judge Program))

Southeast Asia

WER offline mode not working

I try to reproduce the error. I have the same problem as Philip mention. I
cannot find anyway to skip this splash screen and go through the main
window. I concluded that current WER (update 14Oct2014) cannot use offline
function yet.)

Smith

==== reproduce method ====

just install new WER (update October) and install on machine without WER
before. Update to the latest version.

I open WER without enter DCI / Password. I found the same problem as Philip
mention. WER stuck with the logo and the main window won't show up. When I
end task it, it pop up a message box with thext “The database is corrupt
and unable to restore. please contact support”

Oct. 16, 2014 03:40:34 AM

James Do Hung Lee
Judge (Level 3 (Judge Foundry)), Hall of Fame, Scorekeeper, Tournament Organizer

USA - Pacific Northwest

WER offline mode not working

I use WER at least twice each week and have the latest update. This has been my own experience for as long as I can remember. My position has long been that WER does not really have an off-line mode. Despite any syncing that occurs, attempts to open WER without logging in results in either the frozen WER start panel or the calendar / list with no events. Whenever I do actually have to run an event at a location with no Internet or spotty Internet, I have to make sure I log into WER from some location with Internet just to be sure I have events available to run in the software and then make very sure to not shut down WER between having it come up and arriving at the venue. Then, once good connectivity is lost, WER continuously tries to reconnect resulting in all manner of event-damaging outcomes such as data entry delays that can cause it to take 30 sec or more for each player entry, no players found who are not already in the local player database, and slowdowns during results entry that can cause keystrokes and mouse clicks to cache and then flood into WER after a system pause that results in a cascade of erroneous entries that cannot be found again without going through all match slips in the batch just before the software glitch is noticed.

Oct. 16, 2014 09:59:06 AM

James Winward-Stuart
Judge (Level 2 (UK Magic Officials)), Tournament Organizer

United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa

WER offline mode not working

I'm finding that it works fine in offline mode (though of course it can't access the non-local player database) - however, I also am not using the most recent update.

Given Monsuporn's research and discovery of a clear reproducible bug in a critical feature, is it improper to recommend that people refrain from updating until this bug is fixed?

(“Working fine” and “not current” might be contradictory from a policy perspective, but unfortunately all too often they seem to be the sensible option from a technical perspective. I recently had a WER problem with accessing old but not submitted events that could only be solved by finding an old computer with a ~6 month old version of WER and using that.)

Edited James Winward-Stuart (Oct. 16, 2014 10:01:19 AM)

Oct. 16, 2014 10:13:30 AM

Brandon Nguyen
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Pacific West

WER offline mode not working

I can add myself to the list of people experience issues with accessing offline mode with the latest version of WER. The program sinply stops doing anything at the splash screen, as Monsuporn has mentioned. I let it attempt to load for about an hour and nothing happened, so indeed seems like the most recent update has broken offline mode.

Oct. 17, 2014 09:25:11 AM

David Guteša
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy)), Scorekeeper

Europe - East

WER offline mode not working

Does anyone else have problems with starting WER? It stopped working mid-event, and it refuses to go into offline mode and says that the server is offline. Now when I start it just freezes in the loading screen.

Oct. 17, 2014 09:46:32 AM

Erik-Sander Kwebeman
Judge (Uncertified)

BeNeLux

WER offline mode not working

We have the same problem here. It freezes in the loading screen.

Oct. 17, 2014 09:49:43 AM

Juan Francisco Montiel Aragon
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy)), Scorekeeper, Tournament Organizer

Iberia

WER offline mode not working

Originally posted by David Guteša:

Does anyone else have problems with starting WER? It stopped working mid-event, and it refuses to go into offline mode and says that the server is offline. Now when I start it just freezes in the loading screen.

Yes, there is a problem. Hasbro Iberia' people say to stores that we can run tournaments manually (Pen and Paper) and next week they will say us how to fix it (Fnm´s and Games Day). I´m now using DCIr instead of pen and paper for the fnm.

Oct. 17, 2014 10:02:15 AM

David Guteša
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy)), Scorekeeper

Europe - East

WER offline mode not working

And what am I suppose to do with a 70+ people PTQ this weekend? :D
DCIR?

Oct. 17, 2014 11:35:04 AM

Steffen Baumgart
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

German-speaking countries

WER offline mode not working

Having a 150+ player PTQ coming up tomorrow, I tried the following:
- uninstall any currently installed WER software (make sure to backup local player database and any events you want to keep first!)
- download and install the WER from here: http://webapp.wizards.com/DCIRUpdate/ReporterSetup.exe
- click “cancel” when prompted to update / login
- create a new fake event (offline) and use that to run the actual event
Downside: you can't look up any DCI numbers and you have to enter each player name and country manually

Edit: since the WotC servers seem to be offline at the moment, here's a mirror of the WER setup file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21791770/ReporterSetup.exe

Edited Steffen Baumgart (Oct. 17, 2014 02:04:17 PM)

Oct. 17, 2014 01:32:04 PM

Stefano Ferrari
Italy and Malta

WER offline mode not working

How do you suggest to manage GameDay tiebreakers and Top 8 ratings with Pen & Paper? :|

Originally posted by Steffen Baumgart:

Edit: since the WotC servers seem to be offline at the moment

On a side note… WER is down since this afternoon, Event Locator is not working, Judge Center can't be accessed, and MTGO is offline.
Let me tell you this, I hope you had a good Friday 17th – because I'm sure somebody in WotC didn't.


EDIT – Judge Center can be accessed now, couldn't be accessed up to 30 minutes ago.

Edited Stefano Ferrari (Oct. 17, 2014 01:33:19 PM)