Default Calendar module frequently refreshes

DarrenO 0

The default Calendar module on my MM keeps randomly refreshing multiple times.
The issue started prior to the last MM update and I thought the issue would be fixed post upgrading to 2.33, but the module still does it.

My MM was also running on Debian12 on an Asus NUC and has worked without issue since the previous MM version.
With the issue continuing post 2.33, I thought i’d upgrade to Debian13, but the issue persists.

My config.js file has a fetchInterval value of 300000ms (5min) for the calendar module.

I took a video of showing the occurrence, but the file is too big to upload.

Would someone have any idea or an explanation as to why it would behave like this?

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 can you post the config for calendar, xxx out your urld

DarrenO 0

@sdetweil
Thanks Sam.
Here is my config for the default calendar module:

{
module: “calendar”,
header: “Upcoming Events”,
position: “top_left”,
config: {
maximumEntries: 10000, // 10
maximumNumberOfDays: 120, // 365 (30May25 - changed from 50)
pastDaysCount: 0, // 0
displaySymbol: true, // true
defaultSymbol: “calendar”, // calendar
showLocation: true, // false
maxTitleLength: 50, // 25
maxLocationTitleLength: 50, // 25
wrapEvents: true, // false
wrapLcoationEvents: false, // false
maxTitleLines: 3, // 3
maxEventTitleLines: 3, // 3
fetchInterval: 300000, // 300000 (5 minutes)
animationSpeed: 2000, // 2000 (2 seconds)
fade: false, // true
fadePoint: 0.25, // 0.25
tableClass: “small”, // small,xsmall, medium, large, xlarge
displayRepeatingCountTitle: false, // false
dateFormat: “MMM Do”, // MMM Do
dateEndFormat: “HH:mm”, // HH:mm
showEnd: true, // true
showEndsOnlyWithDuration: false, // false
fullDayEventDateFormat: “MMM Do”, // MMM Do
timeFormat: “relative”, // relative, absolute, dateheaders
getRelative: 6, // 6, 0=absolute
urgency: 7, // 7
broadcastEvents: true, // true
hidePrivate: false, // false
hideOngoing: false, // false
broadcastPastEvents: true, // false
sliceMultiDayEvents: false, // false
nextDaysRelative: false, // false
limitDays: 0, // 0
limitDaysNeverSkip: false, // false
flipDateHeaderTitle: false, // false=left, true=right
hideTime: false, // false
hideDuplicates: true, // true
showTimeToday: false, // false
coloredBorder: false, // false
coloredBackground: false, // false
updateOnFetch: true, // true
coloredText: false,
coloredSymbol: true,
customEvents: [
{keyword: ‘Birthday’, symbol: ‘cake’, color: ‘White’},
{keyword: ‘Greens’, symbol: ‘recycle’, color: ‘Orange’},
{keyword: ‘Recycling’, symbol: ‘recycle’, color: ‘Green’},
{keyword: “Anniversary”, symbol: ‘ring’, color: ‘Gold’},
],
tableClass: “xsmall”,
calendars: [
{
// Added : 26-Apr-23
color: “#8B0000”, // dark red
symbol: “users”,
url: ‘https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/user1/basic.ics’,
},
{
// Added : 26-Apr-23
color: “#00008B”, // dark blue
symbol: “male”,
url: ‘https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/user2/basic.ics’,
},
{
// Added : 26-Apr-23
color: “#A020F0”, // purple
symbol: “female”,
url: ‘https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/user3/basic.ics’,
},
{
// Added : 26-Apr-23
color: “#023020”, // green
symbol: “male”,
url: ‘https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/user4/basic.ics’,
},
]
}
},

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 also can you look at the output of npm start or however you start MagicMirror
And find the messages

Broadcasting xxx messages for url xxxx

Collect 15 of those messages either the timestamp
Xxx out the url string, or match them to your 4 utls
These messages should be on the fetchInterval time cycle

Each url fetch is done separately, and they contribute to the shown list of events immediately , which may cause a visual flash

Looking at the code, it uses fixed timers which is restarted for the next cycle after processing this cycle. So that means longer/larger calendar lists will take longer than shorter ones. This will cause the fetch cycles to drift apart and constantly change
I’m guessing is this is the randomness

The log messages should show consistent cycle times for an individual url, but varying separation between url fetches
If your system is low on memory and utilizes swap on an sd card this could also affect processing time for larger calendar memory requirements, causing additional drift

DarrenO 0

Thanks Sam.
I get the requested information later today and add it the conversation.

Just to clarify the “randomness” of the refresh that I am experiencing, the listing of the calendar events would temporarily disappear and reappear as would be expected with a refresh cycle, but it would do it repeatedly in quick succession/constantly do it.

I took a ~45sec video of the issue, but the video is 86MB and i was unable to upload.
Is there somewhere I can upload it to?

I run two instances of MM from the host - the first one is the primary instance, which is the one experiencing the issue. This is viewed directly on a monitor attached to the host.
The second instance is only viewable and viewed from a browser (Chrome) on my computer.

I also view the first instance on my computer via a second browser tab and use an Extension to switch/rotate between the two tabs on 5 min intervals. The extension does have an option to refresh/reload the next tab to be displayed but I have not enabled this feature, knowing that it would force a pull of the calendar.

My MMs start with the following commands :
pm2 start ~/MagicMirror/installers/pm2_MagicMirror1.json
pm2 start ~/MagicMirror/installers/pm2_MagicMirror2.json

{
  "apps" : [{
    "name"        : "MagicMirror1",
    "cwd"         : "/home/user",
    "script"      : "/home/user/MagicMirror/installers/mm1.sh",
    "watch"       : ["/home/user/MagicMirror/config/config1.js"]
  }]
}

{
  "apps" : [{
    "name"        : "MagicMirror2",
    "cwd"         : "/home/user",
    "script"      : "/home/user/MagicMirror/installers/mm2.sh",
    "watch"       : ["/home/user/MagicMirror/config/config2.js"]
  }]
}

The bash scripts referenced in the .json files above, are :

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/user/MagicMirror
export MM_CONFIG_FILE=config/config1.js
export MM_PORT=8081

if [ $(ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep -i -e xway -e labwc | wc -l) -ne 0 ]; then
   npm run start:wayland
else
   DISPLAY=:0 npm start
fi

#DISPLAY=:0 npm start

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/user/MagicMirror
export MM_CONFIG_FILE=config/config2.js
export MM_PORT=8082
npm run server

#DISPLAY=:0 npm start

I only experience the random/constant refresh issue with the first MM instance running the default Calendar module.
The second instance runs a different calendar module, MMM-MonthlyCalendar from kolbyjack, for a different Google Calendar that is not one of the four accessed by the first instance.

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 the calendar fetch is done on the server side,
All browsers access that same data

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 those calendar modules fetch the days themselves in their own way

DarrenO 0

@sdetweil
i forgot to mention that i experience the same constant refresh/reload issue on both the host and browser instances of the MM that displays the default calendar module, so i guess it’s not isolated to browser on my PC where I view both MM instances.

What would the command be that I need to run to view the npm output?

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 as MagicMirror is started by pm2 the command would be

pm2 logs —lines=xxxx

Two dashes in front of lines
Where xxxx is the number of most recent lines of output, default 15

You can also examine the files the logs are collected in,
In the ~/.pm2/logs. Folder, notice the . in front of pm2

The fact that you see it on other browsers confirms to
Me that this is fetch timing cycle related.
If you look at both displays at once, my guess is the refresh at the same time

DarrenO 0

@sdetweil
I restored my MM from an image i took of it from prior to upgrading to Debian 13 and, so far, I am not experiencing the same refresh.
I’ll keep an eye on things over the next few hours and see if the issue re-occurs.

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 thx. Id really like to see the logs from both for the event broadcast cycle

There was a big calendar parser change in. 33 and another coming in. 34

michaelarnauts

I just made this github issue to track this issue.

https://github.com/MagicMirrorOrg/MagicMirror/issues/3971

sdetweil

@michaelarnauts I replied to it, but there you have a different complaint.

The system design is
Pull the iCal file via the URL
It’s whatever events the source calendar wants to send , we have no control , it’s all text

We convert that to a usable list
And then figure out the repeating events and get a list that could be displayed, expired and not , as of right this second

Then we send that list out to other modules to use
MMM-CalendarExt3 for example, which displays a wall cal view, using the events in view expired or not

Then we process the not expired list and display the xx that you wanted

And repeat that whole process for the next fetchInterval
Once every xx minutes or whatever you have it set to

For each URL configured , we do the exact same process, each sending events when they are fetched. One URL processor doesn’t know about the next, they ALL run independently

DarrenO 0

@sdetweil said in Default Calendar module frequently refreshes:

@DarrenO-0 thx. Id really like to see the logs from both for the event broadcast cycle

There was a big calendar parser change in. 33 and another coming in. 34

I’d upgraded to .33 in mid-Oct and had only upgraded Debian from 12 to 13 earlier this month but don’t recall noticing the issue prior to the OS upgrade.

i’ll see how i go with it under Debian 12 over the weekend and probably re-upgrade to Debian 13 early next week to then see if the issue re-presents itself.
Interestingly, the calendar that contains the most events is the one that was listed in the pm2 logs when the host was issue under Debian 13.
Now that the system is back under Debian 12, I’ll recheck the logs to see if the same notification in the pm2 logs is listed.

One item i also noted in the pm2 logs was it identified that pm2 was out of date and i need to upgrade.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think my MM is currently on 6.0.6, and 6.0.13 is the latest stable version available.
I did attempt to upgrade pm2 from the instructions at pm2.io using “npm install pm2@latest -g” or “sudo npm install pm2@latest -g” and though it appeared to upgrade, it always returned an error that “-g” was an unknown command or option.
When i then run pm2 --version, it still reported that i was running 6.0.6.

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 on the pm2 side there are two parts

the code on the disk
and the part running

to change the part running
you need to execute

sudo pm2 updatePM2

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 I rejected your post w the log entries, see the notification message I sent

DarrenO 0

@sdetweil said in Default Calendar module frequently refreshes:

@DarrenO-0 I rejected your post w the log entries, see the notification message I sent

The calendar entries for the logs were unique.
I removed the true component of the email address prior to the “@” and replaced them with calendaruser1… calendaruser4

Incidentally, i’ve been back through the config.js file for the default calendar and found that I had specified tableClass= twice.
The fIrst instance had a value of “small” with the bulk of the other options.
The second instance had a value of “xsmall” and was between the customEvents[] and calendars[] arrays.

I removed the second instance and changed the value of the first to “xsmall”.
Saving the config automatically restarted MM and it appears to have resolved the matter as it hasn’t repeated the issue in the last hour, but i’ll continue to monitor over the next couple of days.
Not sure how that one line could have caused the issue… Any ideas???

DarrenO 0

@sdetweil
one thing i’ve now noticed since removing the duplicate tableClass entry in the calendar module’s config, when i now run :
pm2 logs --lines=15
i am now seeing the Broadcasting ### events entries calendars update on the scheduled intervals.

Prior, while i was having the issue, i would see a constant updating of the live view of pm2 logs.

michaelarnauts

@sdetweil

That makes sense, but I see a lot more updates then what you describe here.
I’ve added a screenshot of the updates I get to my github issue, and I’ve added it here as well. (note that all the messages have the same length, and some are a few seconds apart.

I’m not sure how to proceed in troubleshooting. When I enable debug logging, it is outputting a LOT (the whole ics file contains data from years ago).

sdetweil

@DarrenO-0 sorry, not quite sure what you’ve said here

You specified tableClass twice in the config of a single calendar module declaration?

JavaScript should take the second, and ignore the first
JSON.parse() should overlay the first w the second

And tableClass is only used in the presentation of the events long after the broadcast message is sent