mcsMQTT inaccessible: "Posting back to plugin web page MQTT RemAppObj is nothing"

[Jeeves]

USing HS4 on Ubuntu:
mcsMQTT was upgraded to one of the recent versions manually as the HS4 Plugin page doesn't show updates.

On a fresh reboot, my log fills with these error messages.

If I toggle the plugin off and back on, *sometimes* they stop and MQTT becomes accessible. 9 out of 10 times, it goes right back to the error.
Otherwise; The HS4 interface is unaffected. I can use it as normal.

I have tried upgrading/downgrading through most of the recent releases, 5.10 through 5.11.6.1. All had this issue.

[Michael McSharry]

This is a message produced by HS and not by mcsMQTT. Based upon the text it looks like a browser page with MQTT URL is being displayed. I am just guessing since I do not actually know why HS is producing the messages. The following are two things I suggest to perhaps get insight. It is also unclear if you still get the message with 5.9.x.x. The change log https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...tt-pluginshows the following being introduced in 5.10.0.0. This means that additional files are contained in the updater zip. Was the updater override process used to do the upgrades so that all files are installed or was the upgrade done by just extracting a file from the zip?

PR549 12/4/2020 5.10.0.0 Added Linux BLE Beacon support for HS4

During startup of the plugin it will not service browser requests until the first pass on initialization is complete. If you enabled developer mode from HS settings menu and you start HS from the console then the plugin will write to the console showing its progress through initialization. Dont try to access the plugin until the console indicates Initialization Complete.

There is also the debug file produced by the plugin when MQTT Page, General Tab, Debug checkbox is enabled. The file is in /Data/mcsMQTT/mcsMQTT Debug.txt. It also contains more voluminous startup information.

[Jeeves]

This is a message produced by HS and not by mcsMQTT. Based upon the text it looks like a browser page with MQTT URL is being displayed. I am just guessing since I do not actually know why HS is producing the messages. The following are two things I suggest to perhaps get insight. It is also unclear if you still get the message with 5.9.x.x. The change log https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...tt-pluginshows the following being introduced in 5.10.0.0. This means that additional files are contained in the updater zip. Was the updater override process used to do the upgrades so that all files are installed or was the upgrade done by just extracting a file from the zip?

There are no extra files in the 5.10.0.0 zip file. In almost all the updates, there are always 37 files.
5.9.3.2 however contained 38 files, with "BluetoothBeacon.dll" being the extra, however it is not listed within "install.txt"
Files are installed as per their location in install.txt. My update method is to turn off mcsMQTT, replace the HSPI exe in ./Homeseer, then replace the utility dlls in ./Homeseer/bin/mcsMQTT. html files aren't critical, but they are also moved into place.

During startup of the plugin it will not service browser requests until the first pass on initialization is complete. If you enabled developer mode from HS settings menu and you start HS from the console then the plugin will write to the console showing its progress through initialization. Dont try to access the plugin until the console indicates Initialization Complete.

There is also the debug file produced by the plugin when MQTT Page, General Tab, Debug checkbox is enabled. The file is in /Data/mcsMQTT/mcsMQTT Debug.txt. It also contains more voluminous startup information.

The debug box is not checked, and I do not rush to access the MQTT page.

Reverting to 5.9.7.1 allows the MQTT page to be accessible. However, 5.10.x.x was accessible after initial start up but the error message popped up and it quit responding at some point in time. I will monitor this.
I don't seem to be able to get my device graphs (below) but that is likely unrelated.

[Michael McSharry]

You are correct about the files in the zip. They are only significant for the HS4 plugin.

I just did evaluation for the LastDate hyperlink using 5.11.6.2 that was not working in HS4 plugin until this version, but the same test using HS3 plugin produced the popup with the chart shown. You can look to assess if the data was not collected or if there is a display problem. If you are using the HS4 plugin then you need this version. If using the HS3 plugin then look in data/mcsMQTT/mcsMQTT.db, tblRef to see if data exists or if it is a display issue.

Using the debug is a diagnostic approach to try to correlate the HS log with plugin activity. Since the HS Log message is sourced by HS I can only guess why it is being generated. I don't know why HS would access MQTT web page if there was no browser requesting it to be shown, but again I'm just guessing as to why the Log messages are occurring.

[Jeeves]

You are correct about the files in the zip. They are only significant for the HS4 plugin.

I just did evaluation for the LastDate hyperlink using 5.11.6.2 that was not working in HS4 plugin until this version, but the same test using HS3 plugin produced the popup with the chart shown. You can look to assess if the data was not collected or if there is a display problem. If you are using the HS4 plugin then you need this version. If using the HS3 plugin then look in data/mcsMQTT/mcsMQTT.db, tblRef to see if data exists or if it is a display issue.

Using the debug is a diagnostic approach to try to correlate the HS log with plugin activity. Since the HS Log message is sourced by HS I can only guess why it is being generated. I don't know why HS would access MQTT web page if there was no browser requesting it to be shown, but again I'm just guessing as to why the Log messages are occurring.

I have no way to know which plugin I'm using. I would assume it to be the native HS4 one as this is in HS4 and I don't see anything indicating Legacy, HS3,etc. Equally, there is only one download location and it does not split out HS3 or HS4 versions.

As 5.9.7.1 still works, I'll enable debug then try rolling forward to a more current version.

[Michael McSharry]

look at some of my posts today and you will find links to the HS4 and HS3 plugins and also the updater override process for each. Using phone now and don't know how to fo copy-paste with it.

[Jeeves]

look at some of my posts today and you will find links to the HS4 and HS3 plugins and also the updater override process for each. Using phone now and don't know how to fo copy-paste with it.

I was definitely using the HS3 version previously, despite the plugin "Store" showing the HS4 version with the checkmark.

Upon upgrading to the latest from one of your posts; to 5.11.6.2. The Plugin now reports: "mcsMQTT - CRITICAL: Plugin has disconnected."

HS Log:

12/17/2020 15:36:32 HomeSeer Info Plugin mcsMQTT with ID: mcsMQTT and Instance: has disconnected
12/17/2020 15:36:31 mcsMQTT Info Version 5.11.6.2 Registered with Homeseer
12/17/2020 15:36:31 HomeSeer Starting Plug-In Plugin mcsMQTT started successfully in 186 milliseconds
12/17/2020 15:36:31 HomeSeer Starting Plug-In Initializing plugin mcsMQTT ...
12/17/2020 15:36:31 HomeSeer Info Plugin mcsMQTT with instance mcsMQTT has connected. IP:127.0.0.1:54082
12/17/2020 15:36:31 HomeSeer Plug-In Finished initializing plug-in mcsMQTT

mcsMQTT Debug:

12/17/2020 15:36:32 847 | PopulateReceiveDict owntracks/device/device1:tst, PluginDevice=1, Ref=1438
12/17/2020 15:36:32 848 | mcsMQTT Debug Receive Ready
12/17/2020 15:36:32 848 | mcsMQTT Debug Trigger Ready
12/17/2020 15:36:32 849 | HSEvent VALUE_SET| 2048| owntracks/device/device1| 1608189287| 1608189287| 1438
12/17/2020 15:36:32 912 | HW Init Complete

I can then go back to the store and re-install 5.9.3.2 and it goes back to working.
In 5.9.3.2 charts appear broken, displaying:

"Error Generating Chart: Line Conversion from string "" to type 'Double' is not valid."

[Michael McSharry]

Initialization is done in two passes. The start of the second pass in the debug is "Background Init Started". Your debug did not show this line, yet it did show the line at the end of the first pass "HW Init Complete". At the same time your debug did not show "HS Plugin InitHW ComputerName=" which is near the start of the first pass. I get the impression that post #7 contains selective contents of the debug so I really do not know what is in the debug. You can email the actual file to mcsSolutions at CenturyTel.net.

The change log https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...mcsmqtt-plugin shows that any version before 5.9.5.3 will have the chart issue that you are reporting.

PR541 11/28/2020 5.9.5.3 Charts are not being displayed with null string to double error on page

[Jeeves]

Initialization is done in two passes. The start of the second pass in the debug is "Background Init Started". Your debug did not show this line, yet it did show the line at the end of the first pass "HW Init Complete". At the same time your debug did not show "HS Plugin InitHW ComputerName=" which is near the start of the first pass. I get the impression that post #7 contains selective contents of the debug so I really do not know what is in the debug. You can email the actual file to mcsSolutions at CenturyTel.net.

The change log https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...mcsmqtt-plugin shows that any version before 5.9.5.3 will have the chart issue that you are reporting.

PR541 11/28/2020 5.9.5.3 Charts are not being displayed with null string to double error on page

The debug text was quite long so I trimmed it to only show the final sections of the log as this was likely to be the most important with the "Plugin has disconnected" error.

I did not consult the release notes before adding that line to my post, it was just an observation about what was/wasn't behaving. Thanks for the fix in 5.9.5.3