Secret Agent Window does not Expand

Not sure how to describe this. For a while now, when I use secret agent, sometimes its modal popup won’t expand unless I mouse it open. Previously, and the expected behavior is, that when I invoke the feature, it pops up, I type in, and it offers up the selections that match. But now, it just sits there without showing anything until I mouse-drag it open.

Thing is, sometimes it does work, and I’m not able to say what I did any differently in those cases.

I’ve tried fiddling with the popup’s yellow and green buttons but, it does not seem to make any difference.

How can I fix this?

@rickcogley

Thanks for your longtime support of Codebook and sorry for the trouble with the Secret Agent window not expanding. I have a couple of follow up questions to help us try to reproduce it:

  1. Does this non-expansion only occur after you bring up the Secret Agent window with previous text in there (i.e. it doesn’t expand to show the previous results) or does it also occur when you type into the field as well?
  2. Are you using Touch ID authentication for Codebook for macOS?
  3. Are you launching Secret Agent after the main Codebook window is already unlocked? Or are you launching Secret Agent and authenticating via password/touch id through the login there?

Thanks!

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Hi @mmoore - my pleasure and well, schtuff happens. Appreciate your willingness to try to resolve it!

  1. Does this non-expansion only occur after you bring up the Secret Agent window with previous text in there (i.e. it doesn’t expand to show the previous results) or does it also occur when you type into the field as well?

I restarted CB and tried it. It happened with previous text in, but, I tried everything again and it won’t recur. No idea what that’s about. I just did the normal go to website, trigger secret agent, touch id auth, type in string that causes the right entry to appear, select and enter as usual.

  1. Are you using Touch ID authentication for Codebook for macOS?

Yes.

  1. Are you launching Secret Agent after the main Codebook window is already unlocked? Or are you launching Secret Agent and authenticating via password/touch id through the login there?

Both, really. It depends on whether I’m at my desk working, in which case CB is usually unlocked, or, if I am back from a break and unlock the Mac and CB, at that time I usually do it via secret agent.

Hope this helps,
Rick

Ok, it just recurred. I went to get breakfast, came back in about an hour, then:

  • went to log onto a site
  • invoked secret agent
  • authenticated with touch id
  • typed the site string

… and, it won’t expand.

But, if I backspace over whatever is in the SA text area, it “picks up” again and does expand.

Codebook 3.7.2 (608)
macOS Mojave 10.14.2 (18C54)

@rickcogley

Thanks for the further details. We’re looking into it now. I’ll update this post once I have some additional information.

@rickcogley

I’ve just uploaded a new beta version which I believe should resolve this issue. While I wasn’t able to exactly reproduce the scenario, some of the other Zetetic team members have seen it occur as well. I believe the root cause is Touch ID login causing one of the lifecycle methods to be double called causing a race condition with one of the flags used to indicate whether the search results were displaying or not.

Here’s the link to the beta version discussion post: https://discuss.zetetic.net/t/codebook-for-macos-beta-3-7-3-secret-agent-results-expansion-fix/3355

Let me know when you have a chance to try it out and if it properly resolves the issue on your end. Thanks!

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thanks @mmoore, I clicked the download link but it gives a 404, FYI.
I’ll try as soon as I can.

@mmoore Ok, I installed it yesterday night and have been using it as usual, but I have not seen a recurrence throughout the morning usage. It appears to be fixed, so thank you!

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@rickcogley

Thanks for testing out the beta and excellent news that it resolves the issue. Sorry about the 404 there, I mis-copied the beta link when initially creating the discussion post. Appreciate you taking the time to help improve Codebook!

We released the official update which includes the fix for this issue this afternoon: Codebook for macOS 3.7.3 Released

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