--- a/animatormode.cpp	Tue Nov 24 18:23:27 2015 -0800
+++ b/animatormode.cpp	Thu Nov 26 10:22:00 2015 -0800
@@ -1633,7 +1633,7 @@
 AnimatorMode::getBackgroundProperties ()
 {
   QGraphicsPixmapItem * background = AnimatorScene::getInstance ()->getBackgroundImage ();
-  BackgroudImageProperties_t prop;
+  BackgroudImageProperties_t prop = {"", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0};
   if (!background)
     return prop;
   prop.fileName = m_backgroundImageProperties.fileName;

--- a/animpropertybrowser.cpp	Tue Nov 24 18:23:27 2015 -0800
+++ b/animpropertybrowser.cpp	Thu Nov 26 10:22:00 2015 -0800
@@ -29,6 +29,30 @@
 AnimPropertyBroswer * pAnimPropertyBrowser = 0;
 
 AnimPropertyBroswer::AnimPropertyBroswer ():
+  m_vboxLayout (0),
+  m_nodeBrowser (0),
+  m_backgroundBrowser (0),
+  m_nodePosTable (0),
+  m_mode (0),
+  m_nodeIdSelector (0),
+  m_nodeIdProperty (0),
+  m_nodeSysIdProperty (0),
+  m_nodeDescriptionProperty (0),
+  m_nodeXProperty (0),
+  m_nodeYProperty (0),
+  m_nodeColorProperty (0),
+  m_nodeSizeProperty (0),
+  m_fileEditProperty (0),
+  m_ipv4AddressGroupProperty (0),
+  m_macAddressGroupProperty (0),
+  m_nodePositionGroupProperty (0),
+  m_showNodeTrajectoryProperty (0),
+  m_backgroundFileEditProperty (0),
+  m_backgroundX (0),
+  m_backgroundY (0),
+  m_backgroundScaleX (0),
+  m_backgroundScaleY (0),
+  m_backgroundOpacity (0),
   m_currentNodeId (0),
   m_intManager (0),
   m_stringManager (0),
@@ -481,8 +505,10 @@
           m_backgroundBrowser->setVisible (true);
           refreshBackgroundProperties ();
         }
-
-
+      else
+        {
+          AnimatorMode::getInstance ()->showPopup ("No Background image set in the xml file");
+        }
     }
 }