Affinity publisher issues with GIT source control and images

[SeanMc]

Hiya,

I've recently bought licences for publisher, designer and photo for my self and my partner (loving the tools).

Before we start the next book, I would like to understand how best to use the tools due to some issues we have struggled with.

For many years we've been using GIT for source control which we have just used for a new book, the book we have created is very image-heavy, we have a directory where we keep them all for the book.

We have been using master templates and the picture frame rectangle tool for most of the images - our images are kept in a sub-folder and we browse to them via the picture rectangle tool placeholders.

When edits have pushed to GIT (origin) and then pulled down by my partner to edit, all the images are present but blurred and need re-linking according to the resource manager; we have precisely the same folder structure on each computer so this seems a little strange.

Secondly, when I make small edits to eps images (in affinity designer mode but still within publisher) - my changes are not present when pulled down by my partner.

Is there a specific guide I should be following for working with source control and images using these products?

Thanks,

Sean.

Edited January 12, 2020 by SeanMc

[walt.farrell]

For your first problem, what is the exact directory structure on the two Windows computers?

For your second one, in Publisher 1.7, when you make changes to a linked document file (PDF, .afphoto, .afdesign, .afpub, SVG, EPS, etc.) using the Photo Persona the changes are made only locally within the Publisher document. They do not affect the original file.

It is different for linked image files (JPG, TIFF, PNG), where editing using the Photo Persona changes the original file, and optionally the copy inside the Publisher document.

The 1.8 beta has changes in this area, which (at this point in the beta) make linked document files and linked images work consistently, I think, with edits to both being saved to the original file.

[SeanMc]

Hi Walt,

Thanks for coming back to me.

The windows directories containing the images are both: C:\codersphere\codersphere-book-building-a-robot-with-scratch\Building a robots head with scratch\Assets

Not sure if it makes a difference but both machines are on Windows 10.

Updated: Thanks for the info on the 1.8 beta - good to know, for now, I'll make sure I overwrite the original.

Kind regards,

Sean.

Edited January 12, 2020 by SeanMc

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, SeanMc said:

The windows directories containing the images are both: C:\codersphere\codersphere-book-building-a-robot-with-scratch\Building a robots head with scratch\Assets

Thanks.

And what directory contains the .afpub file?

[SeanMc]

that is here: C:\codersphere\codersphere-book-building-a-robot-with-scratch\Building a robots head with scratch\building-a-robots-head-with-scratch.afpub

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, SeanMc said:

that is here: C:\codersphere\codersphere-book-building-a-robot-with-scratch\Building a robots head with scratch\building-a-robots-head-with-scratch.afpub

Thanks.

In that case, I have no idea why the images aren't being found properly. That directory structure seems correct, to me.

[SeanMc]

Hi Walt,

Thanks for taking a look - before we start the next project I'll set up a sandbox to see if I can spot anything strange happening and report back.

Kind regards,

Sean.

 

[Gabe]

Hi both,

This is the expected behaviour. Even though the file is the same, it's going to have a different modified date. However, the files should only be "modified" in the resource manager, so would be sufficient just to update them. What you can do is tick "Automatically update linked resources when modified externally" in Preferences > General, but beware that this will auto-update every resource when modified externally without asking. 

[SeanMc]

hi Gabe,

I had that ticked already I'm afraid, I thought that would have done it.

We're about to start our next project shortly so I'll try and see if I can get steps to replicate... we were probably 100 pages in before we noticed the issue and started applying potential fixes such as the auto-update... maybe a fresh project with that ticked will do it.

I'll report back if I can reproduce on the new project (or if it was user error on my part somehow).

Kind regards,

Sean.

[skyzyx]

I've also been dealing with this in in Git. Both bitmap (PNG) and vector (SVG) images are affected by this, although only the bitmap images are blurred, it resets the settings when this happens as well. I've been having to go through and manually reset the settings on each image after a `git pull`.