APub does not recognize linked files on another computer

[Michail]

I have copied an APub file including the associated linked images to a USB stick. When I tried to open the typeset file on a foreign computer, APub reported that links were missing. The directory structure on the USB stick is the same as on the source computer.

Are these kinds of problems known?

[walt.farrell]

Is the drive letter of the USB stick the same on the source and target computer? If not, try making them the same, and see if that fixes it.

Also, Serif staff have indicated that Publisher saves both absolute and relative links, and if you structure your directories in either of these ways I think it should work:

• With your .afpub file and the linked images in the same directory;
  or
• With your .afpub file in one directory and the linked images in a subdirectory of that directory.

 

[Michail]

On 1/29/2020 at 1:10 PM, walt.farrell said:

Is the drive letter of the USB stick the same on the source and target computer? If not, try making them the same, and see if that fixes it.
Also, Serif staff have indicated that Publisher saves both absolute and relative links, and if you structure your directories in either of these ways I think it should work:

• With your .afpub file and the linked images in the same directory;
  or
• With your .afpub file in one directory and the linked images in a subdirectory of that directory.

Thanks for the explanation @walt.farrell.

I have not yet checked if the drive letters match. There is a high probability they are not the same. The other computer isn't mine. It belongs to another company. I can't just go in there and change the drive letters. It's impracticable to make sure the drive letters match.

I tried the second way: There is now a directory containing the *.afpub file and a subdirectory with the images. This does not work either. The links are not found.

So I copied the whole directory to the desktop. But even there APub did not recognize the links. I guess I can't avoid to embed all references.

[Gabe]

If they are all in the same structure, click "Yes" when you are prompted to link the resource. You only need to link one and the others should auto-solve themselves. 

[Michail]

On 1/31/2020 at 2:01 PM, Gabe said:

If they are all in the same structure, click "Yes" when you are prompted to link the resource. You only need to link one and the others should auto-solve themselves. 

I know that, @Gabe. But I ask myself the question why the program does not automatically recognize the references 🤔. I hope not that this is intended.

[Fritz_H]

@Michail 

Quote

...I ask myself the question why the program does not automatically recognize the references..

Good question - from a users point of view.
issue is: how should the Software do that? or more specific: where to start looking and when to stop?

One approach that would make sense to me:
make the Application check in the same folder as the Document-File is in - including all* folders on the same level and all* their sub-folders.

That brings us to the idea of "packages":
Why not add a feature that creates a Folder containing the main document and all related resources in sub-folders ?
(In a perfect world this structure is recognized by the upcoming (?) Affinity-DAM: drop the Project-Folder into the DAM and all is automagically filed...)

e.g.
Project_123
     - Project_123_V1.afpub
     - Project_123_V2.afpub
     - Images_color (folder)
     - Images_bw   (folder)
     - Fonts  (folder)
     - Illustrations  (folder for SVG etc.)
     - Sounds   (folder, for future features of Publisher)
     - Video   (folder, for future features of Publisher)
     - other  (folder)

 

* all sub-folders is no good idea if you think of a Webserver or a Cloud-Service.
in a Company-Network such traffic might perhaps also rise the attention of intrusion-detection/prevention Software.. 

kind regards
Fritz

[Michail]

44 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:

issue is: how should the Software do that? or more specific: where to start looking and when to stop?

I don't see what the problem is. The link information is known, and the directory structure is the same ...

[Fritz_H]

2 hours ago, Michail said:

I don't see what the problem is. The link information is known, and the directory structure is the same ...

This location-information becomes wrong as soon as the Drive-Letter does not match exactly on another Computer...
Structure: as soon as the Drive-Letter does not match, the Software has no clue where to start searching.

Trust me: have had this issue often enough with "marketing-staff" and their Powerpoint-Files: linked Audio and Video-Files missing because just the PPT was on the USB-pendrive...

kind regards
Fritz

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:

This location-information becomes wrong as soon as the Drive-Letter does not match exactly on another Computer...
Structure: as soon as the Drive-Letter does not match, the Software has no clue where to start searching.

True. However, Serif staff have previously said that the .afpub files include a form of relative link, as well as the absolute link. And (if I remember correctly) that having the .afpub file in one directory with the linked files in the same directory, or in a subdirectory directly in that directory, should work.

[Michail]

I can only repeat myself: relative paths do not work for me. It doesn't matter if the data is on a USB drive or if it was previously copied to the internal hard disk of the other computer.

[carl123]

I just created a new Publisher file and linked 8 JPG files from a folder called C:\test.

I then saved the publisher file into the same directory  and called it testfile. afpub.

I then copied all files into a folder on a USB drive called e:\test2\

I then took the USB drive to another computer which assigned the drive letter N: to it

I opened Publisher on that computer and loaded the Publisher file now called n:\test2\testfile.afpub

All 8 JPG files loaded automatically without any error or informational messages on my PC and checking in Document > Resources shows all files are there and linked correctly to n:\test2\

 

It all seems to work OK with this simple test

PS I was using the latest beta (.549)

[Michail]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

It all seems to work OK with this simple test
PS I was using the latest beta (.549)

Thank you for taking the trouble. I would be happy if it would work in the current beta.

Unfortunately I can't try it with the beta, because there is no beta installed on the other computer. It is an external company computer, on which I have no influence.

Were your two computers in the same network?
Do you possibly have the opportunity (and the time) to repeat the experiment with the current release version (1.7.3)?

[carl123]

13 hours ago, Michail said:

Do you possibly have the opportunity (and the time) to repeat the experiment with the current release version (1.7.3)?

Tried the same procedure with the current release...

The JPG files are not found automatically, you get the message...

"Some of your linked resource files are missing. Would you like to find them?"

If I select "Yes" the correct USB folder is already selected so just pressing OK loads all the images as expected.

So it looks like the current version does not automatically find the linked files despite them being in the same folder as your document.

 

What was more surprising was that if you say "No" when prompted to find the missing files, or if you go directly to the "Resource Manager" (when prompted), none of the missing files have the word "Missing" next to them in the status column. The entire status column for all the missing files is simply blank. (I can't replicate that on my local drive, it only occurred on my USB drive). 

I retested this last bit back in the beta by deleting a few of the files and they were correctly reported as "Missing" in the Resource manager.

So it looks like the release version has a couple of quirks which have been corrected in the latest beta.

 

 

[Michail]

6 hours ago, carl123 said:

Tried the same procedure with the current release...
The JPG files are not found automatically, you get the message...
"Some of your linked resource files are missing. Would you like to find them?"

That's good news. It is, as suspected, a bug in 1.7.3, and it will, it is hoped, work in the next release.

By the way: If I click on "Yes", I have to search for the right folder first ...