Error Messages On Upload

[leehack]

I wish that when you upload a site, especially a large one (hour or more) that if actinic finds a problem with ftp or anything else, that the error window is treated like a system error message and comes on top of all other open programs. Typical example just now, i thought i'd do a long email i needed to while it took its hour to upload, i clicked back after the email was done which had taken me about 35 mins only to see actinic had presented an error message which stopped it working wthin the first 5 mins, so i actually gained nothing. That error message should be on top of everything else to help me out.

Also it gives up too easily, if there is a problem connecting, chances are that problem will be around for the next minute or so, by which time actinic has given up. If you get a problem, try for longer or have a slight delay before trying again.

Also why does it ask me if i want to switch to http upload instead, it's quicker, never fails and i'm buggered if i'd ever cancel at that stage, so do it as standard or give me the option to make sure you do.

Uploading large stores is a right ballache, you really need to be helping us out a bit more in this area. On large stores i usually wait till i get the http option as i can be sure that 8/10 times actinic will fail via ftp on a lengthy upload. Now that can be countered by saying its a server problem, that is correct, but its 2008 and the software should be more in tune with what happens at the server IMO.

Uploading is the worst part of actinic now IMO, especially with SPPs.

[RuralWeb]

especially with SPPs

They do make for a big site dont they - I agree with all Lees points

[leehack]

Its horrific at times, a site i'm currently on is like this at the moment (this is no BS either).

It takes 45-50 minutes to check everything before it starts uploading. The upload (if global page change) takes 40 minutes. Actinic regularly fails on that size site for me, so it offers the usual error message and 1 in 3 times it then starts firing messages that the page name has an ampersand in it and i have to click on 'ignore' for each page or click on 'abort' and start the process all over again, including the checking.

The worst thing is that the error that makes it stop on every page is complete crap, it is the section name that has the ampersands not the html page name. When it gets stuck it somehow seems to change the apparent html page name into something it doesn't like and then fire an error message about each page. It kind of creates a job for itself and then forces you to start the whole process again unless you want to get RSI. During all of this, it has not changed anything, it just thinks it is seeing one thing, but it is actually seeing something different.

After a 45 minute check and a 5 minutes start to the upload, it tests the patience that i do not have, let me tell ya. Ive moved onto the desktop to avoid any costly bills at the moment.

[Duncan Rounding]

I think it's the long checking time that could be addrressed first IMO, that's nothing to do with the server side and I would've though that that could perhaps be maintained on the fly.

[pinbrook]

i tend to hide all sections except 2 or 3 if its a big site whilst i'm developing, its the only way to get things done.

or use local apache.

still i haven't done any coding for yonks now.... so what do i know

[leehack]

It failed 2 times on the bounce, i guess it doesn't like me talking about it. Both failures have been after the checking process (50-55 minutes in). It is now on its third attempt and is about 70% of the way through uploading the pages. Nothing has changed, exactly the same site, it detects errors on page names first 2 attempts, now it thinks they are hunky dory - nowt changed at all.

The kind of thing to make you mad, at least i have cleared my inbox down now, one good thing i guess .

[cdicken]

If you are getting error messages during the upload itself, you can switch on 'Silent Running' (click the FTP Options button on 'Web | Network Setup' to do this) which will automatically retry the upload itself.

With regards to the errors during generation, I agree that it should just automatically time-out the error after a few seconds and carry on with the upload. I'll recommend this to the team.

And we are working on some performance improvements at the moment. We are determined to crack this one.

[PC Int]

I agree that the checking and uploading process can be improved - one of my sites takes 90 minutes just at checking stage (on well specified pc) - admittedly it has a lot of sections and products but I get the feeling that some of the checking is redundant (duplicated effort).

An option to skip the Checking HTML files stage or Checking Catalog Stage or even Checking Search Indices stage would be handy when an error has occured later in the process and you are re-running an Upload. I know this could be risky in the wrong hands, but it would be at the end-user's risk and Actinic could even provide a suitable warning if any of these options were chosen before an upload . I'm aware that Actinic may be generating HTML and CAT files, etc during these stages, but if they have already been generated in previous run without incident, why not bypass the regeneration?

An auto-timeout on checking and upload errors would be great, but the error should be logged somewhere for future ref and handling.

My principal bugbear is the number of times Actinic likes to upload all product image files when it is not strictly necessary. I had to change Script ID recently (to resolve the Disappearing Progress Window conundrum), and Actinic took this as excuse to upload all 22,000 jpegs - net result = 14 hour upload .

An option to NOT upload product image files is imperative, and in particular to Site Refresh. It is soul destroying having to wait for 14 hours for a Site Update or Site Refresh as Actinic ploughs through umpteen product images for no B****Y reason!

Rant over, hope someone's listening!

[wjcampbe]

An option to NOT upload product image files is imperative, and in particular to Site Refresh. It is soul destroying having to wait for 14 hours for a Site Update or Site Refresh as Actinic ploughs through umpteen product images for no B****Y reason!

Rant over, hope someone's listening!

They must have been - that option is available in v8. In fact the exact option is exclude unchanged images and digital download files.

[PC Int]

They must have been - that option is available in v8. In fact the exact option is exclude unchanged images and digital download files.

I should have made it clear that the Exclude images option in Site Refresh doesn't always work - it has happened a couple of times that this option has been selected when doing a Refresh and Actinic has ploughed on regardless.

It would be interesting to know what basis Actinic uses to determine whether an image is 'unchanged': filename, filesize, datestamp, hash, or some combination of these?

Also, when I had to change Script ID recently, Actinic took this as a 'pseudo' Site Refresh with no opportunity to exclude product images.