Is my Actinic Biz croken?

[dave_finlayson]

My best guess would be this is to do with having spaces in offline folder names.

I have just finished developing a site in v9 that snapshotted perfectly until I decided to go through and sort all the images into folders (some with spaces). Thats's when the snapshot problems started. I have just gone through and amended them all and, after some Access tomfoolery renaming all the paths, I have just snapshotted 5 times in a row without any issues!

Anyone confirm that they also have spaces in offline folder names?

[TraceyHand]

that would imply that you'd consistently get a 'faulty' snapshot unless you renamed though whereas the problems reported previously seem to be more random than that.

[dave_finlayson]

that would imply that you'd consistently get a 'faulty' snapshot unless you renamed though whereas the problems reported previously seem to be more random than that.

I would absolutely agree with that which makes it all the more bizarre. But, today for instance, on our v8 site I have not been able to take a successful snapshot (spaces in folders) and the same for v9 until I changed the folder names. We have been creating the new site for about 2 months and have never had problems until the change of folders, swap it back and all appears well again.

I can sometimes get a successful snapshot fom v8 (I don't often snapshot, usually just batch backup site1) but more often than not it disnae work! Perhaps it is a combination of this and something else. Or perhaps it is not to do with this at all. If I can be bothered tomorrow I might go through our big site and change the folder names to see if it makes any difference.

May be entirely coincidental, just thought I would throw it into the mix.

[TraceyHand]

it certainly seems like a second 'bug'

Which folder names are causing an issue? subfolders in site1?
only asking because my smain site in particular has hundreds of subfolders in the site1 folder, nearly all with spaces in the folder name, and I've never had an issue.

Are they all top level folder names causing an issue? None of my top level subfolders (YKWIM, the ones directly below Site1) have spaces (I have a 'legacy' NOT_CATALOG folder ) but the ones below that (inside NOT_CATALOG) ALL have spaces...hundreds of 'em.

Maybe it's just the top level ones causing a problem?

Just throwing a few more suggestions out there

As an aside, were they image folders? Did you then have to batch change the filepaths when you renamed the folder too? That'd be a right PITA!

[dave_finlayson]

Tracey,

The top level folders don't have spaces but most of the ones inside them do have spaces in the folder names, oh and they are image folders too. It really is weird as hell. Since I posted previously I have taken about 5 more snapshots on the new site and they have all worked so, upon initial findings, it would appear to be something with the folder naming. I think I will try renaming them on our big site too in the morning and see if that makes a difference.

I did have to batch change but it is a pretty simple find and replace job from within Access, should not take me that long to rattle through! I did our new v9 site in about 20 mins so it should only be an hours work.

Of course, rather annoyingly and while I have been typing this, I did another snapshot on our main site and it has worked! I give up!

[TraceyG]

Hi all,

We've been trying to investigate this but so far cannot replicate it, even with the three snapshots from Donald. We'd like a bit more information from those of you who are experiencing this problem please:

- what versions of the software are you using (ie Catalog, Business, Designer, Multi-User)
- where are your site directories located (ie - program files or my documents)?
- do filenames or folder names contain spaces or non-alphanumeric characters?
- do the 'bad' snapshots occur after making lots of changes within Actinic?

Could you also try leaving 3 - 4 minutes before starting a new snapshot after seeing that the snapshot just done is the wrong size.

The more info we can get on this issue may help us to find out where the problem is. I'll collate the data posted here at the beginning of next week and get it to the developers.

Many thanks

[dave_finlayson]

Tracey,

1. Running both 9.0.2 and 8.5.2
2. Both Site directories in My Documents (although it was doing it back when they were in Program Files
3. Some folder names contain spaces (and & signs on some) but no image names do
4. I don't think so but maybe

[Donald Gray]

v8 from the begining, now at 8.5.2.0.0.0 hmva
No spaces in any file, folder or image name.
The only non alphanumeric char used in file names are hyphen and underscore (typical image name: rp2259-250pxw.jpg or s987_225pxh.jpg etc)
It may appear that it happens after a goodly session. I cant recall it happening after a few minor edits.

It is still happening - I can send you another example if needed.....

[TraceyG]

Not many responses to my request - thanks Dave and Donald. I've gone through all the posts and tried to collate as much as I could and have passed it to the development team, however, there doesn't look to be any kind of pattern to it

I've been asked if you could also supply actdiagnose reports (Help | Troubleshooting | Run ActDiagnose) - please email them to me - tgsupport [@] actinic [dot] co [dot] uk.

[Donald Gray]

Done & sent.

[TraceyG]

Thanks Donald, received and passed to development.

[Donald Gray]

Noted - Thanks Tracy. You can have the rest of the day off!

[TraceyG]

This is proving to be an extremely difficult one to track down. The latest request from the developers is for those of you who have experienced these problems to send us a good and a bad snapshot so we can see if there's a pattern.

This specific request goes out to:

leehack
drounding
Fairyglass
party_pete
dave_finlayson

as you've all mentioned seeing this issue, but any others would be welcome. I would also be useful to know exactly what you were doing prior to taking the (bad) snapshot. Email them to me at tgsupport [@] actinic [dot] co [dot] uk if they are less than 12MB or upload them somewhere and send me a link to download them. If you can't do that then let me know and I'll send you some details to a server to upload them to.

[party_pete]

Update:

I sent Actinic Support (Tracey) two snapshots, including one that had decreased in size by around 10mb

My decrease in snapshot size was due to compacting my database, so my issue is solved

[TraceyG]

The latest request from the developers is for those of you who have experienced these problems to send us a good and a bad snapshot so we can see if there's a pattern

Again, apart from Pete there were no responses to this request. Is anyone willing to send us their snapshots so we can get to the bottom of this or is it working correctly for you all now?