Uploading website with large DD files - problems after upgrade

[Paddington Bear]

Hi there,

I've just upgraded to 9.0.4, but I was on 9.0 so I've caught up on a bit, and that included all the changes to the upload processes.

I'm redesigning my site, so all the work I'm currently doing is in test mode, and I want to upload frequently. I'm also in a home-office, so my link is a standard domestic not-8mb line.

It appears that now, when I upload my site, I upload all my MP3s (which are spoken word files of about 30MB each) every time I make a change.

Not only that, but they are now in random order. In the past, they went at the end, so I could cancel the upload once it got to them (not great, but it worked). Now, I cannot do that.

Please advise! I cannot wait four hours to upload my site every time I make some changes. There must be some way that I can tell Actinic 'don't upload my DD files unless I tell you to'.

[Paddington Bear]

Furthermore...

Nobody's answered yet, so I'll just add to this that not only do the MP3s keep getting uploaded, but they get given a new name every single time (names with exclamation marks in them, such as "1!151_025319_original_filename.mp3".

Surely, if they are going to be copied up, they should replace the existing one, not create a new one.

It's this a bug? Is it connected to my earlier post?

Please help!

[Steve G Griggs]

DD files problem

In the menu bar select the "design" list, them click on "additional files",
when the dialog box opens up select all the DD files you want to stop uploading then click on the "remove" button. You will have to manually select the DD files again if you need to upload them at any time, but that should do the trick.

They should just overwrite the old ones, not create new "copy" files--if the are creating "copy" files then I would say this is.....a bug.

[Paddington Bear]

Nice try...

but unfortunately, I don't put the files in the 'additional files' list. I have them in the Site1 folder and they are called directly from there.

However, what you are suggesting is a workaround anyway. Does this mean that there is a design flaw in Actinic?

If so, here's my wish list addition:

A dialog box that lists all the files that are loaded by Actinic (or perhaps just the ones that are added by the user).
Next to each file are three options:
1. Always upload
2. Only upload if changed
3. Upload on special occastions only.
4. Maybe other options I haven't thought of

Then I can manage them individually, if I just want to upload one, or I can have an option in the upload dialog: "Upload special files?", and I can upload them all.

It needs some work, but you get the idea. I can't believe that there isn't something like this. Especially as everytime I switch to production to make some minor changes, it dumps the whole test site and I have to upload them all again!

What do people think?

[Duncan Rounding]

Give support a call in this as I don't think it should upload all the DD files unless you have changed them - as for images.

An extract from the Actinic Help file:

The first time you do this it may take a while (depending on the speed of your connection) but then subsequent updates will only upload the data that has changed since the last update.

When/if you do a purge and refresh you have the option to exclude DD files and images from the refresh. Have you tried right-clicking on the section and publishing just the current page?

If you have compression enabled then you may see that files appear to go out of order as they may uploaded in parallel with other activities.

[Paddington Bear]

Publish current page isn't the answer

If I publish one page with an MP3 (there are currently about 10 MP3s) then for some reason it still tries to upload all of the MP3s, so that solution doesn't work I'm afraid.

Can someone from Actinic please read this thread and tell me if I've got a problem or whether this is a design flaw that needs attention?

Not sure about the 'compression' you mentioned. I noticed that there is a new facility, but didn't know I could turn it on and off. I'd like to try that. Can you tell me where the setting is?

Thanks

[TraceyHand]

Phil, if you want 'Actinic' to see it, you ought to log it with support either by calling them (if you have a support contract) or by raising a support ticket on the Actinic website.
The forum isn't 'support' and they don't visit as often as they used to.

[Paddington Bear]

Thank you

Interesting feedback. I don't come here as often as some, so I guess things have changed.

I'll put in a request and update this page with my progress.

[TraceyHand]

I do the same, Phil, tbh
Times were that someone from support would jump on most threads if they needed it.
Not any more.
I tend to post, guage responses and then submit a support ticket referencing the thread.
Am about to do it for one of mine, actually (although I'm about to get knee deep in a perl script to see if I can fix it myself first )

I miss TraceyG!

[Paddington Bear]

Hey everybody - it's a bug! It's official.

Hi there,

Following the advice to raise a call on this problem with Actinic, I did that and I have had a response from them. First of all it got escalated, and now, here is the response:

I have had a response from the development staff and it is a bug within the software that is causing the issue you see.
The problem is caused by the duplicate products within the software also uploading the files, and the filenames regenerated each time there is an upload.
Currently unfortunately, the only workaround for this is to remove the duplicate products that have the download files associated with them.

So - just so's you know:
If you have DD (digital downloads, usually MP3s) and you use product duplicates, then you will get this problem.

I'm still surprised I'm the only person experiencing this problem. Are product duplicates not that popular? Or is it that there aren't many people using DDs?

I have, of course, asked when this will be fixed and if I get a useful reply, I'll post it.

[Paddington Bear]

...and we don't know when it will be fixed

Unfortunately.

[Paddington Bear]

...interesting additional bug feature

Following attempts to workaround this, I have now been informed that the problem still exists, even if the rogue duplicates have been hidden, and marked as deleted.

Consider that! Hidden, and marked as deleted, yet they are still impacting the processes. (But then, it is a bug after all.)

So, if you are in the same situation as me, then you have two choices:
a) Delete all the duplicates and purge them (I suggest you create your new copies before you delete the duplicates), or
b) Remove the DD files from the duplicates.

I hope this helps someone.