Big Problem - All images missing in Actinic!

[madboyo]

Has anyone experienced all the images associated with each product just disappear only to be replaced with a red cross?

My whole catalogue images have done just that! I can browse to the pics and then click "apply" again but even that doesn't reinstate the pics.

My worry is that if I do a site update now my whole site will loose it's images as well!

HELP!

The last thing to happen was to install the latest Updates from Microsoft.

[madboyo]

Admission on my part!

All our pics reside in their own folder not the Site1 folder as another thread on here suggests! Whilst it may be "best practice" to put all images in the Site1 folder I certainly don't recall seeing it in the documentation. I wait to be proved wrong!

We have an enormous product range which changes year in year out and to have each individal image in one directory would be an administrative nightmare. Take for example Product 1 (motocross clothing) has 3 subsections (jerseys, pants and gloves) each colour glove etc has it's own image. So that's 15 different images that change on a yearly basis all of which need to be replaced with next years designs. With our current file structure we can delete the folder and then create a new one for next years designs. Having to delete 15 individual images for every product we have on the site on a yearly basis is a massive task if they have to be held in the Site1 folder itself.

Irrespective of the right or wrongs and best practice etc. This did work and now suddenly it doesn't! SO has anyone seen or had this problem and fixed it without having to goto great lengths copying over images and reassignig them in the catalogue?

All images are jpeg!

[TraceyHand]

you can still have them in sub folders in the site 1 folder so it wouldn't really work any differently to how you do it now, except that the filepath would be via the site 1 folder.

[madboyo]

That works?! Cool

Here comes the massive repointing exercise then. Not looking forward to this. Is there a way maybe using Access that I can do a find and replace on the section of the path of the image that needs changing i.e. to overwrite to C:\program Files\Actinic V7\Sites\Site1\dir\subdir\image.jpg?

[wjcampbe]

overwrite to C:\program Files\Actinic V7\Sites\Site1\dir\subdir\image.jpg?

You definitely do NOT want to do that.

The correct format for your image addresses will be /subdir/image.jpg - no drive - no full path (unless its a full URI pointing at another webspace).

Don't forget, Actinic will not use your folder structure online, but will put all your images in the /actalog/ folder, so every image filename MUST be unique.

[NormanRouxel]

The best way to see what path name to use, is to place a single image in the approriate Site1 sub-folder. Then add that image to a product in the usual Actinic way. Now look in the DB (Products table) for that entry and see what's there.

[madboyo]

You definitely do NOT want to do that.

The correct format for your image addresses will be /subdir/image.jpg - no drive - no full path (unless its a full URI pointing at another webspace).

Don't forget, Actinic will not use your folder structure online, but will put all your images in the /actalog/ folder, so every image filename MUST be unique.

Yeah I get you!

I started on the long process of moving all the pics across and then changing the path in the software. All new images paths now start as "images\dir1\subdir1\*.jpg" rather than the full system path.

Thanks anyway!

[madboyo]

This problem has happened not only to me but to others with v7 software given some of the threads I have found whilst researching this. Other than the fact the we all kept our image dir outside of the Site1 folder has there been any research into why it happened i.e. do we actually no what happened and caused it to happen?

[pinbrook]

actinic is a wonderful piece of software that ought to have builtin hindsight.

There are loads of little nuances that have caught out loads of users - thus seasoned developers have a list of things that they always do to circumvent such occurances.

Number 1 - never place images outside of site1

i think i see a new thread coming on....

[madboyo]

Ok I have taken a copy of the iActinicCatalog.mdb

Investigations show the image path info is held in the "sFragmentImage" column. The path info is NOT corrupt!

After the major panic I have actually sat down and had a thorough look through the whole catalogue and I'm seeing really weird things.

Fragments on the home page.

If I delete/rename the image file that is specified in the fragment then the image box reduces in size with a red cross in it! The program is seeing some details of the image as it sets the correct size box and then displays the red cross. So it doesn't show physical image in Actinic but does that mean it would still upload the image and it would be shown on the web site.

Fragments without images i.e. text only display ok.

Browsing around in the app is alos weird. You can swap from homepage to catalogue ok but if I swap from one section in the catalogue to another it won't refresh. I have to click out to home page then click back into the new area of the catalogue I want to see.


Pages linked from the home page

Each fragment will show text but not display the image although the image size box is correct in the preview pane. i.e. as above.


Catalogue

I have created two new section in the catalogue for testing

Test Section 1 - has five subsections. Each level has a fragment and a product in it. The image is held outside of the Site 1 folder.

Test Section 2 - has five subsections. Each level has a fragment and a product in it. The image is held in a sibdirectory of the Site 1 folder.

Results!
Test Section 1 shows correct image boix size but no physical image
Test Section 2 shows image


Ok so this backups what other have said. I would accept this if it had never worked but it did work! What is also strange is that in the original products I am seeing some images in the preview pane but they are images of fragments and products at least 3 levels down from the catalalogue.

Has anyone got an explanation for this? Has anyone seen this before? Anyone want to take a guess at where the problem lies e.g. within actinic? Within common files that the Access engine uses? etc etc etc?

Would anyone in actinic like a copy of the db to see what is happening for themselves?

I'm reluctant to go on any further with Actinic and their future products (we were thinking of upgrading to a multsite Version 8) without some sort of explanation what has happened and why.

[madboyo]

actinic is a wonderful piece of software that ought to have builtin hindsight.

There are loads of little nuances that have caught out loads of users - thus seasoned developers have a list of things that they always do to circumvent such occurances.

Number 1 - never place images outside of site1

i think i see a new thread coming on....

Make sure the software DOES NOT allow it to happen. After what is version 7 of the software you would have thought a fundemental pre-req such as this would have been fixed. Is it really that hard to genertae a popup message that says you have selected an incorrect path please makes sure all images are held in Site1 or a sub directory? Hell why not even write into the program a Site1\Images folder that all images are imported into once the user has selected the image he/she wants.

[Mike Hughes]

If you right-click on an image (or it's empty box/'x') and select 'properties' then it will show you the path to the image. What do you get if you do this on your missing images?

Mike

[TraceyHand]

Would anyone in actinic like a copy of the db to see what is happening for themselves?

I'm sure Actinic Support themselves would

http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm

[madboyo]

If you right-click on an image (or it's empty box/'x') and select 'properties' then it will show you the path to the image. What do you get if you do this on your missing images?

Mike

I meant to do that before I posted my last results

Using Site Preview i get the following


Image Shown

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Actinic%20v7/Sites/Site1/Images/Product_Images/Troylee/Front_Page_TLD_Image_08.JPG


No Image Shown
file:///C:/C:/MXbits_Site/Images/Site/Product%20Images/Troylee/Front_Page_TLD_Image_08.JPG

Image Shown

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Actinic%20v7/Sites/Site1/Images/Product_Images/Troylee/Front_Page_TLD_Image_08.JPG


No Image Shown
file:///C:/C:/MXbits_Site/Images/Site/Product%20Images/Troylee/Front_Page_TLD_Image_08.JPG


Wierd
The next example is of the only image left working in the catalogue when it references the pictures outside of site one.

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Actinic%20v7/Sites/Site1/Images/Product_Images/FMF/fmf_4st_mix.jpg


Anyone have an idea where the extra "C:/" come from?

Would this translate into the loss of all pictures on the site?

[Duncan Rounding]

...
Wierd
The next example is of the only image left working in the catalogue when it references the pictures outside of site one.

file:///C:/Program%20Files/Actinic%20v7/Sites/Site1/Images/Product_Images/FMF/fmf_4st_mix.jpg

But it does also reference to a child of Site1.