After a successful setup of my CATraxx, BookCAT and AssetCAT databases to Android, I included the Cover field (Image field in AssetCAT) in the profiles. There is nothing included in the output for BookCAT and AssetCAT. For CATraxx ca. 25% of the records is OK, 75% empty. For all three CAT programs I use a link to the images, so the images are not included in the database (I don't know if that is important for FNProg2PDA).
Any idea how to fix this?
Thanks & regards,
René van Hout
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There are a couple,of issues with the cover export. If the covers are stored inside the database then only an export to a HanDBase or P.Reference database will retrieve them, if you active the export option "Convert Images to Image Files". FNProg2PDA will in that case read the image data in the database and write them to image files in the image folder (defined in the General Settings).
For external files, the CAT programs store the image file names in the database, with a "flag" set that tells the CAT program to use the external files instead of the internal image data. FNProg2PDA checks whether that flag is set or not. If that is the case then FNProg2PDA checks whether the file actually exists on the file system. In some cases there could be a mismatch, especially when the links were originally created on older CAT program versions or moved to another location. In the past these images files were by default stored in the installation folder of the CAT program. The link in the database then didn't have the folder name included (for example the file names were stored like "\image.jpg" instead of "C:\Program Files\CATraxx\image.jpg").This is the reason why FNProg2PDA still has a field in which you could enter the Program Folder.
I suspect that your databases coud have some file links that FNProg2PDA can't find on your file system. For further analysis, could you send me a (zipped) copy of your databases (to van_breukelen(at)web.de) ?
Many thanks in advance,
Tom
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Thanks for your explanation. Reading your comments carefully I think what is going on here, although I don't understand why and how.
I started with CATraxx years ago, before using the other CAT-programs. Somewhere over the years I used Fredrik's datafolderlocation utility to change the CATraxx working folders (not the program installation folders) from C:\user... etc. into a folder on my data drive (D:\CATraxx... etc.) for backup reasons (split operating system and programs as much as possible from data). I don't know the date and number of albums already in the database at that moment, but it might well be the 25% I mentioned earlier... this would also explain why there are 0 covers/images exported in the other two CAT-programs because I used the datafolderlocation utility for those programs right from the start.
Does this make sense?
In the meantime I used another route to export the albums into csv-format (my Android database program can only import csv-files): CATraxx export to xls-format and use DBConvert for the csv-format. It is one step extra but it works OK (except for one strange thing I experienced in DBConvert - I will report that in the DBConvert's forum).
I will send you a backup of the database together with some templates I made, otherwise CATraxx will give errors. The database backup is quite big, I'll see if I can send it via my hotmail account or otherwise I have to use wetransfer...
Regards,
René
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Most image file names in your database start with the foldername D:\CATraxx\Images, like D:\CATraxx\Images\Albam Manny - Sketches from the Book of Life.jpg. There are however also several images files names without a folder. For example: \Adderley Cannonball - This Here.jpg
These image files cannot be located by FNProg2PDA, because it searches for them in the wrong folder. Basically, the folder names are incorrectly stored in the database.
Workaround: set in "Export From" the Program Folder to your data folder D:\CATraxx\Images and FNProg2PDA should be able to locate your image files. Nevertheless I think that FNProg2PDA should not check if the file exists, if you only want to export the image filename. I'll remove that check in the next version of the program.
Best regards,
Tom
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Thanks for your investigation. I don't know why and how the pathname for most of the imagefiles is incomplete. The workaround works fine, except that it can only export 1 image instead of 9 images which you can attach within CATraxx. Maybe something for the next version?
Is it possible to export only the filename, without the path (or using a profile variable 'yes/no pathname included'). Then I won't have to edit the csv output since the pathnames on the Android devices are different. This will make it more flexible, well at least in my situation.
Since I have separately installed the imagethumbnails on my Android devices I indeed only need the imagefilenames and FNProg2PDA should not bother if they exist or not in my case.
Many thanks,
René
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I've made the required changes in version 8.3 that I've just released today. I'm still working on the 9 images export problem, which is a bit tricky. These images are not stored in different fields in the database, but all use the same field for the name and an index field that contains a value from 1 to 9. I'm only using the first index, because multible images are very rare.
Groetjes,
Tom
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Quick work!
I installed version 8.3. It returns now indeed an image for every item!
For CATraxx albums it gives a mix of full names (in my case 'D:\CATraxx\Images...') and the image filenames without the path but with the '\' character in front. So I have to edit the created csv file.
For BookCAT and AssetCAT it gives the imagefilenames with '\' in front, so it looks indeed that there is a problem with quite a lot of entries in my CATraxx database I'm afraid.
I had no idea that the request for the 9 images is tricky, I use them for ca. 5% of the albums I guess.
Groet en bedankt voor de snelle support!
René
Last edit: Rene van Hout 2016-01-26
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I figured out how to correct the wrong CATraxx image records (delete the link and re-attach for all 562 records). I will correct this over time. Thanks for pointing this out to me!
However, I have no idea why these are different from all the other records.
Groet,
René
Last edit: Rene van Hout 2016-01-27
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Hello,
After a successful setup of my CATraxx, BookCAT and AssetCAT databases to Android, I included the Cover field (Image field in AssetCAT) in the profiles. There is nothing included in the output for BookCAT and AssetCAT. For CATraxx ca. 25% of the records is OK, 75% empty. For all three CAT programs I use a link to the images, so the images are not included in the database (I don't know if that is important for FNProg2PDA).
Any idea how to fix this?
Thanks & regards,
René van Hout
Hallo Rene,
There are a couple,of issues with the cover export. If the covers are stored inside the database then only an export to a HanDBase or P.Reference database will retrieve them, if you active the export option "Convert Images to Image Files". FNProg2PDA will in that case read the image data in the database and write them to image files in the image folder (defined in the General Settings).
For external files, the CAT programs store the image file names in the database, with a "flag" set that tells the CAT program to use the external files instead of the internal image data. FNProg2PDA checks whether that flag is set or not. If that is the case then FNProg2PDA checks whether the file actually exists on the file system. In some cases there could be a mismatch, especially when the links were originally created on older CAT program versions or moved to another location. In the past these images files were by default stored in the installation folder of the CAT program. The link in the database then didn't have the folder name included (for example the file names were stored like "\image.jpg" instead of "C:\Program Files\CATraxx\image.jpg").This is the reason why FNProg2PDA still has a field in which you could enter the Program Folder.
I suspect that your databases coud have some file links that FNProg2PDA can't find on your file system. For further analysis, could you send me a (zipped) copy of your databases (to van_breukelen(at)web.de) ?
Many thanks in advance,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your explanation. Reading your comments carefully I think what is going on here, although I don't understand why and how.
I started with CATraxx years ago, before using the other CAT-programs. Somewhere over the years I used Fredrik's datafolderlocation utility to change the CATraxx working folders (not the program installation folders) from C:\user... etc. into a folder on my data drive (D:\CATraxx... etc.) for backup reasons (split operating system and programs as much as possible from data). I don't know the date and number of albums already in the database at that moment, but it might well be the 25% I mentioned earlier... this would also explain why there are 0 covers/images exported in the other two CAT-programs because I used the datafolderlocation utility for those programs right from the start.
Does this make sense?
In the meantime I used another route to export the albums into csv-format (my Android database program can only import csv-files): CATraxx export to xls-format and use DBConvert for the csv-format. It is one step extra but it works OK (except for one strange thing I experienced in DBConvert - I will report that in the DBConvert's forum).
I will send you a backup of the database together with some templates I made, otherwise CATraxx will give errors. The database backup is quite big, I'll see if I can send it via my hotmail account or otherwise I have to use wetransfer...
Regards,
René
Hi Rene,
Most image file names in your database start with the foldername D:\CATraxx\Images, like D:\CATraxx\Images\Albam Manny - Sketches from the Book of Life.jpg. There are however also several images files names without a folder. For example: \Adderley Cannonball - This Here.jpg
These image files cannot be located by FNProg2PDA, because it searches for them in the wrong folder. Basically, the folder names are incorrectly stored in the database.
Workaround: set in "Export From" the Program Folder to your data folder D:\CATraxx\Images and FNProg2PDA should be able to locate your image files. Nevertheless I think that FNProg2PDA should not check if the file exists, if you only want to export the image filename. I'll remove that check in the next version of the program.
Best regards,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your investigation. I don't know why and how the pathname for most of the imagefiles is incomplete. The workaround works fine, except that it can only export 1 image instead of 9 images which you can attach within CATraxx. Maybe something for the next version?
Is it possible to export only the filename, without the path (or using a profile variable 'yes/no pathname included'). Then I won't have to edit the csv output since the pathnames on the Android devices are different. This will make it more flexible, well at least in my situation.
Since I have separately installed the imagethumbnails on my Android devices I indeed only need the imagefilenames and FNProg2PDA should not bother if they exist or not in my case.
Many thanks,
René
Hi René,
I've made the required changes in version 8.3 that I've just released today. I'm still working on the 9 images export problem, which is a bit tricky. These images are not stored in different fields in the database, but all use the same field for the name and an index field that contains a value from 1 to 9. I'm only using the first index, because multible images are very rare.
Groetjes,
Tom
Hi Tom,
Quick work!
I installed version 8.3. It returns now indeed an image for every item!
For CATraxx albums it gives a mix of full names (in my case 'D:\CATraxx\Images...') and the image filenames without the path but with the '\' character in front. So I have to edit the created csv file.
For BookCAT and AssetCAT it gives the imagefilenames with '\' in front, so it looks indeed that there is a problem with quite a lot of entries in my CATraxx database I'm afraid.
I had no idea that the request for the 9 images is tricky, I use them for ca. 5% of the albums I guess.
Groet en bedankt voor de snelle support!
René
Last edit: Rene van Hout 2016-01-26
Tom,
I figured out how to correct the wrong CATraxx image records (delete the link and re-attach for all 562 records). I will correct this over time. Thanks for pointing this out to me!
However, I have no idea why these are different from all the other records.
Groet,
René
Last edit: Rene van Hout 2016-01-27