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Relative Addresses in BPF file

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Derek Fosberry
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In the BPF file saved from BrightAuthor are the addresses of the media files (BMPs in my case). These seem to be absolute paths such as "D:\Documents\BrightAuthor\Test\images\Slide_1.BMP". This means that a colleague cannot edit the presentation on his computer unless he happens to have exactly the same folder structure as mine.


Is there any way to get BrightAuthor to store paths relative to the BPF file? In other words, if the BPF is "D:\Documents\BrightAuthor\Test\Test_1.BPF" it refers to the media file as "images\Slide_1.BMP".

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11 comments

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    If you open a brightauthor project on another system, it asks you where the files are located. If all the files are in the same folder you can browse to the first missing file listed, and indicate that you want the project to look in the same place for all the other files. 

     

    There's no way for brightauthor to use relative paths currently. I don't know if this will change any time in the near future. I have not seen this change on our roadmap. 

  • 0
    Avatar
    Derek Fosberry

    OK I guess we can live with this. I hadn't actually tested it on another machine, only peeped into the XML. At present I'm the only Tech Author (we're a small club of nature-lovers) but I want to arrange things so that others can easily edit my presentations.

    And thanks for the reply.

    --- Derek

  • 0
    Avatar
    tony fearings

    How has this not been fixed?  This is a complete drag when working in teams or from a server/local client computer.

     

    I have to either A) store all my files in a single folder for a simple relink or B) relink every folder EVERY TIME I reopen a project?

    Unless there is some other option I am missing, this is unacceptable.  

    Please prove me wrong.  

  • 1
    Avatar
    Bright Scripters

    We share the pain when working in a team.

    Ideally, every asset should be referenced as relative path to where the bpf file. Call it the current directory.

    Only files linked to from a directory, outside of the current directory, should use full paths.

     

  • 1
    Avatar
    tony fearings

    I do that for every project, just as a general rule.  

    Is there really no solution to this other than to relink all the files?

    I saw there is an "Export" option in the file menu, but this doesn't seem to do what I want either.

     

    Do I seriously have to settle for relinking ALL files EVERY TIME I need to make changes to a project?

  • 0
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    Brandon

    Export copies all referenced files/media to the location you specify.  HTML site files will be put into a folder corresponding to the site name, everything else is "flat" in the destination folder.

    You shouldn't have to relink as long as the files are still available at the same path.  So once relinked and saved from one user, you should be able to reopen it as long as it hasn't been changed/saved from another user.

    Where it becomes a problem is if different users access the save files at different paths, for example different mapped drive letters, or virtual machines that include something that makes the path unique to the user/workstation.

    We have customers that use UNC paths (get to the project from Network, not from a mapped drive letter) and that remains the same across all users on the network.

    Alternatively, you could just map the same network path on the same mapped drive letter like Z: for all users and tell them to access it that way.

    If you are relinking the files, saving the presentation, then reopening the same presentation and being prompted to relink again, that may be a bug, in which case, please open a support ticket.

  • 0
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    JRB Technical

    What I do is put everything on Network Attached storage mapped as a drive, then I make project folders and put the assets in the same folder, or in sub folders of the project:

    Z:\BrightSign\Project Example

    SampleProject.bpf

    Z:\BrightSign\Project Example\images

    image1.png
    image2.png

    Z:\BrightSign\Project Example\videos

    video1.mp4
    video2.mp4

    This seems to work well for me, I can access from different computers on the local network, and don't have to relink anything.

    I only wish BrightAuthor did a lock file like other software does, so if you try to open a project and someone else has the same project open, you get some sort of warning before continuing.

    As long as all the computers map the Network drive to the same local drive letter (Z in my case), everything should be fine.

     

     

     

  • 3
    Avatar
    Ilya Sherbakov

    Perhaps you should implement a relative path?

    Or something like PATH variable? For example add a several folders to look for videos. This could be a global setting or a setting for every project.

  • 0
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    Aaron Bradbury

    I'd like to see this implemented also. We're using cloud repositories to allow multiple people to access Brightsign projects whilst working from home and on site and relinking media every time is going to be an issue. 

  • 0
    Avatar
    Chris du Preez

    Would be lovely if relative paths could be implemented because now my colleague and I have to either:

    - Correct the reference paths in xml EVERY TIME we want to change a slide.

    - Map identical paths on our local PCs.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Bright Scripters

    Until there is a better solution, I found that mapping a Windows path to a drive letter very useful.

    If all team members map their local folder to the same drive letter, BrightAuthor would find media without need to relink.

    Instead of a path like:

    C:\Users\You\Documents\BA-Projects\Project1\Project1.bpf

    It would be something like:

    P:\Project1\Project1.bpf

    Not perfect but it helps with collaboration. This method also keeps the paths shorter and without team members names in paths.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/subst

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