Indesign real-time package for collaboration - package

I manage a team of designers working on Indesign.
When we work on a project, it often happens that a designer has to work on the project of another. We work with Dropbox for Business.
But when we take the work of another designer, there is often missing links and fonts.
Is there a plugin or a way to develop a plugin that would allow, when we create a new indd file (or for the protection of the same file):
Automatically create a "Links" folder and another "Document fonts" at side of the indd file
Systematically add a new link or new typography in the corresponding folder?
To simplify: each action on font or on a link, make a kind of "Indesign Package" in real time?
If this is not a solution, do you have any solutions to meet this need?

I don't know of a specific script or plugin that does this.
However, it should be possible to write a script with an eventhandler with a beforeClose event that runs certain script commands every time a user closes a document (or even every time a user adds, changes or deletes a link). At this point the script could run some copyLink commands on all the images and fonts (?) placing them all in the folders next to the document.
The whole script could be made a startup script, so it becomes active anytime any user runs InDesign.
(I'm actually not sure, if fonts can be copied so easily. Worst case scenario would be that the script would need to run some packaging command to gather the fonts somewhere, copy them over to where you need them and then delete the rest of the temporary package.)

Did you consider Creative Cloud Libraries ? They are meant to allow sharing assets within a team. Apart form that, you users would need to have a same access to the file system (a common drive letter for the network path for example).
Another solution would be to use a DAM solution so users would link files from the DAM.
Eventually, you could sure think of a script as mdomino offered.

Related

Serenity Reports Logo Change

I am using Serenity with Jbehave. I would like to know how to replace the current report's default logo of serenity with a custom company logo. what is code changes need to be done for changing the default logo?
You can do that by replacing the serenity-bdd-logo.png in serenity-report-resources-x.x.xx.jar. Save your logo and name it likewise, then copy and overwrite the existing one. Mine is stored in the following location:
serenity-report-resources-x.x.xx.jar\report-resources\images\
This should work for any project running on your machine and using that single jar file. It is made easier with Maven as it stores all downloaded dependencies in one location.
Otherwise, I doubt there is any legitimate way to perform this trick. You can write Java code to rename your logo and copy it to reports location each time you run serenity reports, but all that are just hacks really :)
Serenity reports are built out of FreeMaket Template Language (.ftl) files stored in serenity-report-resources-x.x.xx.jar (another possible solution is to overwrite these and reference your own file each time serenity-bdd-logo.png is mentioned). Ideally you would want to create your own jar and force serenity to use this one. However, that seems a lot work just to replace a logo. Makes sense if you want to overhaul the whole look and feel of the reports.

Read content of folder without AIR in AS3 (no flash.filesystem)

I'm working on a project and I need to dynamically check what is in onhe of my folder. The idea is that I have the id of a quest, and there is a folder name after that id. My code needs to check if this folder exist AND if there is something in it. After that, it show all the picture inside that folder. The goal is that I will just have to add picture in a folder to have them appear in my game.
I tried to find a way to check the content of my folder, but everyone say that I need flash.filesystem, BUT it means that I need to use AIR. AIR does NOT work in FireFox or any other browser.
Here is the website that make me understood that:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Photos_Graphics/Web_Graphics/Macromedia_Flash/Q_26118847.html
How can I explore the content of my folders then?
There is absolutely no way to explore the local file system without user interaction in Flash. If you want to do it, you must make an AIR application, which is not browser-based. This is a security feature that is imposed by each browser (you can't do it in JS either) and implemented identically by Adobe.
You can use FileReference to allow a user to select file(s) for Flash to have access to or save a file, but that is the most interaction with the filesystem that will be possible without opening AIR (which is also not limitless. Even with AIR, you won't have full access to the file system and will be locked out of certain directories and prevented from doing certain things)
If the folders are on your server you'll need to rely on a server side script to do the job and pass the result to your app.
If you mean folders on client side computer it's not gonna be possible for security reason.

How to populate Isolated Storage for Windows Phone application

Is there a recommended way to initialize the data in Isolated Storage for Windows Phone 7 application before it is run for the first time? Right now the best solution I can think of is putting a flag in IsolatedStorageSettings and checking for its presence on in the application Launching event. If the flag is not present I initialize several objects in code and save them to Isolated Storage and set the flag so they are not set the next time the application is run. Is there a better way to do this? Should I add the objects in serialized state as some kind of resource or it is acceptable to initialize them in code? I expect that they would require like a thousand lines of code.
Well if you can create your files and add them to the project. And if you are sure that you will not be editing your files than just keep them like that. The files will go into your installation folder.
Or if you think that you are going to edit them and want to keep the changes saved, than copy them from the installation folder to the application storage folder.
Here is a link in which a database which was added as a reference to the project is copied from installation folder to storage folder of the app.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh286411(v=vs.92).aspx
Do the same for your files and everything will be fine.
The second part of your question. Well after this just check for one file/folder in the app storage folder and if it says yes it is there than do not copy your files from installation folder to application storage folder.
And if you are trying to make the files when the application launches than just add a check before the creation code is run. Where you will search for a file/folder existence. And if it exists do not run the file creation code.

Using update-able FlowDocument XAML files as my WPF help system

I'm putting together a simple help system for my WPF app using XAML FlowDcouments (just .xaml files, no code-behind). I've simply added them to my project with Build Action = Resource, and I can load and display them as required.
Now, I'm trying to make it a bit more flexible, in that after the installation of the app, I want the user to be able to download additional (or newer versions of the existing) FlowDocument XAML help files. Given this, I'm now wondering where the best place to store these files is. A few questions/ideas:
Can I leave them as resource files, and overwrite or add new files as required? I can't find a example of how to add/edit resources at runtime on SO/Google. Is it even possible?
If not, is there a recommended location to store these files? They should be available to all users, so they can't go into the User's directory - they would have to go in the program directory. Does the program directory have write-access (I remember having issues with that before)?
Any other ideas?
Thanks.
The resource files are embedded into the executable and therefore you cannot change them.
As for a common place to put your downloaded help files, you cannot store them in "Program Files" since you would need admin privileges to write there.
I suggest you put them into SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.specialfolder(v=vs.80).aspx), which is defined as "The directory that serves as a common repository for application-specific data that is used by all users."

Where should an application's default folder live?

I'm creating a little app that configures a connected device and then saves the config information in a file. The filename cannot be chosen by the user, but its location can be chosen.
Where is the best place for the app's default save-to folder?
I have seen examples out there where it is the "MyDocuments" location (eg Visual Studio does this).
I have seen a folder created right at the top of the C:\ drive. I find that to be a little obnoxious, personally.
It could be in the Program Files[Manufacturer] or Program Files[Product Name], or wherever the app was installed. I have used this location in the past; I dislike it because Windows Explorer does not allow a user to browse to there very easily ('browsability').
Going with this last notion that 'browsability' is a factor, I suppose MyDocuments is the best choice. Is this the most common, most widely accepted practice?
I think historically we have chosen the install folder because that co-locates the data with the device management utilities. But I would really like to get away from that. I don't want the user to have to go pawing through system files to find his/her data, esp if that person is not too Windows-savvy.
Also, I am using the .NET WinForms FolderBrowserDialog, and the "Environment.SpecialFolders" enum isn't helpful in setting up the dialog to point into the Program Files folder.
Thanks for your input!
Suz.
User data belongs in the user's folder. The (utopian) idea there being that they need only back up their personal folder, and should their computer die a sudden fiery death they would have everything they need to get their computer back up in working order. If all their personal data is scattered across the computer it only serves to confuse the user and destabilize your product.
Opinion: all this documents-and-settings stuff with lots of spaces inside is really misguided, including "my" documents. You always end up having to type it manually at the command line. I would choose a NIH structure under user's harddrive, he will only say thanks.

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