InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by ajr on 2009/12/28 17:38

I saved some files, including a Scrapbook directory, in the YourFile.SNDB.Files folder. When I copied the larger IQ folder to a different drive and opened it on a different computer, the linked files did not open. ItemHTMLFile pointed to the old address on the C drive.

Release 11. Vista

Comments

Is this issue resolved ?

Hi Armando,

Had not noticed your reply until today. No, I can not open my linked files when they are copied to a different drive.

For the most part I use IQ on my desktop, and before a file is linked to IQ, it's moved to a folder under the IQBaseFileName.SNDB.Files folder. Today I copied the entire IQBase folder to a USB key and opened it on my laptop. One of my items links to a pdf in both the file fields and the html pane. IQ will not open the file when the item is clicked on, and the HTML pane displays:

File not found: C:\Users\MyName\Documents\InfoQube\FolderName\IQBaseFileName.SNDB.Files\FolderNameTwo\FolderNameThree\FolderNameFour\LinkedFile.pdf. Could not load content.

The folder holding the IQBase has the same name in both locations, and of course all the files and folders below that level are identical. The file does exist on the USB key, and can be opened with a pdf reader.

However, mht files which are located in the IQBaseFileName.SNDB.Files folder display properly, and the value for the ItemHTMLFile field is the location on the USB drive.

Can anyone else confirm this bug, or confirm that autoupdating links, excepting links to web captures, do work for them?

This might be a bug as IQ should automatically search into the *sndb folder. Like you said yourself... From the manual :

[quote]

Autoupdating links: If the linked file is in the YourFile.sndb.Files folder, then any links which cannot be resolved (moved, on a different computer, etc) will search in that folder and if resolved, will update the link accordingly (works for both the FilePath field and the ItemHTMLFile used in the HTML pane) . This is a great way to simulate file embedding. Simply copy your sndb file and the associated subfolder to a portable drive and your links will remain functional!

[/quote]

I'll have to try putting IQ on a USB drive tomorrow and see what happens. Time to sleep now.

Thanks. I appreciate you taking a look at it. I was starting to wonder why this had never been an issue for anyone else.

[quote=ajr]

Thanks. I appreciate you taking a look at it. I was starting to wonder why this had never been an issue for anyone else.

[/quote]

Hi ajr,

I guess your links are in the itemHTMLfile field ? If that's the case, well... it seems to work here. IQ looks for the file in the SNDB folder.

I've had problems with some characters (mentioned in a recent thread). These names don't resolve properly in the HTML pane, but other names do.

Question :

- How are your inaccessible files linked to your items ?

(1- Through a field (like the itemHTMLfile field or filefullname field), 2- or just from the grid -- in which case you'd need to have relative links for them to resolve properly, I believe.)

- Do you have special characters in your file names ?

All my files are linked through fields. The ItemHTMLFile updates when it is an .mht file saved by InfoQube, but when it is a pdf file, it does not update. The FileFullName and FilePath fields do not update.

There are no special characters in my file names.

Everything seems to work here.

This what I tried, 5 min ago.

0- plugged my USB key, ran IQ from the USB key (double clicked on the .exe), and opened my DB from IQ.

1- Created 1 new item in a grid.

2- Copied and pasted a pdf file in the *.SNDB.Files folder (where all MHT files are stored -- as you know, the *.sndb.files folder would be something like "myIQBase.SNDB.FILES")

3- I then Opened the HTML pane, and clicked on "Open" inside the HTML pane and selected the pdf file I just pasted in the myIQBase.SNDB.FILES folder

4- As expected, the pdf files opened in the HTML pane, and a link to the pdf document was created in the proper field : itemHTMLFile (yes, the name is a bit awkward...)

5- Then, because I wanted to create another different link to the same pdf file (for testing purposes), I dragged and dropped the pdf file from the "myIQBase.SNDB.FILES" to the grid

6- the hyperlink dialog opened and I created another item in the grid, linked to the pdf file and, as expected, another link was created in the proper field : FileFullName (with the other fields like FilePath and FileName, not used in the link) used in the item field cell as :

I then unplugged my USB key and plugged it in another computer.

My USB key was assigned a different letter, and so I had to manually pick my IQ DB after clicking on File --> Open.

Once loaded though, everything worked as expected :

1- When I clicked on the "TEST" item, the pdf file opened in the HTML pane (and the link in itemHTMLFile got updated to reflect the new Drive letter.)

No problem.

2- and when I clicked on the "TEST2" item hyperlink... the pdf file opened in the external pdf viewer. No problem here either.

So, basically, everything seems to work fine here.

If you have any other questions, please ask. Hopefully, my explanations are clear.

[quote=Armando]

I guess your links are in the itemHTMLfile field ? If that's the case, well... it seems to work here. IQ looks for the file in the SNDB folder.[snip]

[/quote]

Armando, do you know if IQ allows a folder structure within the SNDB file, i.e. something like:

SNDB

project 1

project 2

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA
HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-2

http://janrifkinson.blogspot.com

http://www.bogartsdaddy.com

http://janrif.zenfolio.com

[quote=jan_rifkinson]

[quote=Armando]

I guess your links are in the itemHTMLfile field ? If that's the case, well... it seems to work here. IQ looks for the file in the SNDB folder.[snip]

[/quote]

Armando, do you know if IQ allows a folder structure within the SNDB file, i.e. something like:

SNDB

project 1

project 2

[/quote]

good question - I noticed ajr had files stored in subfolders of his SNDB.files folder

I don't know actually. Maybe not. I don't have the time to try this right now, but I might try tonight -- or maybe ajr will be able to confirm if this is the culprit.

That is my setup, the only files I have in the FileName.SNDB.Files folder are the .mht files from web captures (which do adjust), all the rest are further down in the file directory.

I'm at work right not, but when I get home I'll put a pdf in the FileName.SNDB.Files folder, attach it, then check if it adjusts when opened on a different computer from a different drive. I suspect that it will, but perhaps if I'm making some simple error linking, this will point it out.

-----

Looking over the manual, I notice that the Autoupdating links section of Section 8.20 doesn't say it will make adjustments for subfolders below the FileName.SNDB.Files level. So this may all be a complaint for missing functionality that was never promised to begin with.

This was an issue for me a couple of months ago when I started this thread, please see the last four or five posts.

Here's my basic concern: as I continue to work with IQ many more files will be linked, easily hundreds. Putting all my files under the IQ folders in the directory is fine, but keeping them in just one folder makes it difficult to tell what's what. If I need to migrate out of IQ, this would be a real pain. Instead of keeping all web captures in the FileName.SNDB.Files folder, it would be better for me if I could move them to a subfolder and still have the links autoupdate. But this is a minor preference. The issue I have is that there doesn't seem to be any overlap between relative links for the file fields and autoupdating links in the ItemHTMLFile field, except for files kept in that top level folder. If I have a pdf in a subfolder I can create a relative link by typing OtherData\ in the FilePath field (Section 8.20) but then I can't have the pdf display in the HTML pane as the ItemHTMLFile field doesn't take the relative links.

This is a bigger issue if you use the ScrapBook extension for web captures (Section 6.60). I've been very satisfied with IQ's capture of .mht files and BlockNote's editing capabilities so I haven't used Scrapbook for several weeks. But if the ItemHTMLFile field does not update within subfolders, then the associated ScrapBook files will only appear when there is a perfect match with the file path at the time of web capture. In the last post in the above linked thread, Pierre talks about how IQ looks for missing files. Since it's pretty important to me that my links remain active, I'd like to get a better sense of how IQ searches for folders and what I can do to make sure the ItemHTMLFile field makes the right adjustment. If I have to, I'm willing to store everything in the FileName.SNDB.Files folder but that's far from optimal, and I wonder how it would work with ScrapBook. The ideal outcome would be for IQ to autoupdate both the FilePath field and the ItemHTMLFile field as described in Section 8.20 but to also include subfolders (multiple levels down),

I created a new IQ Base and added two different pdfs at two different levels.

pdfs: Article and Report

I added Article to the FileName.SNDB.Files folder. After creating a Data folder inside of the FileName.SNDB.Files folder, I added a copy of Article to the Data folder as well. Report was added to the Data folder only. All three files were added to the IQ Base with Dynamic File Link fields, and then in the HTML pane all three were opened and saved.

When this IQ Base was opened on a different computer, both items pointing to Article showed it in the HTML pane, and both items linking to Article when clicked would open that file in the pdf viewer. Report would not display in the HTML pane, and clicking on the Report item had no effect. The item which was linked to Article in the Data folder showed that file path (that is the Data folder) in the ItemHTMLFile before it was displayed, i.e. going to Properties without clicking the HTML pane. Once the HTML pane opened, the ItemHTMLFile for that item changed to the pdf stored at the FileName.SNDB.Files folder. In other words, the original file path for the linked file was to the FileName.SNDB.Files\Data folder, but it found the identical file at the FileName.SNDB.Files folder and opened that one instead. The FilePath field did not change on any of the items after opening them, or attempting to, in the pdf viewer.

[quote=ajr]

I created a new IQ Base and added two different pdfs at two different levels.

pdfs: Article and Report

[/quote]

So I think we have our answer. Files should be put directly in the FileName.SNDB.Files folder.

Maybe Pierre could expand that functionality to all subfolders in the FileName.SNDB.Files IQ folder ? I think it'd be a good idea. So... if you feel like entering that in Mantis (unless Pierre has other plans...?)

Yes, what you described is exactly it. Only the YourFile.sndb.files folder was being resolved. This is now fixed (for the HTML pane at least). All sub-folders now also resolve, the steps to resolve a file are:

Check if file exist
if not found, try removing file:// prefix
if not found, resolve relative paths
if not found, try just swapping drive letter
if not found, try using the current IQBase path
if not found, report file not found

The last 3 cases will show a taskbar popup message

First, thank you for fixing this. It was a major concern of mine.

I don't see any issues with the HTML pane, but as you perhaps already know, links to nested files (e.g. video) and folders do not open when the "container folder" has moved. Even a pdf file that shows up in the HTML pane will not open in the pdf reader if the hyperlink in the item, or properties, is double clicked. But since these files are easier to locate (i.e. not titled ItemID147.mht), it is of lesser importance.