Read Me Files + New Website = Broken Links
Jason Galterio
Posts: 2,562
With the new website roll out it appears that all the links in the embedded Read Me files are not longer valid. All of the ones I have needed to use today have come up with a 404 error.
Is it possible to get the Read Me files updated? Or a redirect implemented that will push the old links to the new format?
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Comments
To add a little detail (which only just occurred to me, sorry)...
An example Read Me file, in this case Brianne for Genesis, has this as the store link:
http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=13930
Which comes up as a 404 error.
The correct link is now:
http://www.daz3d.com/brianne
Is there a way to update the database behind the first link so that it sends over to the new link? As I imagine updating all of the Read Me's would be a monumental task.
Are you talking about a readme file that's included in the product zip? Readme's are now online here http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/start (or by clicking the i in a circle for the product in DIM).
That would be a good answer in theory, but in practice it doesn't work.
A significant portion of my installs go to "Page Not Found" when the Info button is used in DIM.
Other times the information is useless. I.e.this is what DIM gives as the link for Aven for Genesis: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/13040/start
However, the readme in the installation directory provides full information.
If I am in Studio and trying to determine the compatibility of a clothing piece, I can right click on the library item, go to directory, open the HTML file.
Using DIM, I have to fire up DIM, locate the item there, use the Info key, and hope that the file has been populated. Which it usually has not been.
All I am asking if it is possible to redirect the old links, which worked fine prior to the revamp, without having to change all of the HTML files.
How do we find the Readme's if we don't use DIM?
With this one you can view the DAZ doc pages for your own items, just select an item from the list and click the View Docs Page button:
http://taosoft.dk/software/accm-daz/
It's currently not available though as it's being updated to work with the new store layout.
With this one you can view doc pages for all the products in the DAZ store:
http://taosoft.dk/software/prbr-daz/
Left click an item on the list to see the product page, right click to see the docs page.
The database hasn't been updated for a couple of weeks so some of the latest products are missing, but it will be updated as soon as possible (looks like the store changes also broke the update scanner, but that doesn't affect the program, it still works allright).
BTW, could probably add a feature to the Account Manager that would scan the install zips and add the ReadMe's to the database.
Wow, that's amazing!! Thank you so much for this VERY useful tool!!! :lol:
I keep forgetting about your tools when I need them Taozen. I could have used them the past two weeks too.
I just got through the exercise of sorting my files (again, don't ask). It was a major headache trying to remember what some of them were. A lot of the package names are pretty generic.
[Internal conversation]
"Winter celebration is a set of shoes? Really? Deadly Beauties is a texture for Lisa's Wisteria?"
DIM was leading me to non-existent links. Installing and then using the (for example) "file::genesis" filter was hit or miss.
So I took to unzipping the packages into a temporary directory and then looking into the embedded HTML files. There was a 50/50 chance these would give me the information I needed. And when in doubt, the "store link" worked up until the site change over. Then I started picking through the XML files with Notepad++.
As you can imagine, it got to be a pretty time consuming effort. But not having working HTML links is a real headache, since I rely heavily on those. They were the only reliable resource since Smart Content isn't fully instituted, the online database is missing volumes of files, and DIM seems to be missing a different set.
My oldest package number is 39 and 500 items lower than SKU 2000, so my library goes back a significant way. In this same range, the online HTML database only has 191 entries, so a considerable chunk is missing documentation.
Agreed, a lot of the readme/doc pages are pretty useless, either because they lack information or because there simply isn't a page for the product in question.
Opening DAZ web site in Chrome incognito window and the 404's not found go away. So there are no bad links. I can't explain why. Must be bad htm coding at DAZ, maybe?
Ohhhh...handy! :D
Laurie
I think nowdays no one has ever heard of a test site. The other place does it too....just rolls stuff out without testing it out o.O
:|
Laurie
Hmm, that post is several years old and I don't recall what I really mean with that, as there are no readme files in the zips (maybe I thought there were, like in the old .exe installers). But I think the manifest files can be used to generate some info about where each product can be found in the DS library, which might be useful.
As for the readme/docs in the DAZ store they can already be looked up online, with a single click for each product, from within the Account Manager, but technically they could also be scanned and the data added to the database. I may take a look at it at some point when I get the time.