Ok, I give up. How do those damn categories in DS4.9 work?
Chanteur-de-Vent
Posts: 567
Ok, so I get it something can go wrong with categories at many places. They might not transfer from DS4.8, they might break during an update, they might get overwritten because the vendor updated the metedata.
But can someone explain me, why on earth, if I have a pretty fresh install of both content and DS 4.9 and I create a new category folder, content just doesn't show up right after categorizing it????
In detail:
1.I have a Poser content folder which I want to make a category from
2.I have a folder called something like "My Custom Categories folder" in Categories
3.I right click my Poser content folder and say "Make a category of this folder and subfolders" and categorize it somewhere in the tree of my "Custom Categories Folder"
4. If you try to categorize the individual content of that Poser folder, it will show up as categorized in that concrete folder on that specific spot I assigned it to
5. But going to my "Custom Categories Folder" a minute after that, to check if it's there, and the folder is there, but showing nothing. Poser folder shows content fine. Categories folder link of that folder just doesn't.
Product in question was Lady of the Lake for Victoria 4. And I believe it's not the only one.
Anyone idea's on what I'm doing wrong? I'm working in "Offline Mode" so no chance it updated something between me categorizing and looking.
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Comments
I have been having this problem for ages. I've reported it, support has come up with some suggestions none of which fix it. This is really annoying for me since before 4.9 I was using categories as my primary way of finding stuff and now it is badly broken.
One thing I have found that sometimes fixes it is to go to Content DB Maintenance and re-import the metadata for the things that won't categorise. I deselect the user data and all items, then I go down selecting just the items that aren't working. This sometimes fixes the problem but sometimes doesn't, and sometimes the items aren't in the metadata list.
The most likely reason is that my content database has somehow been corrupted. I spent a lot of time creating the categories I have got, most of the old ones still work and I can't face the thought of clearing the databse and re-creating them again.
Went to test my version. Found out it was DAZ 4.9.0.something, updated to 4.9.2.70 version. My database should be fresh and new, since I just installed my content on a fresh Windows installation. So, it shouldn't be a corrupted database problem, unless I corrupted it by copying some files.
Re-imported meta-data for everything. That fixed Lady of the Lake, but Raelyn for Stephanie 4 (and a lot of others) didn't get saved. It's kinda stupid, since Rendo items are showing properly, while DAZ items are not. I would rather expect the other way around.
Could the problem have something to do with me installling both DS and Poser version of Raelyn? Like, maybe I should stick with only one? But then, when I de-installed DS version, nothing happened.
Rendo items working OK and Daz items not is just like I'm seeing, I don't have any problems categorizing non-Daz stuff. I think the problem is that when metadata goes wrong it stops the categories from working. If there is no metadata at all then they work fine.
One of the suggestions from support was to export the user data, run a script that they sent me and then re-import the user data. Luckily I made a copy of the database directory befiore doing that since re-importing the user data only bought back a tiny fraction of my custom categories. I put my database copy back after that. It seems that whatever has gone wrong in my database the fix is beyond simple export/import.
Since non-Daz items categorize OK with no metadata I was wondering if there is a way to delete all metadata from the database while keeping the custom categories. Smart content wouldn't work but I don't use that anyway, and if Daz Connect didn't work I wouldn't be too bothered.
I use 4.9, but have uninstalled the SQL components; IMO smart is far from smart. You can't use smart then but as its causing you trouble, I can't see that being an issue until they fix it.
I suspect that de-installing the SQL might stop custom categories working as well. As far as I know anything other than just listing the library folders is done by what Daz refer to as metadata, and custom categories are probably driven by tables in the database. I suspect that the referential integrity of the database has become broken and it's making the whole thing go wrong. That could explain why non-Daz items categorize OK, if there are no entries in the metadata tables for it to try and link to then there is nothing to go wrong.
Are you using custom categories with SQL de-installed?
Uninstalling SQL will disable custom categories and a number of other features in Daz Studio.
Additionally, as Daz Studio continues to be developed it is likely that more and more functionality will depend on the SQL database and corresponding metadata.
Bummer, I don't use metadata or smart content. I have put off moving to 4.9 and this thread scares me for when I do
Agreed. I don't have an issue with SQL, but I'm sticking with 4.8 until we get something like the blue highlight back in Content Library, I can't find new stuff to catagorise in 4.9.
Wondering about it as well: is there a way to delete metadata from a product? Is this like a separate file or some line in a .duf file?
Bad thing about 4.8 is that now all DAZ figures skin settings are optimized for 4.9 (and you get orange people if you render in 4.8 out of the box) and you can't use encrypted stuff in 4.8. Those are the reasons I moved.
Ehmmm... How do I do that? Reset the library I mean?
OK. I have been considering organizing my 8,000 plus item library using categories. From the sound of this thread, this would be an exercise in probable futility (if you like oxymorons).
You reset the database by right clicking on the Content Library tab and selecting that choice. I'm not able to access my machine at the moment, so I can't tell you the exact wording.
It might read "Content DB Maintenance" or "Content DB Manager."
I know but since I can't catagorise the way I want to in 4.9 I will just have to stop buying characters without Legacy shaders and I am not interested in encrypted content anyway.
Well eventually I may stop using Daz; I'm just not a fan of having a database I have no control of on my system.
Not via Connect as it doesn't work.
I've catagorised my content as I like it.
To be honest, if there was no DRM component, I'd possibly give it a go once they've got it working reliably, but I can't see DRM disappearing.
I think the metadata arrives as .dsx or maybe .dsa files but when Studio first loads the items it puts the metadata into tables in the database. What I would need to do is clear this from the database without clearing the part of the database that drives the custom categories.
If you start now you might be OK, but I'm not guaranteeing anything. I've been creating categories since they were first added to Studio and everything was OK until 4.9. I think all of my problems are related to the "upgrade" from 4.8 to 4.9
If you know anything about relational databases you can have control of the database. Postgres is an open system and you can get tools to access it. I've installed PgAdmin III which is a free tool that lets you look at the tables and run SQL scripts. When I get around it I plan to see if I can figure out what is wrong in my database and if I can fix it. But it will take some investigation and I can't find any documentation on how the database works.
Same for me. I ended up having to redo my categories from scratch. Over 2500 items. Took me almost 2 months. But at the moment they are still working very well. I very occaisionally have a product that simply will not show no matter what I do but out of the thousands of products I have its down to just two or three.
The PgAdmin tool is included with DS. However, the structure of the database is not published and is subject to chnage - see the DS Chagelog - so accessing it directly is very high risk. Daz Script has been extended to provide broad access to the abstract data structure without the risks of direct, low-level database manipulation.
Waiting until 4.9 has 4.8 'New blue highlights' in Content Library before I upgrade
I've been begging for this ever since the first upgrade to 4.9. I kept 4.8 on my laptop just because its the only way I can find all of my new contest
Thank you for that information. I haven't looked at script yet, I think I'll have a look at the documentation and see what I can do with it.
I think there may be the occasional problem with metadata on individual items. There was one set a short while ago where I couldn't get it to appear in a category and someone else reported that the same item wasn't appearing in either smart content or products (I can't remember which), and they were not having problems with other stuff.
I've noticed a whole lot of products (mostly older and the RDNA items) coming over with metadata that doesn't install properly--newest batch with the "Lil Bit" items released last night. When I check the daz log this morning after it being clean before the DIM install, I get a whole lot of the following, like over a 1000 lines in the log since the last batch of RDNA items I installed, with this same error:
WARNING: cloud\dzcloudtasknotifier.cpp(178): Error in metadata for product (Insert product name here), metadata for file '/runtime/libraries...' has no corresponding file
This is being caused because of that slash right after the quote. Remove the slash in the *.dsx Support file and re-import the metadata and it works fine.
For full instructions, find the correct metadata file (*.dsx) in the Support folder, open in a text editor (I use Notepad ++) and change every instance of the following in the file:
<Asset VALUE="/
to:
<Asset VALUE="
Save, and then Re-import the metadata through the Content DB Maintenance Panel in Daz Studio and it will add the product properly. Note, if you mess up the metadata file accidentally, just reinstall the product through DIM and it will recreate the file or save a copy first.
Something to note, the .json files in the connect library which are the connect addition to the *.dsx files, also have the same discrepancy, for instance in Product 17624 (Berlin City Spirit Fashion for Genesis 2 Male(s)), for the "asset files" it has that slash in front of some of the items but not in front of the others: (note, found 12 other *.json files with this issue, out of the approximately 7,700 currently showing in my cloud folder)
"filename" : "People/
"filename" : "/People
I finally gave up on reporting these metadata issues because the products were never updated, despite tickets and proving the problem to the support techs that responded initially. Easier to just pull the metadata files into Notepad ++ and fix it myself. (And no, I don't use Daz Connect. I have too much custom categorization that got overwritten by the Connect "update" so had to reset the database and reimport with my backup the last time I tried it).
I know that the categories can be a pain, but they are totally worth it IMO. I absolutely love my new categories and they have saved me so much time when setting up scenes and finding what I need. It's still a work in progress but I love having everything orginized and set up for easy finding. It's taken a couple months, and I'm still not quite done but it's well worth it, IMO.
I, personally, don't use catagories at all. Everything for 4.8 and 4.9 are in the Daz Formats and Poser and 3.8 are under the Poser Formats (They are all on an external drive.) Until 4.8, I had separate Runtimes on top of what was in Poser and 3.8 due to the amount of Content I accumulated since 2007 when I started this hobby, and the 3.8 Studio program with it's content was moved to the external once I finally upgraded to 4.8 to learn Iray. For me, it is easier since I know where pretty much everything already is and I don't need to go looking for it.
Manual is great if it works for you--that is what I did with my runtimes for the longest time, had very clean ones as I never put anything into them "as is"--even modified Cr2, PP2, PZ2, et al to fit my runtime structure when necessary and to cleanup wayward files (I cringe still when I look in the DS runtime that is created purely by DIM installed products as it is such a unmittigated mess). Unfortunately, though, when you have over 11,000 products (not items, but full products so probably +100k items--all purchased), trying to manually categorize can end up eating up hard drive space--especially if you have items that can fit into 2 or 3 or more categories so copying to 2-3 or more file locations just multiples the hard drive usage (and I admit, I go overboard on categorizing items so an item can end up in multiple categories depending). As I use a laptop because I travel alot and can't alway access an external hard drive on the road, the cost of the hard drives that could hold all this was prohibitive.
Daz is trying to come up with a workable solution with their DS library system but it has its challenges and Connect has only complicated things. The other upside to using the DS library system is being able to reinstall an updated product on the fly. I don't have to keep manually fixing a newly updated products, can just ignore the install library path and do all my work to categorize the necessary files any way I want instead and rarely have to go back and recategorize an updated product because I don't use the metadata categories Daz does. I was even creating "products" for DS from my purchases at the other sites (RDNA, Rendo, HW, etc.) long before the Content Package Assist came along just so I could use the categorization feature in DS--Content Package Assist added a step since now I can easily create DIM packages of my purchases how I want them and they're easily reinstalled if necessary.
It really is what you're comfortable with and what works best for you--I just found manual was unworkable for my needs and can well understand why people are frustrated with the DS updates that are breaking their categories or wiping them out totally or can't get them working at all.