DAZ Documentation Center Issues
hjake
Posts: 1,273
What the heck?!? I noticed this last night. Some DAZ Documents will not load. Same status this morning.
Full Page Displayed: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/99000_99999
Header Only: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/32000_32999
Blank: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/31000_31999
Post edited by hjake on
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Thank you, I will let them know.
Those indices sometimes don't load properly. Right now I'm getting "docs.daz3d.com can't currently handle this request" for most, if not all, of them.
HURRAY!!!
It seems to be working again, but it is still quite slow. Thank you Richard helping out. MUCH appreciated.
I haven't had a reply to my letting them know, so that may well be coincidence.
They reply to you?!? WOW you must be someone special!
It looks like I have to take back my gold star sticker Richard. The same problem has returned.
Also, I just noticed that the ReadMe grouping only go upto 105999, but currently DAZ is publishing products beyond 107000. How does that make sense? has DAZ abandoned the maintenance of ReadMe pages?
I can get to the ReadMe page I want by using this path and replacing XXXXXX with the product code.
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/XXXXXX/start
Hmm, OK - we will follow up -though it may well be Monday now before anything is done.
I've accumulated, over the past couple of years, 280 items that have no readme. I understand why some don't exist - the mass imports from rendo, for example, But far too many new products show up without readmes.
Ok .... I guess you can have the weekend off.
I agree. I don't know who makes the Readme pages, but even a basic should be mandetory for every product released by DAZ. Even holiday time limited freebies. Especially since they remove product pages of prodcuts no longer offered. For products no longer offered they could create a screencap page of the former product page and have a category in the store called Archived and jusat stick each page as a simple 1 page HTML of the image that can be searched by prodcut name and prodcut ID.
DAZ Documentation Center not loading since last night. Time Now: 2025-12-10 09:39 EST
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/112933/start
Reported.
site up and running Time Now: 2025-12-10 16:10 EST
I gave up on Readmes decades ago. Most of them don't have any useful info.
I also gave up on DAZ Documentation.
They give the paths/categories in which to find the content (soemthing you were having trouble with theb other day) as well as full file lists. That is the same as most other content readmes I have seen. If the PA provides additional instructions then those also get added to the readme. You con't have to use them, but they certainly do provide useful information for some people.
+1,
Back in my science career days, I was the go-to person to learn a new piece of equipment or software. For me, it was second nature to start with reading the manual before using the expensive device bu I was suprised how many people consider the documentation as a sign that the product wasn't designed well enough that one could figure things out without documentation. On a practical level, everytime some one asks "where is my product", someone else goes to the documentation center, reads the file list, and becomes knowledgeable enough to say that the product has no user facing files and to find the product on the Parameter Tab under Expressions for example. There are are those of us how have had the issue where a texture can't be found because of a typo in the texture's name that can be corrected by changing it to the correct spelling from the file list or inform people that the prop must be parented to the hip for the hierarchial pose to work etc... Knoiwledge is power.
Happens regularly (usually server or gateway issues). Normally you just have to wait, and it starts working again (whether it's because someone is reporting it, I don't know, but I think DAZ is aware that it's a common issue).
I use these files to find my content as it lists what directory things are in. If i can't find it in daz within a certain amount of time, this is where I go to look it up. Then I put it into the proper category and I'm good to go.
I usually report issues, then they (normally) are being fixed once and for all for everyone who owns or buys the product (at least you will get updates automatically if you use DIM).
I find the ReadMe file very instructive as to what is included with the product and its folder structure. Sometimes product store pages are not as informative with the pre-purchase information I am looking for. Occasionally, when there is a product file update, there will be a note in the ReadMe stating what was updated.
I think the Documentation Center as a source for the ReadMe file is a great concept, but unfortunately it requires a continual serious investment of labour and resources to keep up to date and current with internet standards. In my opinion this is not happening and I point to these items as reason for my opinion:
1. Products moved from the Renderosity store to the DAZ store have not had Documentation Center documents created for them. They have not even had their ReadMe text files published to the Documentation Center. I have to go and hunt for the old product page on Renderosity to review the ReadMe. Sveva and Liliflame are examples of this.
2. The Documentation Center has not been converted to HTTPS which my company was required to do over 5 years ago for our website upgrade to comply with search engine compliance.
3. The Documentation Center server crashes frequently.
4. The Product Index section of the Documentation Center is broken and out of date. It only goes upto 109999 ( http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/109000_109999 ) and that page does not even display properly (see attached image). The current DAZ store product codes have gone past 113000.
DAZ, either invest the resources into the Documentation Center or follow Renderosity's lead and include a text ReadMe file on the store product page.
Unfortunately, it happens too often and ofcourse it happens when I am trying to find some specifc file information and come back later is not really a satisfactory options.
This one (free) can download the PDF version for all the products you own, so you always have them available when you need them:
https://3dcontentmanagers.com/software/pm-daz/
I report them too but sometimes I am mid project and need a fix before the support team can deal with it. It often speeds things up if you can report a specific problem, what is causing it, and what fixes it.
Yes, I also do that, if possible.
And, because the store product pages can disappear when products are retired or the PA moves away, also put a link to the readme in the on the appropriate product library page - possibly by making the SKU number that is already there into a live link. That would be a very simple change in the HTML coding required. The query exists to find the sku number, just inject it into a pre-formed page address template. Would have to keep the sku reference even after the product is retired, though. At the moment it seems to disappear. Shouldn't be an difficult change to keep.
Regards,
Richard
just bear in mind that scrapers are part of the issue with the documentation centre.
As I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, in my opinion, the issues relate to the lack of investment in the Documentation Center and its server more any external factor such as web scraping. Since it can be an important part in pre-purchase decisions as well as notices of fixes/issues post-purchase information it should be part of the marketing matrix for DAZ. By that I mean pry open the wallet and invest in the marketing tool called the Documentation Center!
At the bottom of the Documentation Center pages you can see for yourself that the website is very out of date. Go to a product page and click on those little buttons (HTML5 and CSS) at the bottom to see what I mean. Note that DAZ has not update their CC Attribution to 4.0 and that was launched over 20 years ago.
They're really useful for finding out what morphs are included with a product before purchasing. Which aren't often specififed in detail in the product descriptions, sometimes a PA will just say like "includes 28 morphs" or some cryptic thing. And as such, it makes the difference between buying immediately and going to my wishlist sometimes. Without the Readme I have to guess or ask in the forums and hope I get an answer from the PA. And if that doesn't happen it means less money for PAs and Daz. So the ReadMe's are really important to me. I try to check them on nearly everything that should have morphs. The exception would be well known PAs who already have a stellar reputation.
Scrapers should, unless they put a too heavy load on the server by using multiple download threads, not cause any issues, as they normally don't do anything other than downloading the files via an HTTP connection, like any browser does. This program is actually very gentle on the store as it downloads everything via one thread only, one file at a time, first the product library data, then the product page and promos, and finally the ReadMe PDF, and some of the product data are being heavily processed, which means there normally are at least 5 seconds between each PDF download. It doesn't even scrape the ReadMe page, but just downloads the PDF via a direct SKU based link.
Also, when there are PDF errors, the type of errors the program reports (usually Internal Server Error, Bad Gateway) and the context in which they occur do not indicate that they have anything to do with the program. It is also very rare that there are issues with data from the store server, I don't recall the last time it happened. It's always the ReadMe server that is causing issues. So IMO it's that server that has some issues.
BTW, I just checked the ReadMe section in Firefox, and got a "500 Internal Server Error". Then I tried, with the program, to re-download some PFDs which I missed the other day because of ReadMe server issues. They were actually downloading fine. I checked the server again in the browser while they were downloading, still same error, see screenshot. The Product Index page loads fine, but I get an error if I try to access the SKU subcategories.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but apparently PDF download via a direct link (e.g. http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/112933/start?do=export_pdf ), works fine, despite the current server error reported by browser. Why you occasionally get PDF errors in the program anyway, seems to indicate that there are two different types of Internal Server Error at play here.
In any case, DAZ is well aware of the program and what it does. When they updated their store software to Magento in 2012, one of their web programmers, who became aware of the program back then, contacted me unsolicited and offered to help with adapting it to the new store. He also helped with the adaptation later, when they shifted to google's software in 2020. And they have never complained about it causing any problems, so far.