Non-Image Exhibits

[Joe LaPointe 0]

Exhibits can contain images as jpg files and non-image ones as txt, doc and pdf files. When creating a website with Second Source, you can select an alternate image folder that contains the original images "modified" to enhance the user experience on the web. Second Source just includes doc and pdf exhibits as they appear in TMG. There is no flexibility to tailor these exhibits for the web. I am using TMG v7.04. Besides jpg exhibits, I have doc and pdf exhibits.

 

Which of the two following approaches will provide the most flexibility in creating and tailoring a website to enhance the user experience when creating a website with Second Source?

 

Approach 1. Leave the non-image exhibits as doc and pdf files.

 

Approach 2. Convert the doc and pdf exhibits to jpg images. Multipage doc and pdf files would become multipage jpg files.

 

 

Any suggestions or insights on the best way to proceed will be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe LaPointe

[John Cardinal 0]

Joe,

 

I think you mean "Second Site" and not "Second Source".

 

One thing you might consider is not using .DOC or .PDF files. In many cases, you can replace those with web pages and for a web site, that's the optimal solution. I certainly would never convert .DOC and .PDF files to .JPG. Presumably, the files contain text, and converting them to images will interfere with accessing the information.

 

The big question is, why do you want to have two versions of a .DOC or .PDF file? TMG doesn't do anything with those exhibits, i.e., it doesn't add them to reports or other kinds of output. The Alternate Image Folder exists because users may want to use hi-res images for printed reports that they create with TMG, but use low-res images for web pages created by Second Site. As far as I know, there's no analogous situation that applies to the other document types (.DOC, .PDF, etc.)

[Joe LaPointe 0]

John,

 

Sorry for my error in naming Second Site. I agree with your position except in my situation. Most of my PDF exhibits are scans of documents, articles, and multipage records. Some of these exhibits are in French. It is convenient to have them as exhibits in TMG because they are easily accessible especially if I am translating them. However, I cannot publish some of these articles because of copyright issues. I would need to get permission from the copyright holder to publish them on the web. There is no easy way to either exclude the copyrighted PDF exhibits or substitute a "Copyrighted Article" substitute PDF title page when creating a website with Second Site. I have this flexibility with jpg images by using the alternate image folder option in Second Site.

 

I posed the question as a way to solve my dilemma. The long-term solution may be to request a new feature in TMG where the user can specify an alternate non-image folder.

 

Regards,

 

Joe

[Jim Byram 0]

As far as I know, there's no analogous situation that applies to the other document types (.DOC, .PDF, etc.)

Joe just pointed out a perfect example of an analogous situation... the need to substitute an alternate version of a document where the original can't be published on the web.

 

It would be a worthwhile update to allow the alternate exhibit folder to work for any alternate exhibit irregardless of the filetype. Or perhaps a method to specify the filetypes that could be used by the alternate exhibit folder.

 

This is something that requires some thought since TMG users have also expressed a need to disable exhibit output for selected exhibits and, perhaps, for a means of alternative exhibit output.

[John Cardinal 0]

Joe,

 

Two points, the second of which may make you happy. First, don't use PDF files as image files. Yes, they can be used that way, but all they do is add clutter to the process of using the information. (Feel free to ignore this advice. I am a PDF-hater, at least when they are used to publish information that is designed to be viewed on the web.) Second, there are a couple ways to skip certain external exhibits when making a site in TMG.

 

The first way is a bit of a hack that involves renaming a folder, and so it's a little inconvenient. The basic idea is to put all the sensitive exhibits in (or under) a specific folder. So, for example, you might put them in this folder tree:

 

c:\exhibits\private\ ...

 

You can use subfolders if you want:

 

c:\exhibits\private\images\ ...

c:\exhibits\private\documents\ ...

 

When you make your web site, temporarily rename the "private" folder to something else:

 

c:\exhibits\hide\

 

SS will not find the exhibits because the exhibit record will have a path like "c:\exhibits\private\certificate.pdf" but no such file will exist at that moment. (It will be hiding in "c:\exhibits\hide\certificate.pdf".) After you make your site, rename the folder to its proper name.

 

The other way to hide exhibits will only work for exhibits that you attach to events. Let's say you have a marriage certificate that you have attached to a Marriage event. Detach it from that event, and attach it to a custom tag called "Marr-Cert-Priv" or something similar. Arrange the sort date of the event so that it follows the Marriage event. When you make the site, do not include the Marr-Cert-Priv events, and the site will not include the events and if the events are suppressed, so are the exhibits attached to them.

 

I don't think this situation is really analogous to the situation that is addressed by Second Site's Alternate Image Folder capability. That facility is not intended to suppress specific exhibits, it's used to provide an alternate version. Whether or not you think the analogy applies, I think what is needed is a way for Second Site to skip certain exhibits when building the site. One way to do that might be to allow the user to designate a filter of some sort. So, for example, I could add a filter where you could say "exclude exhibits where the description contains 'do not publish'".

[RobinL 0]

As far as I know, there's no analogous situation that applies to the other document types (.DOC, .PDF, etc.)

Joe just pointed out a perfect example of an analogous situation... the need to substitute an alternate version of a document where the original can't be published on the web.

 

It would be a worthwhile update to allow the alternate exhibit folder to work for any alternate exhibit irregardless of the filetype. Or perhaps a method to specify the filetypes that could be used by the alternate exhibit folder.

 

This is something that requires some thought since TMG users have also expressed a need to disable exhibit output for selected exhibits and, perhaps, for a means of alternative exhibit output.

I totallyagree that this should be looked at. There is a need for alternate image sets with reduced numbers of pixels for use in Visual Chartform box charts. The large individual image pixel count quickly bloats the chart file size, slows down editing and printing but giving no advanage in the output quality.

[John Cardinal 0]

This is something that requires some thought since TMG users have also expressed a need to disable exhibit output for selected exhibits and, perhaps, for a means of alternative exhibit output.

Jim,

 

In general, those two features seem like they could be useful. I think it's important to separate them (as you did) into (1) designating an alternate version and (2) a per-exhibit include/exclude capability.

 

I am not sure that a simple include/exclude property would help SS users. Here's the problem: the user may want the exhibit included in TMG output but not in a site created by SS. So, what the user might need is two include/exclude properties for each exhibit, one to control TMG reports and one to control SS.

 

As you said, some thought is required. I am going to investigate the filtering option that I mentioned in my reply to Joe above.