Friday - The Automatic FAQ Maker
Portfolio 9 was released at the end of June 2009, with a v9.0.1 for Win/Mac servers released in August 2009. There are 3 primary changes that this introduces:
Note that the degree and nature of the back-end change to Portfolio Server and its central role in the process make this more of a 'v1.0' release than previous point upgrades.
As a result of this technical requirements have changed. The most noticeable part being that Portfolio Server can no longer be installed on non-server Windows OSs. Indeed, Portfolio Server now generally requires a more powerful server. This is because all cataloguing is done on the server plus there are back-end server processes for the web client that use OS resources. As the cataloguing is more centralised, the assets should ideally be stored on or attached to the server (external drive or NAS, etc.) for most rapid access. The server is now administrated via a web page and several new ports are not used (re firewall settings).
Apart from being unable to make/open standalone FDBs, the 'desktop' client is effectively unchanged from v8.5. Administration can only be done via the web-based Admin panel.
This is effectively a completely new program and currently has a few 'v1.0' type gremlins - a v9.0.1 has already been released. Portfolio server is now the only component that can create (FDB) catalogues. The method of creating/serving catalogues from folders outsdie the Server app no longer works (this may be a bug rather than intentional).
Desktop client scripting appears unchanged although there were pre-release rumbles of fixes to the AppleScript interface. As expected the Windows client uses the v8.x bojects, indeed the v9 desktop installs the v8 TLB file 'portfolio8.tlb'. It is likely any changes are undocumented fixes to pre-v9 bugs and it will be left to users to discover what these are.
Portfolio Server, the web client and NetPublish have no scripting API, though the Windows desktop client TLB does have undocumented methods for scripting the client's NP Assistant.
Although Portfolio Server contains elements of the Equilibrium MediaRich server, the MediaRich engine's features are not scriptable as the component is essentially a internal component inside Portfolio server with no alternative access. This may change in later versions.
NetPublish is unchanged in v9 apart from losing the capability of publishing uploaded or local non-served catalogues. It is understood modules to allow things like uploading assets to the server and offering more viaety as to the type of downloads may be added in later (free) v9.x updates. There are no changes to the API. The typos in the case-sensitive code in the API section of the manual are uncorrected from the previous version.
NP v9.0 will not install on Windows Server 2008 - this is a known bug and will be resolved in later version.
NP v9.0 is no longer backwards-compatible. Previously, you could publish older (non-served) catalogues on a newer NP version. The change doubtless reflects the fact that NP v9 is now a served-catalogue-only app.
Catalogue formats remain as the default FDB, or SQL in SQL-Svr (Win), Oracle (Win) or mySQL (Mac/Win) flavours. From v9, all catalogues use user-based passworded access. Pre-v9 FDBs without passwords will require passwords to be added before update. If level-based access is used, then four default users are created named/passworded as per the existing access levels and with scope of access as per those levels. Ideally, actual users should be set up in the catalogues before upgrading the catalogues to avoid confusion post update. Also, with multiple v8.x catalogues check the user names and passwords are the same across all catalogues
FDB catalogues are still stored inside the Portfolio server app, in the now even more hidden (Mac OS) location of /Applications/Extensis/Portfolio Server/applications/native-server/Catalogs/. The method of placing aliases/shortcuts to other folders with other FDBs still works. SQL catalogue methods are unchanged.
Web client functionality differences vs. the desktop catalogue are as yet undocumented. The web client is an Abode AIR application and needs the browser to have the Flash v10 or more recent plug-in installed. The web client is a licence applied to the Portfolio Server app which will then allow the speciaifed number of concurrent web client connections. The user accesses the catalogue via 'http://[serverURL]:8090' at which they will see a username/password login. Successful login gives the user access to all served catalogues to which the admin has added the user via the Server admin web interface.
File 'upload' (cataloguing) can be done but only by using AutoSync folders as the upload target - i.e. if a catalogue has no AutoSync folders set up then the web users can't catalogue files via the web interface. The web client does not support scrolling by either spacebar-press or mouse wheel scrolling (bug/oversight?). The web client access automatically logs out after an undocumented period of time. Within the web client there is HTML help (it appears incomplete as at v9.0).
Portfolio data fields can be reviewed/edited as in the Desktop Client. This type of editing seems will allow data maintenance by outworkers that previously required use ao a client and copy of the FDB (unless the user had a very fast WAN) connection. The user can control the number of thumbnails seen per page and their size. Size is one of 3 choices - 112px (thumbnail-based), 256px (also thumbnail-based), screen preview. If only 122px thumbnails are available and 256px is selected the 112px image is drawn in a 256px box. If previews are missing and preview size selected the usr gets a warning. As web users can't directly preview originals, having screen previews is realistically a pre-requisite for web client use (important as some pre-v9 users opt not to employ screen previews).
Desktop cleint No manual is provided for the web client.
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Question: Portfolio 9 [FAQ00405.htm]
Last Update:- 20 August 2009
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