How does OpenLP handle images?
I don't want to waste anyone's time, but I am intrigued as to how OpenLP handles images when imported for services. At church we have two people who create services on two different laptops. Often one person creates a service on one laptop then provides a copy of the osz service file to the other. I often open a service created by the other person in order to create the next weeks service. What baffles me is when I open last weeks service (created on the other laptop)
all the slides work perfectly when I run the service, but when I make changes and try to Save As I get the attached error saying that image files are missing from the 'servicemanager' folder. I have used the same images in services that I have previously created. When I browse to that folder, sure enough it does not contain the files mentioned in the error message. How is OpenLP able to display the images when I run the service in Live View, but isn't able to save the service because the image files are missing? I hope I've made sense.
Thanks
Comments
@JVanders The images are part of the service file. Images are stored in a text format along with the file location for the images. When a service file is loaded OpenLP assembles an temporary image to use for projection. When OpenLP saves a service file it creates the text version of an image, but because there is no image file it fails.
@JohnM Thanks for your explanation - not that I really understand it :-)
Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, but can you please the following behaviour.
In my original post I explained how I sometimes use a service created on a different laptop which leads to the error I mentioned. However, I've found that I sometimes get the same error when using a service that I created on my laptop. I open last weeks service, and Save As to create this weeks. I periodically successfully save the new service as I add new songs and remove old ones. But eventually I get the error message I mentioned above. How is it able to successfully save the file numerous times before failing? If this behaviour is expected, is it bad practice to use Save As and instead should I create a fresh service every time?
Thanks for your assistance.
@JVanders It is acceptable to use the Save As process when creating a new Service. Some of us have created a template Service that has all the common parts of a service.
When you save last weeks service as this weeks service and then make you modifications to the service, are you editing any items that need to be changed in the service or in the library? For example, the "sermon slide" that is displayed during the sermon changes every week with at least a new sermon title. It is possible to right click on this slide in the Service and edit the slide. It is also possible to edit the original Custom Slide in the Library and then add the edited Custom Slide to the Service. It will help if we can determine if the issue is related to how you are editing the Service. Both ways should work! But it is possible that editing in the Service could cause the issue.
@JVanders that "servicemanager" directory is a special directory that OpenLP controls and uses. I just want to check, are you doing anything in that folder when you're working with these images?
@raoul No, I only mentioned the servicemanager folder because it is referred to in the error message. I am not touching it other than to check what it contains.
@JohnM I will have to pay more attention to what I'm doing leading up to the error. Typically I edit things (be they songs or images) in the library and not directly in the service but it is possible I might have edited in the service at times. If I can find a pattern I'll let you know but at this stage it seems to happen randomly.
Thanks for your help.
@JohnM Hi, I'm getting this error message again. All I did was open a previous service that I'd already saved on this computer, Saved As a new service, added 2 new songs (unedited) and 1 song that I cloned and edited (in the Library not in the service). I also removed an image and added a new one. I tried to save it got the attached error. When I clicked on OK, all the images that had been on the original service are gone, with only the new image remaining. I think even the one song I cloned is gone from the new service.
Any ideas?