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I deleted the file, but to reinstall, I will have to go back to Renderposity, download the original ZIP, put it through CPA and make another Ajuzam install.
You still have the CPA-generated file, no? Just use DIM to re-install the same file. By the way, that .dsx file is not in the package, is it? If so, it will just do the same as before. Delete it from the zip file before re-installing.
Well you have me kind of confused, but it would take up a huge amount of memory if I kept the zip files once they are installed. So, like tonight I logged into DIM and downloaded 10 or so files of models I bought this month here. Once they were installed, I deleted the zip files I downloaded here on Daz, because, I should not need those anymore (and never do apparently on 1st part stuff). Are you talking about the file from a couple of years ago, the original zip that CPA popped out because it would have been looooong gone.
Well, you have no choice then. It's getting late for me, sleep is starting to dominate...Mañana
Another idea came to me. You said that everything was working on the old computer. That implies that you had recovered metadata for the third-party products. The one we looked at had no data for the assets, so they get left in limbo. If you had previously recovered the metadata, it would have had to be created somehow, and was in the database. Since it was not in the metadata file, it was as UserData, which has any info that was added by the user. It is not imported with a re-import metadata operation unless it was exported first.
If you still have access to the old computer, open the Content DB Maintenance utility and select "Export User Data". This will write one or more USserData_x.dsx files into the Runtime/Support folder. Copy them to the new machine into the same folder, and run the Re-Import Metadata utility, selecting only the UserData files They should appear in the listing in a different grouping from the DIM-installed products.
No it was this computer, I reformatted Windows because of THIS DAZ ISSUE. Anyway, I will just have to manually install all my 3rd Party files a firth time... but at least I added this to my notes for the next time I have to do a reformat. Thanks for all your help! Sorry it's a total failure. I hate Daz, but earn a living with it. As far as that one I did, the Outfit to prove to you that it shows all the things to me (at least until the next reformat/new computer), is this what gave you the idea of this UserData thing, or is that a seperate thing we can look into to see why CPA installed stuff in Smart Content will always work until a reformat?
As to why they "break" every time, the metadata files used when re-importing metadata appear to be missing important information, so the Products are not properly filled with their assets.
There is a way to recreate the metadata files without having to re-process everything. It might be just as much work, but only need be done once, not every tme you need to reformat or change machines.
The files are in their proper place in the folders, and that is all that is really needed to recreate the Product contents. Copy the Product name, as shown in the Product pane, into the clipboard for future use. You can add existing files to a Product (one or more assets at a time or entire folders at once) from the Content Library view. The Product itself already exists, although empty for now.
Go to a relevant file or folder for that Product, and right-click on an asset (or multiple assets in view) or folder for that Product. Select "Create a Product from..." and in the dialog, paste the EXACT name of the Product that already exists. Accept, and it should prompt that the Product already exists, and if you want to add the files to the existing Product. Yes, you do, so accept it. Repeat for all assets for that Product. When complete, that Product should show all included assets in the Smart Content view.
This new information will be considered USER DATA that you can later export from Content DB Maintenance (any time, and regularly as backup) and re-import when needed. The thing is, you have to import all of it at the same time, which might not always be desired, especially if not up to date.
You could also export the metadata from the Product view to create the Product metadata file, like one that would be created when installing, and would now be considered VENDOR DATA. It could also be re-imported later by selecting one or more Products from DIM or The Content DB Maintenance -> Re-Import Metadata utility.
To use the Ajuzarn as an example, you know the Product name is "Azujarn DR Test1". Copy that string for later (to avoid having to type it in every time) and go to the Figures/Creatures folder in Poser Formats. Right-click on "Azujarn DR.cr2" and select "Create Product from...". In the dialog , paste your Product name "Azujarn DR Test1" and accept. When asked if you want to add to the existing Product, accept.
Next, go to "Materials/Creatures" and right-click on the "AzujarnDR" folder, right-click and select "Create Product from...". Paste in the same EXACT Product name as before and Accept. When asked if you want to add to the existing Product, accept.
Do the same for the "Pose/Creatures/AzujarnDR" folder. That should be all you need to at least get all the user-facing files to show in Smart Content (might need to refresh the view). One last step. In the Product view, right-click on the Product thumbnail and select Edit Metadata. You will see a button in the bottom left corner that says Export. This will create a fresh copy of the metadata file (the name and path is shown higher up at the Support label) in the Runtime/Support folder. This new metadata file will now contain the necessary asset definitions that populate the Product. (The metadata can do so much more, like Content Type, Compatibility, Default Categories and such, but you don't seem to be interested in all that, and would be a lot more work to set up.)
Rinse and repeat for every Product that is installed but has no assets appearing in Smart Content. It might be faster than downloading everything, processing in CPA and re-installing, again.
I hope I didn't overwhelm you with all that, but it only needs to be done once.
Good lord, this is what I was trying to avoid. I want you to understand I really and grateful for you trying (and typing all that out) and it might help someone, sometime. But, I bought CPA and thought it was putting everything into Daz properly. Is there a setting on CPA I am not using properly? (The creator does not really respond to help requests). I just need to understand why CPA works for now though, like why is the Evilyna Outfit working perfectly? How do it keep it like it is right now (even if all the bits and parts are "Lost and Found") no matter what, forever?
As I said before, CPA does not create, modify or otherwise manipulate metadata. It packages what it is given into a DIM-compatible zip file. The metadata that Daz Studio uses is either supplied by the vendor (like first-party products from DAZ 3D), or generated automatically by DIM when installing the package if there is none included (like your recent Evilyna product). Your installation has the older generated metadata files, but they appear to be lacking important information. Why it is missing is a mystery.
If you re-create the third-party packages, a proper metadata file will be created by DIM when you install it, and can be re-imported in the future. CPA works properly and does what it should. Just be sure you are using the proper folder structure for the contents, otherwise the installation will be messed up. It does not do anything with metadata other than include it for installation if it is provided, like any other file. That metadata is what drives the Smart Content.
Dar, North, I might not be communicating well, I am sorry. Ok, so I tested Evilyna on another computer about an hour ago. I installed Daz, and used install manage ONLY to install Content Package Assist. Then, I did CPA and install the 3rd part outfit. I opened that Daz and it worked perfectly. I did a backup of the Daz3d folder and My Daz 3d Library things, which was all the basic stuff Daz comes with and that 3rd party outfit. Ok, so then I reformatted that computer about 30 mins ago. Reinstalled Daz, and Evilyna outfit is broken. It is just like all my 3rd party stuff here. The CPA thing did it again. Now, this is thing I am either asking wrong or not understanding and please hold my hand through this...
Right now, on my real computer, as you saw in the screenshot, the 3rd party outfit that I installed is working fine in Smart Content (albeit the files are in lost and found). So, why do all these CPA created 3rd party installs work just fine. We know they ALWAYS break once you copy and paste your entire Daz library onto a new computer, but like right now, at this moment, the outfit works. I get that listerally the 800 or so 3rd party stuff I have already installed on my computer multiple times now (since i always have to redownload them all, put them all through CPA, reinstall them all with DIM, and then lose Smart Content access to them again the next time I migrate Daz) and will not be able to apparently avoid having to do all that work yet again, but to avoid this fate ever happening to me again, with me being as direct and succunct as possible, can you answer 1. and 2., please?
1. Why is the outfit's files all showing up in Smart Content right now, what file does it have and where is this file that previous 3rd stuff is missing after my backup?
2. How do I replicate what is happening right now with that outfit having these working 3rd party CPA created and installed files going forward forever when backing up my massive amount of third party models?
I don't have CPA while I always install 3rd-party with Content Wizard. However, as a heavy user of Smart Content, I strongly recommend the quickest and safest way for migrating Daz3D database from your old PC to new PC, as below:
- DO NOT export user-data as well as re-import metadata...etc., you may never get correct result especially for the 3rd-party products. Instead, directly migrate cms database !
- The cms database locates in the cluster folder : %appdata%\DAZ 3D\cms in your old PC. After you get everything done in your new PC with Daz3D product directry setup... copy the cluster folder from your old PC to the same location in your new PC. It'll simply take 1 ~ 2 minutes.
However, I'm not sure if you still have the cms database in your old PC or if you're able to recover it...but if you do the migration next time, pls go with this way.
Naturally and most likely, you lost the needed metadata...even if you've "re-imported everything"... Well, if you can attach the DSX file (in which metadata is stored...) of the product down below (under the folder: your Daz Library\runtime\support), I might find out the culprit and tell you why...
1. When DIM installs a package with no metadata file (Runtime/Support .dsx file), it creates one with the minimum required information to create the Product entry in the database. It also defines all the assets included in that Product and includes them in the Product, which you can see in Smart Content. DIM also creates a manifest in the Manifest Archive folder that contains all the information about the Product, who installed it, where it was installed (Library root folder), some internal tracking information (GUID, installer date, etc.) and the full path (relative to the Library root folder) of every file installed.
Your new and old installations seem to have all the manifests intact. You mentioned that Richard Haseltine told you to include them when copying the old installation. But that is not the data needed by Smart Content.
There is a set of metadata files (.dsx) in the Runtime/Support folder that should contain all the information that DIM created when installing the third-party files. The first-party files have metadata files included in the package, and they get installed at the same time. Look at your DIM-created Evilyna metadata file in the Runtime/Support folder and compare it to the Ajuzarn metadata file that you showed me earlier. The Evylina file will have something that looks like this:
<ContentDBInstall VERSION="1.0">
<Products>
<Product VALUE="Product name from CPA details page ">
<StoreID VALUE="DAZ 3D by default"/>
<GlobalID VALUE="long string of alphanumeric characters from CPA details page"/>
<ProductToken VALUE="some number"/>
<Artists>
<Artist VALUE="maybe? Not part of CPA Info"/>
</Artists>
<Assets>
<Asset VALUE="some path to an asset, like Runtime/Libraries/Character/Ajuzarn.cr2 or People/Genesis 9/Clothing/... etc.">
... More metadata minutiae
</Asset>
... More assets
</Assets>
<SupportAssets VALUE="eg., /Runtime/Support/ DAZ_3D_4939938107523997-1_Ajuzam_DR_Test1.dsx">
<SupportAsset VALUE="..."/>
... More Support Assets
</SupportAssets>
.... other stuff
</Product>
</Products>
</ContentDBInstall>
Your old Ajuzarn metadata is, most importantly, missing the <Assets>...</Assets> block of data, so it cannot define and add those files to the Product, therefore it remains empty. You absolutely must have that information to successfully create the Product with all of its assets (CPA cannot do that for you). Why it is missing is a mystery, but it could have been because of an old version of DIM that did work properly. Restoring bad data just gives bad results.
2. If your metadata files have all the information they should have, and you copy the Runtime/Support folder (along with everything else, and the manifest archive) to the new installation, you can re-import the metadata knowing that ALL the products will be available, and visible in Smart Content. This is good data, good results.
I hope this answers your questions. Good metadata is the key.
@NorthOf45 - Well, I appreciate it, but I still do not get it. That Runtime/Support file and over 1 million other files is backed up for me on 3 hard drives. I backed everything up again before the reformat, which means the Ajuzam files are all precisely identical to what they originally were when they were showing up in Smart Content as "Lost and Found". Like I've said, I got all first party stuff with the reimport metadata, and so you say thoise CPA creations must never have had the right metadata to begin with (apparently CPA does not function like that). So, I started thinking, "Ok, North said Ajuzam is Poser or whatever, so I'll look at a Daz figure." So I have Pumpkina for G8F. As with all the 3rd party stuff she was working fine and of course now I have her thumnail in Smart Content, but it's all empty when I go into it. So, I did what you said, right? I went to DIM, I used the Runtime path, and opened her thing, and she has all the assets. Screenshot here. SO maybe that will help you figure out what is actually wrong, because she does not work either like the rest of them. I DID check Evilyna Outfit while I was at it and yes, it shows assets as well, but unlike Pumpkina, I can see the outfit files fine in Smart COntent. So, what does this mean?
@crosswind - I copied what you said for the next time I have to wipe this computer clean. Thank you
Well, Pumkina metadata looks better, but why it does not display in Smart Content is a mystery, again. The new ones seem to work properly, so DIM is creating the metadata files as it should and adding the Products and their assets where they should go. Why the older ones with decent metadata do not is still an unknown...
NOoooooo.... Well hopefully someone can help me. Thanks again for having tried! But yeah I have her in here three times, because I have had to remake her in CPA 3 times, one for every previous reformat and now will have to be a fourth unless someone can explain this CPA installed stuff and how to fix it.
You can @DoctorJellybean who's the author of CPA, or PM him. He can explain how CPA works.
Just for your info. - : There're 4 related key tables in cms database that essentially make Smart Content work: Product, Categories, Content and Category_Content.
- "Product" table is the parent which stores primary product data.
- "Categories" table stores all categories (parent + children categories...).
- "Content" table stores all line items of each asset file of a product.
- "Category_Content" table links assigned category in Categories table to each item in Content table.
I show you an example for your better understanding, as attached screenshots.
So, the prerequisites to show items in Smart Content with correctly-assigned categories is that all metadata are imported into the above tables with no failure. In your case, as per my exp., I think "re-import metadata" wrote no required Category data into "Categories" table, so of course there were no "linked data" in the table of "Category_Content" ... That was why you saw Lost and Found.
Not sure if you have tried re-installing IM package that was generated by CPA via DIM... Normally you should keep those IM package files of 3rd party product, just in case...
Anyway, all culprits of "missing and/or wrong metadata" can be found out as long as you know the "structure of metadata" and have a proper tool...
To your first point, I am totally ok with having it show up as "Lost and Found" inside of the thing. The thing I am not understanding, to use Pumpkina as an example is why these 3rd party things work (which were installed after being packaged by CPA) and then don't work on the new computer. That's literally all I need to know so I can fix the issue. Like installing Pumpkina a 4th time, she now works. Her little Runtime thing is the same, everything is the same. So why does she work again now, but the 3 previous installs from 3 previous incarnations of Windows show up in Smart Content as empty. If I can figure out why something works the first time, then maybe one of you that understands all this, can give me a way to make sure it ALWAYS works so I don't have to bust my @(# every time I move computers or reformat. There must be a way to do it, without ever having to literally go by a TB hard drive just to keep every single "CPA" created Zip file so I can reinstall everything every time (and thus keep getting multiple dupilcates of it in Smart Content, i.e. 4 copies of Pumpkina in Smart Content now.) To your second point, tthis is exactly what I want to avoid! lol
The only way to re-produce the issue so as to find out the culprit is to have CPA and simulate your process... but unfortunately I don't have it. Just wait and see if the author can give you some clue...
Oh, well, I just meant, people who know how Daz work (CPA doesn't matter) might be able to come up with the technical "nuts and bolts" idea about what Daz process I can select to fix this. Like using Pumpkina again as an example, there must be an actual Daz thing, like a thing I select or something that will make Daz see the old Pumpkina's just like how it can see the new one I just added. You know? Since everything is the same, so there is an actual Daz thing that somehow breaks when one moves it. So, when DIM first loads it, it's doing "something" that is Daz Install Manager, that using the "Content Database Maintanence" to put everything back in place is not doing- WITHOUT me having to literally always backup every single freaking zip that CPA pops out.
The problem is with the metadata. It is concerning that you actually have the same product installed three different times. The system (either DIM or Studio) doesn't usually allow that if the Product (or package) GUID is the same. You also can't have more than one version of the zip file, with the same name and part number.
I suppose each time CPA generates GUID when it packs the file as IM package... so DIM could install the packages for times. But some issues can result in the failure of writing metadata to cms.. for intance, when installing first 3 packages, DIM lost cms connection. You can check the line items in DIM - Installed tab, if the database icons on the first 3 items are light grey, it means no metadata have been written to cms...
The GUID is genrated by the store and should not be changed without good reason (e.g. if it wasn't U(nique) but was double-assigned).
After each reformat/computer upgrade, I have to put it through CPA again, which means it would be the same product but "different", since CPA will randomly generate all the numbers or whatever every time I have to remake everything. Note also it technically I guess does not put everything on the computer again (maybe) because the 3rd party stuff always goes back to the same folder. So all 3 Pumpkina SMart COntents I had to make on previous incarnations of my computer and the now 4th and working on for this incarnation, all have the same file paths, so I think it's just all there, only Smart Content can only see it when CPA first makes it, and then forgets when I migrate the files to a new computer/reformatted one.
I do not exactly follow this, but it always works the first time, and if I use annoying content library, all the files are there. But in Smart Content (when I first use CPA for an item bfore one day having to reformat a computer), I can use the 3rd party stuff easily as heck. It's wonderful. If I could recreate that without constantly having to waste days to weeks of my time remaking ALL all the 3rd party Daz files into CPA again for the rest of my life, that is what I am aiming for someone to figure out.
I don't know what a GUID but I think it's one of those things CPA just randomly comes up with.
Try this. Uninstall Pumpkina. If all the files are all in the same place, they will all be removed from the three installs you did previously. Now go the Products view in Content Library -> P. For each instance of Pumkina, right-click and Delete... each one. (You can't do it from Smart Content). There might still be more than one, and there might also be one at the bottom of the list, which is where uninstalled Products go. You see, it isn't really removed from the database when you uninstall. Deleting it/them will remove any references to the Product from the database. Also check LOCAL USER again to make sure there are no references to any of the files in the Pumpkina product(s).
You can then install a fresh copy without any interference from residual data from previously lost installs, at least for that one. Hopefully there will be one functional Pumpkina.
AFAIK, GUID can be generated (uniquely) by users with Content DB Editor. I use Content Wizard to install 3rd-party products. Content Wizard can also generate it.
GUID is a Global ID at product level which has to be unique. You can find it in Content DB Editor. Well, I don't have exp. of using CPA but I personally recommend Content Wizard.
Ok so I looked and I have owned COntent Wizard since apparently March of 2023. Hopefully it will be easy for me to learn, (and as fast as Content Package Assist). You say it can add third party things to my Smart Content and I already paid for it, so let me ask you this, have you ever had to reformat or migrate all your Daz stuff to a new computer? Did all your thrid party stuff you used Content Wizard for still load right up in SMart Content?
EDIT: Can THAT thing be used to fix all my already hundreds of installed, Smart Content busted, 3rd party stuff?
Something else I remembered (dragging up from dead storage). If you have installed a product more than once like with Pumpkina, but can only uninstall once from DIM, there might be one or more manifests left over in the Manifest Archive (defined in DIM settings). There is a file (InstallManagerFileRegister.json in the Library's root folder, above Runtime) that is updated every time you install a Product that keeps track of shared files, that is, identical named files installed by more than one Product. Your Product names for the three Pumpkina are different, so there might be several manifests that refer to the same files. If a file is shared with more than one Product, it is not deleted when you uninstall one of the Products so as to not break the other (usually different) Products.
Uninstall all three Pumpkina versions you have from DIM. This will hopefully remove all files. If you cannot uninstall one or more versions (you should be able to if the manifests are present), you can delete the manifest directly from the folder. You would need to re-build the index (InstallManagerFileRegister.json) from DIM. Open the Settings panel, then go to the Installation tab. At the bottom you will see your Content Paths (Libraries) defined. Right-click on the Library you use and select "Fix Installed File Registry". This will scan the manifests to see which files are shared between products, with a count of how many times each is shared. By removing the defunct manifest(s), those files will no longer be included, and references to them will be cleared when you delete the Products as described above.
Sorry if that is getting technical, but your system needs some cleaning up.
Settings where? I do not understand this part, in DIM or Daz?