Attachment problem

prop · Post by **prop** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:38 pm

Hi Jon,

Up to now, I've stored my attachments in ~/Documents/Bookends/Attachments, but now I want to use my Bookends setup on a jump drive so I can easily go between two computers (a laptop and a desktop). I copied the whole directory structure to a jump drive and successfully opened the database, but all of my reference links are broken. I reset the folder in Preferences, and it reflects the correct folder on the jump drive, but I still can't open these attachments in Bookends...

The files are PDFs in a folder called Attachments that is in a folder called Bookends. The main reference file is in the Bookends portion. The correct file name is being searched for, just not finding it.

As an other question, is it possible to set the custom formats folder to a user-specified location? I would ideally like to have a Custom Formats folder in my Bookends folder on the jump drive so all of my formats 'travel' with me, but I didn't know if this was possible or not...

Thanks for your help!

Post by **Jon** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:00 pm

prop wrote:The files are PDFs in a folder called Attachments that is in a folder called Bookends. The main reference file is in the Bookends portion. The correct file name is being searched for, just not finding it.

That should work if Preferences is set correctly. Another user had the same problem, which I could not reproduce. He found that moving to another Mac, he couldn't reproduce it, either. We concluded it may have been a permissions issue. Have you tried adding an attachment since changing the setup? Can you try another Mac?

As an other question, is it possible to set the custom formats folder to a user-specified location? I would ideally like to have a Custom Formats folder in my Bookends folder on the jump drive so all of my formats 'travel' with me, but I didn't know if this was possible or not...

No, it's not. But you can move the custom formats into the the "regular" formats folder, and Bookends will find them. You just have to remember that you created them if/when you update the formats folder with a new version (you can easily identify them by sorting by modification date).

Jon
Sonny Software

prop · Post by **prop** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:34 pm

That's weird - I have permissions for the disk and folder.... When I try to re-attach the file, it says it cannot find the volume and folder I've set in the Preferences, yet I used the Browse button in the Preferences to actually set the folder, so I know Bookends can see it... I'll keep trying, as having a portable Bookends reference library and attachments folder is something I need to be able to do...

Have you any plans to allow users to set custom locations for the Custom Formats folder in the future, or this impossible for Bookends' 'infrastructure'?

prop · Post by **prop** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:39 pm

Another thing that *may* help: When the Attach File dialog comes up as I attempt to add another file as an attachment to any reference, the 'Move to dedicated attachments folder' drop-down box is EMPTY. When I click on it, there is no action, and there is no text in the box. This leads me to believe Bookends can't see the folder, or the folder name is not being passed to the dialog for some reason. Beyond that I'm stymied...

prop · Post by **prop** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:44 pm

Sorry. Last thing that may help the diagnosis. When I click on 'Reveal in finder' for a specific attachment, NOTHING happens: no error, no Finder window opens (even to the wrong folder), nothing. Does this help?

Post by **Jon** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:25 pm

Hi prop,

These are the same symptoms the other user reported, so it's probably the same problem. Have you had a chance to try another Mac? How about at least making a new account on your Mac?

Jon
Sonny Software

prop · Post by **prop** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:58 pm

No dice on another account on the same machine...

I tried moving the Attachments folder to a drive other than the removable disk and then pointed Bookends to the right folder, and it worked OK.

This is frustrating! Does anyone run the attachments folder successfully from a jump drive? Do I have any options?

prop · Post by **prop** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:07 pm

I've just tried it on my laptop, and it works OK! ???

Problem is, I need it to work on both machines...

Maybe it has to do with where I formatted the disk. I'll try to reformat the jump drive on the machine that's not currently working (after copying its contents) and then try again...

Post by **Jon** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:41 pm

Hi,

This is probably due to a bug I just fixed that can cause Bookends to lose track of an attachment folder on another drive under certain circumstances. You can download Bookends again and see if it works now.

Jon
Sonny Software

prop · Post by **prop** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:00 pm

As usual Jon "You 'da man!" Perfect!

Now this all works as I had hoped. I can keep my Bookends installation including reference database and all PDFs with one parent folder on a jump drive. I thank you for your quick and effective remedy to this problem!

aechallu · Post by **aechallu** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:10 pm

Is there any way to include the attachment information in the bibtex export? That would be really helpful to me, as I move back and forth between a bibtex application and bookends.
Thanks

Post by **Jon** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:48 pm

You can edit the BibTeX export filter to output the attachments (under any label you like). The single letter symbol for the attachments field is 'h' (if there is more than one attachment, they will be separated by returns).

Jon
Sonny Software

Attachment problem

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