I finally got the menu system working. But I ran into a glitch when using Save As.
Interface Assets are saved local to the project. When saving to another project name, I believe the assets are likewise brought forward (to the new project file directory), but I think the internal pointers for the interface assets got corrupted.
Result - I could use the assets, but I could not edit them from within IF. The file name looked like a concatenation of the original file path and the new file path.
I resolved by recreating a new set of interface assets.
But in conjunction with version control (I’ll send in a separate topic), I think one or more of the following would be useful:
Allow user control over the file directory / name of an interface asset.
Allow user to repoint an interface asset to another physical file (this could cause corruption if formats are not identical).
Allow original files to be used and allow these files to be stored outside the project file directory.
the current model of replicating the files is confusing.
with the current model, there’s no way to auto-update content changes. If you’re working with a master excel database, you have to replicate to the local version within IF.
Eventually, you’ll need to extend the interface function to support RDBMS’. So the notion of external data sources outside of IF seems like a logical direction.
Could you give us some precision about which Interface Asset you were using / got corrupted with file name samples?
Are we talking here about Excel or other ones?
I’ll try to answer your questions / points below.
The file directory name is driven by the IA name, either the Excel file name or a property in the IA’s descriptor file (.ifd)
An Interface Asset is composed of its files. If the files are different, it is a different IA, unless the file is a property of the IA. Meanwhile, you can easily create a new IA with your new files then, if the formats are identical, change the data feed used by a collection.
This can’t be done for the publish mechanism / standalone principles applied to an XP.
Could you precise please?
If you are using Excel as a data source, you can change the Excel file on the Composer PC, publish, then use the Management Console to deploy your updates. If you want a more automatic process, you can use an online data source such as airtable and create your own Interface Asset. Reminder: this will be much easier with IntuiFace 6.0
I’m sorry, but this occurred last week, so I’m a little fuzzy on the details.
I did a Save As to a new experience name to create a version. It seems that the internal reference appended the new file name to the end of the old file name in the internal IF reference (not the actual file name).
So, it actually appended the new experience name and file to the old experience name and file. Again, this was in the IF internal reference. The actual files were in their correct locations and could be accessed directly thru Excel, but not thru the Interface Asset manager.
I deleted all the offending experiences, so I can’t look at it now. But I am using Save As for version control, so if it happens again, I’ll keep it and send you a zipped experience.
