Changes to the Content Catalogue effective from Version 16.1

Just to give you a quick forewarning of changes that will be made to the Content Catalogue from version 16.1 (the upcoming patch soon to be released).


It's not a big difference but we're just slightly changing the categories of the Website templates folders to better highlight new themes. Currently the structure is:

• Websites
  
  • Website Themes
  • Single Page Websites
  • Business Themes

This will change to:

• Websites
  
  • Single Page Websites
  • Modern Business Websites
  • Classic Websites
• Arrows > Lines and Arrows
• New folder "Photo Frames"

With essentially all the old themes being put into the classic folder and the single page / modern business themes being all the new ones and ones to come will go in there. This comes from a lot of requests we get from customers that struggle to find the new templates are and this hopefully should show them off better. There are a number of templates that are still in the works we hope to release soon, and this should make it easier to see them.

And now for the bad news. Due to technical reasons this does mean the Xara "loses" what has been downloaded... or rather it still exists in your appdata cache but Xara can't see it (so your local designs gallery appears blank) because of the restructuring. This means you can either re-import his into Xara or delete it and re-download. To import it into Xara:

1. Open the Local Designs Gallery
2. Click Disc Designs at the top
3. At the bottom, type %appdata% and press enter
4. Go up a folder and go to Local / Xara / (XtremePro|Xtreme|WebDesigner|WebDesignerPremium)* / (version number) / Cache / Designs / ENG /
5. Click Add

Xtreme = Photo and Graphic Designer
XtremePro = Designer Pro

Alternatively, close Xara, open Windows explorer and navigate to that folder, then just delete everything. Re-open Xara and you can re-download it.

Third choice is you could just leave it, worst case scenario it takes up some disk space depending on what you've downloaded and will be removed when you uninstall (as long as you check the option to delete it).

Versions 16.0 and below are unaffected, the CC and downloads will remain as it is. If your unsure of your version, please go to Help > About.

I'll try and push for better handling of the content in future versions so you won't have to take such steps, or just avoid restructuring where possible.

Thanks
Rob

Rob, thank you for the heads-up.

How is Xara communicating this to those who do not follow TG?

Will your instructions not also index the new folders as well so they appear twice? When you try this you also end up with a very untidy folder pathname of C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Xara\(applicatio n)\16\Cache\designs\eng (assuming a standard installation).
Surely a simple BATch file or the use of a PowerShell script would be far cleaner?
Up to now the Online Content Catalogue, OCC, has been partitioned for major versions (c.f., http://downloadsv16.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html). Are you suggesting there will be a separate one for v16.1?

I had thought that, by now, Magix and Xara would have responded to my suggestions around the OCC.

Acorn

Well thanks Rob, that's as clear as mud to me ???

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

How is Xara communicating this to those who do not follow TG?

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We'll be adding a section to our CC article explaining the changes and to Magix if anyone asks though their lines of communication.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Will your instructions not also index the new folders as well so they appear twice? When you try this you also end up with a very untidy folder pathname of C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Xara\(applicatio n)\16\Cache\designs\eng (assuming a standard installation).
Surely a simple BATch file or the use of a PowerShell script would be far cleaner?

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If there's another way you want to handle the local designs cache then go for it :)

To add some context - the local designs gallery and even the option to download all the designs locally is something that stems from requests in TalkGraphics. Honestly through our normal support channels the use of the local designs gallery is very minimal, everyone uses the CC. Now whilst I don't like the idea of redundant or unused files just lying around taking up disk space, it's pretty minimal for the average with the file sizes and in the future I want to try and push to have this avoided anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Up to now the Online Content Catalogue, OCC, has been partitioned for major versions (c.f., http://downloadsv16.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html). Are you suggesting there will be a separate one for v16.1?

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There will be a separation of versions from 16.1 onwards yes. The original idea was for this to be applied to all version from v12 onwards but obviously this would mean those who's update service had expired and downloaded all their content would lose it (or like the above, just not appear in the DG). I suggested to them nicely that was perhaps not the best of idea's and so they split it from v16.1 onwards. This means we have 2 sets of content on the servers (pre and post v16.1) but that's a small price to pay.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

I had thought that, by now, Magix and Xara would have responded to my suggestions around the OCC.

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I'm afraid that is out of my hands. If I might make a suggestion though and I know this sounds obvious, but it's never what you say but always how you say it, and something even I have to take into account when dealing with anyone in authority up the chain. I'm writing an email on some suggested improvements to the CC now, nicely pointing out how we can make it better for everyone and keeping the message positive. If all someone reads is the negativity then it's just draining and we're all human at the end of the day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Well thanks Rob, that's as clear as mud to me ???

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tl;dr: When version 16.1 comes out, uninstall 16.0 and then reinstall 16.1. After activating, re-download the content if you wish. This pretty much solves everything I said previously.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Just to give you a quick forewarning of changes

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Certainly not ideal, but I really appreciate that you communicated it before the release.

Yes, communication is everything.
Nothing is worse than being faced with a fait accompli without knowing what happened.

Thanks, Rob.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ernie-f

Yes, communication is everything.
Nothing is worse than being faced with a fait accompli without knowing what happened.

Thanks, Rob.

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yes thanks rob, affects me not, but communication is king

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Just to give you a quick forewarning of changes that will be made to the Content Catalogue from version 16.1 (the upcoming patch soon to be released).


It's not a big difference but we're just slightly changing the categories of the Website templates folders to better highlight new themes. Currently the structure is:

• Websites
  
  • Website Themes
  • Single Page Websites
  • Business Themes

This will change to:

• Websites
  
  • Single Page Websites
  • Modern Business Websites
  • Classic Websites
  
  
• Arrows > Lines and Arrows
• New folder "Photo Frames"

Thanks
Rob

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Thanks for the update... I can only imagine the months of work and massive amount of coding that went into those changes... LOL I surely hope that there will some 'real' fixes in 16.1. (like the discussions regarding 'tables' etc.)

Thanks again

Cliff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cmpan1

Thanks for the update... I can only imagine the months of work and massive amount of coding that went into those changes... LOL I surely hope that there will some 'real' fixes in 16.1. (like the discussions regarding 'tables' etc.)

Thanks again

Cliff

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Hey Rob... looking back at my post here... I think I sounded a bit well... a bit sarcastic... not meaning to be... (just trying to be 'clever' - doesn't always work LOL)

I DO... joining the others in thanking you for the updates and regular communications to us....

All the best

Cliff