internet image path

[sschardan]

We have a client that is demanding that we use a Dropbox link as an image path to search for images. I am attempting this rule:

var pic = CreateResource("dropbox link/"+Field("Image"), "graphic", true)

return pic

where "dropbox link/" is the actual private link.

So far, it is not working. Not to say that I am surprised. Is this possible? My other solution would be to manually download all the images to a local folder just before composing new data.

The dropbox link does go to the proper folder when placed in a web browser.

Scott

[Dan Korn]

Does the URL start with "http://" or with "https://"? What version of FusionPro, on what OS?

[sschardan]

Dan,

The link is an "https". The template is being built in 11.0.9 on a Mac running 12.14.5, and due to the job's size, I intend on rendering it in our Producer that is running Windows Server 2016.

[ScottHillock]

I don't think dropbox is going to support that. If you could get a url for each file you would be in a better situation. But only having a url to a folder isn't going to help.

To isolate the issue try your url with curl.

curl -O https://fulldropboxlinktofile

[Dan Korn]

Originally Posted by sschardan

The link is an "https".

Thanks.

Originally Posted by sschardan

The template is being built in 11.0.9 on a Mac running 12.14.5,

Sorry, I don't know what 12.14.5 means. Do you mean 10.14.5?

Originally Posted by sschardan

and due to the job's size, I intend on rendering it in our Producer that is running Windows Server 2016.

And that server is running what version of FusionPro?

I ask about all that version info because support for downloading "https" URLs in particular varied a bit between different versions of FusionPro and operating systems. But AFAIK, everything should work in FP 11.

So... it's hard to diagnose the problem without being able to reproduce what you're doing, with the same URL.

What I do know is that this works for me, with FusionPro 11.0.9 on macOS 10.14.6:

return CreateResource("https://files-marcomcentral.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/marcom-logo-retina.png");

So you can try that and see if it works for you.

I suspect that the issue is that the URL you're trying to access on DropBox is not a public link, as you allude to here:

Originally Posted by sschardan

where "dropbox link/" is the actual private link.

I also suspect that, when you go to access the link in your browser, that you're logged into the DropBox site, which gives you access to the resource in that context. When downloading from a URL in a FusionPro composition, however, there's no context of being logged in, so any URL has to be publicly available.

Again, though, without knowing more about the specifics, i.e. what the URL is, I can only speculate.

[sschardan]

Thanks. I did mean 10.14.5, fat fingers! Anyway Dan, your presumptions are true and I can not access the dropbox folder from within FP. What I did to work around this is to set up a folder action to sync the dropbox folder on my mac to a server folder that Producer can see.