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"Expressions" take FOREVER to load in my store


James

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Posted

I'm having an issue with .fpx files taking a VERY long time to load a preview in my store. FusionPro files typically take less than 10 seconds whereas these .fpx files take well over a minute (sometimes 90 sec) to populate a name.

 

Any ideas on how to cut this time down? I'm thinking the max amount of time a customer will wait on something like this is 15 seconds.

 

If it would help I can give out my test site address, test username and password.

 

Thanks!

 

James

Posted

Re-save the FusionPro Expression template (FPX file) with a lower-resolution background image, and also with lower-resolution image characters, if you're using them. Large graphics can take a long time to process.

 

Also, you can see generally how long it takes to generate an FP Expression image if you preview the FusionPro VDP template in Acrobat. The catch is that you need to use some data that you haven't already used with the FPX template, since previously generated images are cached. Setting the current date and time should work for this purpose, with a Graphic rule like this:

var myPI = Resource("YourFPXResourceName");
myPI.AddData(FormatDate(new Date, "mm/dd/yyyy, h:nn:ss a"));
return myPI;

Then you can modify the FPX file locally and simply preview in Acrobat to tweak the preview time before uploading to MarcomCentral.

Posted

That makes sense and I knew that making the images smaller would help, but these files need to be printed at full resolution. Is there a way to make the preview template low res, but once they purchase it, it's saved as the full resolution image? The images we're talking about are 6x18", 8x16", 12x16" & 12x18".

 

Thanks for your help Dan!

 

James

Posted
That makes sense and I knew that making the images smaller would help, but these files need to be printed at full resolution. Is there a way to make the preview template low res, but once they purchase it, it's saved as the full resolution image? The images we're talking about are 6x18", 8x16", 12x16" & 12x18".

You could upload both the high-res and low-res versions of the FPX files, and then do something like this in your rules:

var myPI = Resource("YourFPXResourceName");
if (IsPreview())
   myPI = Resource("YourDownsampledFPXResourceName");

myPI.AddData("some text here");
return myPI;

FP Expression does save downsampled versions of the background and foreground images in the FPX file, but for really large graphics, these automatically downsampled graphics can still be so large that they take a while to process. Thus you may have better results from a manual downsampling.

Posted

Sorry, I got sidetracked by another project for a few days.

 

Is this what I need to do to make my Expression work correctly? When I validate, it doesn't show any errors, but I'm not sure if it will work properly in our store.

 

return PersonalizedImage ("CITY138P_DS", Field ("Name"));

var myPI = Resource("CITY138P");
if (IsPreview())
   myPI = Resource("CITY138P_DS");

myPI.AddData("some text here");
return myPI;

 

Please forgive my ignorance Dan, I'm a novice at JavaScript.

 

James

Posted
Sorry, I got sidetracked by another project for a few days.

 

Is this what I need to do to make my Expression work correctly? When I validate, it doesn't show any errors, but I'm not sure if it will work properly in our store.

 

return PersonalizedImage ("CITY138P_DS", Field ("Name"));

var myPI = Resource("CITY138P");
if (IsPreview())
   myPI = Resource("CITY138P_DS");

myPI.AddData("some text here");
return myPI;

Remove that first line and you should be good. It should use the downsampled version in Preview in Acrobat as well as in MarcomCentral.

Posted

Ok, when I remove that top line, it no longer uses the value in my preview record, it adds "some text here". I'm attaching what it should look like vs. what it does look like.

 

Thanks Dan. Once again, sorry for my ignorance.

 

Screen-shot.jpg.47bef231bef66f1f60034dd02cfb0900.jpg

Posted
Ok, when I remove that top line, it no longer uses the value in my preview record, it adds "some text here".

Well, you still need to tell it to use the field value instead of the string "some text here":

var myPI = Resource("CITY138P");
if (IsPreview())
   myPI = Resource("CITY138P_DS");
myPI.AddData(Field("Name"));
return myPI;

Posted

I uploaded the template and published it in our store, but when I downloaded it from our dashboard and printed it, it printed the low-res version.

 

Any ideas on what I did wrong?

Posted
I uploaded the template and published it in our store, but when I downloaded it from our dashboard and printed it, it printed the low-res version.

 

Any ideas on what I did wrong?

How do you know that it used the low-res version of the Expression template? Are other elements in the job downsampled as well? Are you sure that you did a high-res press composition in the dashboard?

Posted
I printed it and it's clearly the low-res version. I'm sure I did the press comp because I tested two prints on my order. One using FPExpression and one with FusionPro. The print using just FusionPro printed perfectly.
Posted
It could be that MarcomCentral isn't properly setting isOnlinePreview in the CFG file for the online composition. Or, you're somehow getting a low-res composition due to a setting in your store. I would ask about that on the MarcomCentral forum, or contact your CPM for help.

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