Detailed Guide - Process Page

Previous  Top  Next

After the entries are made in the Setup Page, the File Selection List must be processed to create the Archive Set layout and the HTML Index (if selected). This happens in the Process page.

When the Process button is pressed the Setup Page is replaced by the Process Page.

If the "Auto Begin Processing" preference is selected, then the processing will begin immediately. If it is not selected, then the processing is begun by pressing the Begin Processing Button.

Note:If the "Auto Begin Processing" Preference is unselected you can freely move between the Setup and Process pages without causing a lengthy process to begin.

Archive Creator then begins its process of dividing up the files onto the required CDs. You will see its progress as it goes. It also has to create the HTML index if that option is selected, as well as build the thumbnails and the viewing images. This takes a few minutes to complete, depending on your options and the size of the File Selection List and the size of the images. For a large Archive set this can take some time, as thumbnails and preview images are being created for each file in the File Selection List. You will see the picture that is currently being processed in the Image Preview progress display when the thumb and viewing images are being created.

The processing of the File Selection List (FSL) goes through the following sequence of events...

·   Process the FSL to determine the size of the Archive Set

·   Calculate an estimate of the HTML index

·   Use this data to do an estimated CD Layout and display it to the screen (at this point the Layout Tree may be expanded to see the layout if desired)

·   Process the HTML Index images, creating the Thumbnail and Viewing images as specified in the Setup Page (this phase is shown in the above screen shot)

·   Redo the CD Layout, based on the actual size of the images created (a CD may be added or deleted at this point)

·   Create the actual HTML pages based on the actual final layout of the Archive Set.

·   If required, further optimize the Archive Set by doing 1 more Layout/Page Creation pass. The image files do not have to be reprocessed, so this pass is quite fast.

Note: In the example we are working with there were 3,493 files in the FSL. For each of those files a thumbnail, viewing image and an HTML page all had to be generated for each file in the FSL for a total of over 13,972 files including the source files to be archived. This takes about 15 minutes. If the HTML Index does not require thumbs and viewing images, it takes about 2 minutes. If there is no index, about 5 seconds. So the time required for the processing phase varies greatly and is dependant on the number of files in the FSL and whether or not images are to be included in the HTML index, and the types and sizes of the source files. (For example a 3 CD archive set with large size files, would only take a fraction of this time, because there would be so fewer images to process. The example used in this help file is a worst case scenario...lots of small files to archive).

This shows the Process Page with the Layout Tree expanded and a JPEG image file being previewed.