Renaming an entry in database should not rename file (causes issues with updates from DLM)

tergon_f8d65b6411

Ok first of all yes I did my duty to search before bringing this into it's own thread, and I found nothing. What I did find was a very heated conversation interspersed throughout the DIM thread (I collected some of it...but I only got to page 24/72 before my head 'sploded)

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16104/P75

DAZ_Spooky said:

RAMWolff said:

Part of my concern Spooky one.... is that many of us choose to create our own directories within the Genesis default directory of People>Genesis. Clothing is split up ... see screen grab. The same for the Character sets and what I consider Fantasy sets are all in their own directories, makes finding stuff easier for me. Another concern is starting from scratch, a year later with literally Gigs of content to redownload and install is that it's mixed up with ALLOT of stuff from Renderosity and some fabulous freebies from JoeQuick, Wilmap and others. So it's really not SEEMING advantageous to go through all this. Convince me otherwise because trying to figure out how to split all that out from the data folder, texture folder and all the rest is going to be ALLOT of work. Exactly how is a tool supposed to know where you moved things to after install? Or how you renamed things?
Very Good Point
I'm not sure if this question has been asked, but can we categorize and rename items as long as it is done inside studio or will that mess up the Installer?

Sadly the answer is Yes
Are you saying here that items which are categorized according to our own systems won't be recognized by the Install Manager? Surely, that cannot be the case? After all, as I understand it, our categorizations are just our own virtual file structure, and do not affect the actual file structure in My Library.

Sadly understood incorrectly; this IS the case.
And so I present:
Please note that from herein the term "rename" refers to via rename context menu within daz library viewer

Fact 1: item developers don't design their packages with other packages in mind. This makes arranging and finding things by something as simple as Materials\Skin (even if it is where the installer places it). With names that start with ! or !! or whatever files are a mismash of where they are. On top of that if you have a whole lot of legacy stuff or mixed figure hairs/characters or have ArtemisX for V3 and For Genesis you might not be able to quickly choose the correct one. Also Developers often give us nonsensical names (e.g. S_MSD_Ground) which would be easier to find if it had a better name (Moonlit Moonshine Diner Ground) however when I rename the entry in my database it changes the name of the file itself (Instead of a nickname entry column in the database index) which leads to...

Fact 2: Renaming or moving a file breaks DIM Updates (and DAZ_Spooky is correct there really isn't a way around this and DAZ shouldn't be made to jump through hoops because you choose to store all of your materials in one folder and all of your morphs in another). when the Installer installs an Update for a product whose names have been changed a duplicate file IS created (e.g. you'll find both S_MSD_Ground.daz and Moonlit Moonshine Diner Ground.daz) the database viewer will then show a small (2) in front of doubled entries.

Bonus Fact: Renaming a "dual file" (i don't know the actual name for it but it's the files with the little scroll in the corner that combine a dsa and a pz2 for instance) only renames one of the two files, breaking the bond and force a manual windows explorer rename of the second file.

Current Solution 1:: Download/Install updates. Find entries with (2). open their windows folder. use a file renamer (I use "switcharoo") to rename the new files to the old ones name. delete the old version after rename (or before whatever) reopen -daz/refresh database.

Current Solution 2: Delete manually the renamed files. find the (2) entries which now show as deleted files, right click and remove orphaned entry. Magically have image back. be grumpy to have to deal with !! in front of random materials and blue_eye_mindy instead of blue eye1 (... blue eye2 blue eye3).

Feature request Because of much of this being more technical windows actions I think all would be better with just the entries data be changed instead.

Chohole

Poll removed. Please review the DAZ 3D Forum TOS, bullet point #19 thankyou

tergon_f8d65b6411

chohole said:

Poll removed. Please review the DAZ 3D Forum TOS, bullet point #19 thankyou

my apologees, I will pay better attention to guidelines in the future

ledhead

I'm not sure if renaming will mess the DIM up as I have not tried it yet, but I do know you can categorize everything and it will not screw with the DIM as long as the categorization is done inside studio and not moving the actual files around.

tergon_f8d65b6411

Ledhead said:

I'm not sure if renaming will mess the DIM up as I have not tried it yet, but I do know you can categorize everything and it will not screw with the DIM as long as the categorization is done inside studio and not moving the actual files around.

It does what I describe. There's no question about it, I'm not speaking about categorization as yes that is handled on the DB side. I'm asking that Names also be handled as such; presently they are not and the actual filename is changed.

EDIT: Many updates today including items I've renamed