Re: Relative file paths for images

[zoomer <schwabe4 gmail com>]

Jay Smith-6 wrote:
> Zoomer,
>
> I am new here, but....
>
> Dia files "filename.dia" are XML plain text files.  They can be edited 
> with a PLAIN text editor that does not add any formatting.  For example, 
> since you are talking about C:, you must be on Windoze, thus you could 
> use Notepad.
>
> First, make a backup copy of the file!!!!!!
>
> Then open the file and search in it for some portion of the filename or 
> pathname, or perhaps "png".
>
> There you will see what Dia thinks the path is and how it is structured.
>
> I don't know how it works on Windoze and I don't know what version of 
> Dia you are using or if it works differently than the version I am using 
> (either 0.97 or 0.98 -- I installed 0.98, but it is telling me it is 
> 0.97 ... on LINUX).
>
> On *MINE* it *IS* putting in relative pathnames to the images.  But that 
> is because I can go to a particular directory before I start Dia from 
> the command line.  I do not know if you have a command line method for 
> starting Dia on Windoze.  Thus on *MINE*, if I start Dia from a command 
> line while I am in a MyDiaStuff directory and my images are in the same 
> directory, the image information in the .dia file simply has just the 
> image filename.  However, if I am in /home/myname when I start Dia and 
> then I import the image from /home/myname/MyDiaStuff, then the image 
> information in the .dia file is "MyDiaStuff/filename.png"
>
> If you don't solve the relative path problem, then you can either a) 
> "simply" change the information in the .dia files; b) you can create 
> links to the image directories on Windoze (can Windoze do that?); c) you 
> can move the image directories to be where your files expect them to be 
> (which you don't want to do).
>
> If you have lots of documents, there are methods to make these kind of 
> find/replace changes using a script (batch command file), but since I 
> don't use modern Windoze, I don't know the name of the Windoze program 
> used for that.  But, with the right command you could change the paths 
> in thousands of files all at once.  (Just MAKE BACKUPS FIRST; it can be 
> tricky because of the slash and backslash characters which may need to 
> be escaped (protected)).
>
> If you have just one diagram, then you could use the find/replace in a 
> text editor like Notepad (to change the current absolute path to a 
> different absolute path).  The key, however, is to NOT use a text editor 
> that changes or adds any formatting.
>
> Jay


Okay thanks, yes this would work (although it took me a while to figure out
that in order it to read it in a text editor you have to specify
'uncompressed' in the save properties). 

And also, seems the paths are relative - I was just confused since in the
image properties Dia wants a full path to the image.  If you edit an image
and instead of clicking "Browse" you type the filename using a relative path
it shows up a broken image.  But if you specify the full path it works (ex-
C:\my project\etc) ... yet it in the .dia file the path is relative. Odd.   

So I guess my feedback is that relative file paths within the "Image
properties" window should work better. 
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