CatDV 9 Server -Query

[Bryson Jones]

Actually, a query against the server in CatDV can’t be done based on “online/offline” as that status is dependent on the path to the client app.

If short, “online” to CatDV is determined by whether the asset is “online” to the client. The server has no concept of “online” since it’s just a database.

If you store the “online” status in the server, it would have to update on an absurdly regular basis in order to be accurate. Does that make sense?

bryson

bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com

northshoreautomation.com

[Pierre Valliere]

I have a lot of video on externals hards drives, but still in catdv (sometimes with proxy, sometine not). But on my main hard drive, I wanna do recherch with CatdV and find ONLY those on my main hard drive.

I found a temporary solution but I ‘m not quite satisfied . What I want is to search according to the colums “Online” that contain thoses metadatas : Preview / None / Movie Offline / Online Movie.

But it’s not working.

[Bryson Jones]

Ah, if you want to find things only on one HD, then add something like

Media Folder or Path “contains” //

That’ll only find things with that drive name in the path

bryson

bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com

northshoreautomation.com

[Pierre Valliere]

That was my solution at the begining but the “offline” files (send to and other HD) we’re not move with CatDV because I wan’t to keep their original path (when I restore them).

So, Media Path always point at my main HD whether they are online or offline (other HD).

I can do it In my View (Show “Online” Column) and arrange that columns, but I can’t even type in the Search field to see only Online movie.

I looked across all the metadata columns and I have’nt found anything more to distinguish a clip that is there that is not.

[Bryson Jones]

Wait, are you using CatDV Pro Standalone or with a server?

As I said, CatDV cannot search on “online” because it does not store the files and so it cannot tell you if the data is “there” or not.

Think about it, until the app opens a catalog and sees if the file is there, it cannot tell you that a file is there. If it were to do that searches would take hours as each file would have to be checked for “there” or not.

In a large system this could literally take days. I suspect that you could fix this with some planning but it’s beyond what we could address on a forum.

Sadly, I have little to add here as most of our clients are on large shared storage systems so files are “there” and if not, they are “archived.” But the paths are the paths, forever once they enter CatDV.

Does anyone here on the forum have any cool tricks that they could share for this type of workflow?

bryson

bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com

northshoreautomation.com

[Pierre Valliere]

CatDV Server. As I told u CatDV tell me the information I need is in the Built-in Fields “Online” with a logo or the second Metadata columns “Online” Built-in with this information : Preview / None / Movie Offline / Online Movie.

The first problem is that i cannot insert those field in query (and smath folder). If i use those columns in personal view, I can see them, but the Search in the task bar, it does’nt “see” them, sort them.

Hope this will work in v. 11

Thanx for the help.

[Bryson Jones]

Yes, those fields are dynamically populated in the client only, they are not saved to the server as they are only pertinent to the client you are on at the moment.

Example:

Hard Drive called “Drive_1” Path to a file called “file.mov” at /Volumes/Drive_1/folder/file.mov

CatDV Client 1 has the drive mounted

CatDV Client 2 does not have the drive mounted

Worker Node 3 has the drive mounted

Worker Node 4 does not have the drive mounted

CatDV Server is a database app so it does not mount media storage.

Is the asset “online”? It is to Client 1 but not to Client 2, so what does the CatDV Server say? It says “I cannot store “online/offline” as a field because that data is only relevant to the client at the time of the catalog or query result being open. The Server has no opinion or knowledge of the online status of a file to a client.

If you stored “online” as the status, that would be incorrect for Client 2 & Worker 4. If you stored “offline” it would be incorrect for Client 1 & Worker 3. So CatDV Pro, the client app or the Worker Node, determines the online/offline status when they open the catalog or query the server so that they never save incorrect data to the server. The only thing that is always correct, is the path to the data, which should never change. If you are searching for “is it on Drive_1?” CatDV Server, as a database can only tell you what the client or Worker last told it, it cannot check for files as the database app never mounts and accesses media files, only the Clients and Worker Nodes.

I hope this helps. This is not a “problem” to be fixed. It is a function of CatDV’s architecture and a really great and flexible one at that IMHO. If this isn’t clear, please contact Squarebox support or your reseller for more information on CatDV’s system architecture as this is far easier to demonstrate than type in text.

The function you are seeking is more a function of your data keeping practices and workflows than CatDV itself.

bryson

bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com

northshoreautomation.com

[Brad Starkey]

I’m curious why you cant just filter the results. Filters are perfect for the client side. I’ve used custom views to quickly sort if assets have proxies or tagged in something generic like keywords. But for online/offline I would search the database and filter if its online.

[Pierre Valliere]

I’ve try but not working. I’ve try to search in Built-in Fields “Online” and not working. I’ve try to filter them in the main view same result. Maybe because i’m in v. 9 ?

[Bryson Jones]

That is weird. v9 should be able to do that though.

You could also use Media Folder to filter that will let you choose the drive/path. I know that that is available in v9, we’ve used it for years.

bryson

bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com

northshoreautomation.com