[Lily Duckler]

Hello Henrik,

We were wondering about this, too, at the beginning of the year. Since I know that finding a solution was often frustrating, I would love to share what we learned.

I’ll start with your second question, since this one was an easier fix (at least for us):
https://www.squarebox.co.uk/download/CatDVServer6.7b3.dmg
https://www.squarebox.co.uk/download/CatDVServer6.7b3.exe
There was an update for the server which included a fix to this very issue. If you make sure you’re updated to at least 6.7b3 or higher, the issue should be resolved.

Regarding your first question, here was the solution we were able to implement with great help from the folks at Squarebox support:
(NOTE: only available with server version 6.6b9 or higher)

1) In the server control panel, go to the server config page and in the “Other” section add the following line
webclient.loadUIFromGroup = true

2) In the web client, uncheck the “Show advanced tabs” option in the local preferences dialog. You can access this dialogue by clicking on the little “gear” icon. If ShowAdvancedOptions is set, it will override the settings we just asked the server to send out. Now, whenever you click on an asset, it should automatically load the panels according to the asset’s group.

By default, you will see the same panels you’ve created CatDV Pro client. If you want to have different panels in the web client (for example, a simplified Web Approval Panel), you can do so.

For example, let’s suppose you have tabs called Details and Technical that you only want to show on the installed CatDV client but not in the web interface. To do this, add the following line to server config ‘other’ section (as in step #1):
webclient.alwaysHideTabs = Details,Technical

Now, let’s imagine one step further. You create a panel called Web Approval that you want to show in the web client but not in the installed client. Define the panel as normal using the CatDV “Customise details panels” preferences and save it to your production group settings on the server, but uncheck the visible option so the tab doesn’t appear in CatDV. Instead, add the following line in the server config page to override that flag and show it in the web client:

webclient.alwaysShowTabs = Web Approval

Important note!
You will need to stop and restart the web server for any of these changes to take effect. Also, the layout in the web client won’t exactly match that of the regular client (only a single column is used, and the event markers table will always be shown on a separate tab) but the same fields and pick list values should appear in both.

OR-> it looks like CatDV Pro10.0 allows for easier customization of the web client. I haven’t played with this yet, but if the solution outlined above doesn’t work out for you, it would be worth having a conversation with your WAR and/or the folks at JB&A to see if an upgrade to 10.0 will work out better for your needs.

[Lily Duckler]

Hi Rolf,

Thank you- you were absolutely right! A small manual change (field added to the clip table) had been made to our MySQL database by one of our internal developers. Once we identified that change, we were able to un-change it, and voila, back to normal.

No more issues saving.

[Lily Duckler]

Hm.. Interesting question- looking forward to the answer.
I have a feeling what I wrote below does not actually address your second question as I assumed on first read. Below concerns how to create a multiline field on details panels, but you’re asking about the “Description” for the catalogs themselves, right? So far, this hasn’t been an editable view for me, but I also haven’t looked into it very deeply.

————

Go to Preferences (CMND/Ctrl+,).
Customize Details Panel
Choose the panel that contains your “Notes” field, and select “Edit Panel.”
Since “Description” is already on your panel, find it on the right-hand column. Select “Description” (it’ll be highlighted blue)

Now, look at the bottom of the Customise Detail Panel. You will see an area called “Options” and three check boxes:
[ ] Span two columns
[ ] Suppress if Blank
[ ] Multiline

Make sure Multiline is chosen, and voila! No more scrolling right forever.
If it’s not already chosen, you’ll probably also want to choose “Span two columns.”

You can choose this for any user-created field, not just the default provided “Notes” field. I find it most useful for any field meant for free-typing.

[Lily Duckler]

Since my choice of recycle/new window usually depends on the kind of query I’m running, I use the “Advanced View” Query window to choose. I honestly haven’t looked into controlling this group-wide via preferences, so this may all be review for you.

In the normal Query window view, you can toggle the “Open in new window” checkbox on the bottom right-hand corner. Having the box checked will open the query result in a new window (editable). Having the box unchecked will display the results in “Read Only” mode in your current window. However, if you look closely, you’ll notice that your catalog is still the original open catalog (see the window name at the top of the window). For example, if you try to use automatic groupings on your search results, you will be frustrated because you will instead be grouping the original window contents/catalog.

To get the most options, check Advanced (lower left) to enter the Advanced Query window. This is often used for making more complex boolean searches (this and this but not that ending with xyz). In the bottom right-hand corner of the window, you’ll see a selection area called:

“Query Results: [CHECKBOX] Open for Editing [DROPDOWN]”

If you want to use automatic groupings to sort your query results, I recommend checking open for editing. Otherwise, don’t.

The drop-down contains all of your search/window options:
*Recycle current window
*Open new query results window
*Recycle query results window
*Append to query results window
*Append to current catalog

Just choose the one that works for you and your current search. Searches made within the same session will keep these preferences (unless you reset). As far as I’ve looked into it. preferences do not carry over to the rest of the group on the server, and do not carry into your next session.

If anyone has found a way to apply search preferences (re: opening in a new window or not), I’d love to hear about it, too!