may not be possible- but any advice would help - serverside script

okay - new to the forum, but thought maybe you guys could help or at least point me in the correct direction.

im working on a collaborative web based project, but the key to it is being able to average path's of illustrator files and output them. Basically i guess what im asking is is there anyway - or how should i go about doing the following:

im creating a flash based website which allows people who visit to upload illustrator (ai) files to my server. i then need to have the server somehow perform the same action as illustrator would to average the paths and output it as a jpg. only way i can forsee doing this is by setting up the server on my mac mini and creating an action through automator which would run illustrator and automate the process and output the files.

any insight or ideas? or possible directions?

thanks in advance-

Hi there and welcome,

there are lots of different ways of doing this. Certainly the way you describe can be done...

I will have gladly come up with a few different ways later today...

Illi doesn't have many Actions so that bit would have to be done in AppleScript.

It is relatively straightforward to do the 'drop' folder bit in Automator...again I'll knock something up later.

Can you let us know what version of OS X, what type of Server you are going to use ?

regards

Ric

wow - that was a fast responce and thank you very much -

as far as server is concerned i can pretty much do any variation- currently im just hosting the site off my mediatemple space and finishing it up at the moment. Ideally id like to run it off that but figure it would be near impossible to do without some very very in depth scripting and most likely using SVG graphics.

so im open to suggestions as far as server software is concerned. also i have a spare Powerbook G4 running 10.4.6 i could use or i could hold off until my new mac mini comes in next week.

soo.... i guess i can accomodate whatever you feel would be the best way. Thanks alot again-

im just a designer with no real training in coding or scripting, just what ive taught myself along the way, and this was the first experimental piece i havent been able to figure out a solution to..

so thnx again

Hi there,

mediatemple ? Is that a hosting account ? Is that where your website is at the minute ?

If you move the website to one of your Mac's are you going to use specific software ie OS X server software or just use Mac OS X client and use the Apache server that comes with it ?

Don't worry if all this sounds like gobledegook ! If it does let me know !

Imagine this website... mac-help.com; it is on a Web Server that I control , therefore I can 'manipulate' it how I want...ie to do what you want I would probably get/write/google a php script that would allow customers to 'upload' their illi files...but to do this you need to do certain things to your website...ie change permissions on certain folders to allow people to upload etc...then when they ahd uploaded files another script or action would send it off for processing.

To explain this look at the User Control Panel on this website and go to the 'Edit Avatar' menu...



This is part of a PHP script that allows the user (you) to select the file from your computer and then upload it to my webserver...this is the first part of what you want to do.

Which you could probably do with your 'mediatemple' account...then you would need a way of moving it from there to you...

I could continue on...but it's best knowing how/what you're going to host the website ?

If you were to 'host the website' on one of your Mac's... do you know how to do this bit ? Have you got a static IP address ? Hosting it on a Mac is certainly the easiest way to go !

If you hosted the website on your Mac then we could just set up in flash a page that allows customers to ftp up the files...these files would then go into a folder' onto your Mac...which in turn would have a folder Action applied to it which would check that they were illi files then possible move them across the network to the Mac which would process them in illi then...(not sure what your next step is !)

So, you need to decide how and on what machine is best for you. If you were to host the 'webserver' on a Mac...have you got a good enough Internet connection...do you know how to set up Apache etc...

An alternative way.
The easiest way I can think off is that your customers email you the file (to a special address) then when your Mac gets an email from the 'specific' address...it runs a rule which says...Has this email got a illi file attached if it has then do this...


regards

Ric

okay, maybe i didnt let on quite so much as i know sorry.

i do quite a bit of very extensive coding, and now a bit about servers, so dont worry about speaking in terms i cant understand. but i will say that was a very good explanation.

Currently my server is running off of a mediatemple server, surprised you havnt heard of them. anyway, i plan on moving them off that and running my own server off one of my macs [ most likely just my mac mini ].

Ive allready set up the apache server on my powerbook and have the file uploading working with a PHP script that my flash site communicates with. So basically i have it working so that people can upload files into a folder.

so what your saying is i can then have a folder action which would take only illustrator files and could run an action and save them into another directory as well? If so that would be amazing if it could do that automatically. Also is there anyway it could generate and XML file with a list of the newly generated images?

if i can nail down those components i can have my flash read the XML file and know whats in the folders and how to pull them.


soooo... i guess i need help with the folder part.


thnx and sorry, seems like this is actually a bit easier than i thought, so maybe i am in the right place

ohh and as far as IP - it is a static IP - and i on an OC3 connection - so bandwidth and speed are not an issue:biggrin:

Hi there,

The more info you give the easier/less work it is for us ;-)

Thanks.

How many hosting companies are there in the world ! ;-)

Okay so for now...

To set up an Action that looks for illi files we could do this...

Watch the movie

this should start you on your way...

regards

Ric