File Server or Workstation's Drives
There are two main ways of working remotely:
- Using your existing file server with a VPN connection
- Using the Workstation's Drives
If you are using your existing file server remotely, you share pages with users in the main office, design center, etc. without using Distributed Production. But using your existing file server remotely can be painfully slow if your network bandwidth via VPN and Internet bandwidth is not sufficient. We've only had a handful of users attempt this and none were impressed with their Internet bandwidth. The main issue is that Adobe InDesign is constantly checking the status of links. And the more complicated the page, the more links there are and the slower things get.
This painfully slow configuration is the reason why TownNews created Distributed Production with its ability to use the workstation's drives.
Without Distributed Production, using Local Storage (a user's own workstation's drives) doesn't allow any sharing of pages. But in a Distributed Production environment, remote users will automatically use the workstation's drives for the pages they are constructing. And when completed, the pages are automatically uploaded to Page Tracker for sharing with the in-office, or local, users.
In addition, when using Distributed Production, the links needed by the Adobe InDesign pages also will be created locally. This makes the performance downright zippy. In many cases, it will be faster than being in the office where the pages are stored on the file server.
When the pages are completed, or they are ready for another designer, the Remote user will use BLOX Total CMS > Documents > Check In to upload them to Page Tracker.
How Workstation Storage is Configured with Distributed Production for Remote Users
- On MacOS: ~/tcms/
- On Windows: %userprofile%\tcms\
From there, with the exception of the paths for Advertising-related items, the paths will match what is shown in the browser-based Path configuration settings. The default of those settings appear below:
Using those paths keeps the configuration of all paths relative for both local and remote users. That, in turn, helps to keep Adobe InDesign happy as it hunts for links.
Using the paths in the depicted image, the complete path for the Adobe InDesign Documents would calculate to be:
- On MacOS: ~/tcms/tcms_purged/ domain /Adobe InDesign Documents/
- On Windows: %userprofile%\tcms\tcms_purged\ domain \Adobe InDesign Documents\
…where domain is the name of the domain where the user is working.
Other paths are calculated in the same manor. You can view all used paths by viewing a remote user's log file and searching for:
(that is ALL CAPS with a space between every letter)
What about Local users?
When a user is logged in as a Local user, as opposed to a Remote user, the paths are on the file server in the normal locations.
Additional Locations:
