Digital Workshop

Mike,

You don't have to pay for the plug-in. Plexus publications can be created in any capable Opus version and the end-user just downloads the latest, working free edition of the plug-in or this happens automatically when they connect to the your publication.

If you own Opus, then the Plexus plug-in that comes with that edition will be installed, but you can download the manual install and use this without owning Opus 6.4.

Mack

Mack,
Thanks for telling me that; I appreciate it, and thanks again for helping e.

Would you happen to know how I can uninstall the old Plexus Plugin so that I can test out the new version?I remember uninstalling it on my previous PC by using Windows' Add or Remove Programs, but it's not listed on my new PC, and I know I have it because I can run a pub. I deleted all my temp internet files, as well.

Thanks,
Miket

My thinking is that if the manual version has been installed it appears in the add & remove panel under Plexus Streaming Web Plug-in. However, if Opus is installed - the the plug-in is part of that installation under A&R and hence cannot be removed.

Experience tells me that if you install the manual edition - it will simply overwrite any other edition - whether installed with Opus or manually so simply download this from DW and run the install.

Mack

Thanks a lot - I'll try it out!

post deleted
In this original post I thought something was working, but have discovered it wasn't at that point, so I deleted it to lessen the confusion of the thread.

Mack,
I don't think the new plugin works with pubs created in previous Opus versions. Here's why I say that.

I made a plugin-based exe pub and put it on a laptop which did not have the Opus Plugin installed. This pub had an alternate path for the plugin. I pointed it to the hard drive, where I put the new Opus Plugin Setup file that I had downloaded from the DW site. I ran the exe and nothing happened. Then I read in the help file that the alternative path is only for web pubs. So, I republished the exe with alternate path unchecked, so that it would point to the default Plexus download. I ran the pub, and the download dialog box displayed. It didn't give me a choice, it just started downloading. I tried testing out the cancel button; I clicked it several times, but it never cancelled.

I think what's happening is that the Plexus download site for Opus version 6 is at a different URL than what it was for 5.5, so Opus 5.5 is still downloading the old plugin. I looked at the version # on the download dialog, and it says version 5.5.

Mike

This is all a bit confusing...

There's one plugin for all versions (except v2.81). The way it works is that there's a version number stored when you publish, and the runtime checks that the end user has the matching plugin version or newer.

There's three different ways the plugin gets installed. First is the normal Opus install, which as Mac correctly says also installs the plugin. Second is Opus_Plugin_Setup.exe, the manual install, and third is the automated system which downloads seperate files from the DW website. These are a set of binary .ilf files, NOT Opus_Plugin_Setup.exe.

The plugin path is a way of pointing at an alternate set of those files, perhaps for environments that don't allow web access. In the past we've provided these files to people that have asked, but it was never meant for widespread use, just as a way around a problem for a few people. In this day and age I'd suggest it's very unlikely anywhere will be using browser based publications and not have internet access.

As for the plexus based standalone publish, it was designed for very small emailable publications. If you're doing anything more substantial, much better to use the full standalone player.

BTW the plugin files live here:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Digital Workshop\IO Opus Player

Delete it all that and it should automatically download and install new ones.

The cancel button is fixed in 6.4, but because it's part of the player and not part of the plugin, you need to publish with 6.4 to get the fix. Updating the plugin won't help you.

Hi Dave, thanks for your response.

The reason I would like to use the plugin for standalones is because we have no less than 150-200 tutorials, which our clients often download. Our clients are Police Departments and they don't have a lot of time to sit around waiting for downloads to finish. The plugins are so much smaller than the regular .exe, which would help our clients a lot when it came time to download.

Thanks for letting me know where that is. I was looking for it all over the place.

There is another possible solution. If you set the publish option for "Create executable and data files", you'll get an .exe and .ilm file.

The .exe files are all the same, so it is possible to use the same .exe for many different publications and pass the .ilm file as a parameter.

Thanks Dave, that's a good idea.

I thought of another that might work. Maybe I could set it up so that the tutorials menu pub (which would be published so as not to require the plugin) searches the PC's hard drive, and if the plugin has not been installed, the menu will launch the manual setup file (which I will include with the tutorials). That way, the clients wouldn't be stuck in a situation in which they are downloading something that they don't know what it is, with no way to cancel, especially since some of our clients do not provide internet access to their on-duty officers.

I don't know much about scripting, but I looked through the forum and help file and wrote an "If FileExists" script, set on a pre-show trigger for the first page. When the pub is launched, it will check the specified directory for the specified file. If it is found, the pub will go to the first page, called Menu. If it is not found, it will go ahead and go to the default first page of the pub, called Install (which has the link to the Plugin setup file):

I wrote it this way:

if (FileExists( SYSTEM_PROGRAMS_DIR + "\\Common Files\\Digital Workshop\\IO Opus Player\\ILMPlay.dll" )
{
GotoPage( "Menu" )
}

and then, I also wrote it this way:

if (FileExists( "C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Digital Workshop\\IO Opus Player\\ILMPlay.dll" )
{
GotoPage( "Menu" )
}

but neither way works. Can you tell me what I did wrong?

Thanks a bunch,
Mike

I thought of another way to go about it. When the Plexus plugin is installed, a text file called iOPlay.log is created. That file contains the words "Opus Plexus plugin", so I set up these actions on the standalone, non plugin, tutorials menu pub:

Preshow trigger on Install Page (first page of the pub)

Action 1: Read the iOPlay.log file and send the data to the variable called Plugin.

Action 2: If variable Plugin contains the text "Opus Plexus plugin", go to page Menu.

It works. When I launch the pub, it opens to the Menu page, not the first page. I deleted the plugin folder, tried the pub again, and it opens to the Install page,the first page of the pub.

Thanks a bunch for helping me out.

Please, DW fix the plugin for version 5.

There is no way to ensure that all 150 of my clients will manually install the plugin on every machine on which they run the tutorials, even if I send the file and instructions to each one of them. The risk of the alternative happening - that they'll run a pub and the plugin download will start automatically- is unacceptable, because no one wants unknown downloads starting automatically with no way to cancel them. Our tech support lines would be flooded with calls from angry police officers and court clerks - and they would have the right to be angry.

So, in conclusion, unless it is fixed, a potentially very helpful plugin is out of the question for us.

Hi Mike,
Unfortunately using plugins of any kind can give these sorts of problems. The Shockwave and Flash players work in a similar way to the IO player, and can experience similar issues; something I have experienced personally and painfully when player changes were made.
I hope that DW can help you out, but it might not be possible for them to do it retrospectively.

Paul