Transfer from Vista to XP

[nsberry]

I normally set up a service at home (Vista) and take to my church (XP) on a flash drive. With version 2.5 this was no problem but with 2.6 the backrounds do not work when I get to church. They are all there in the Images tab but I just get a blank background on the second monitor. Is this because they are stored differently in Vista than in XP. Anyone got any ideas how this can be solved?

Thanks

[ChrisClark]

Hi. This is not due to Vista/XP differences. When you apply a background to a song it stores the complete filepath in the service list. The issue will be because the base directory for the images will be different on the XP machine as opposed to the Vista machine. (Even the default installation would differ due to Vista changing the directory names)

We will have to think about how we can correct this issue and release an update.

What you can do for now is if you know the directory path for the Images on the XP machine is to open the service list .xml file in a text editor and where there is an <ImageFilename> tag with the path to the image on your Vista machine, modify this to match where the image would be on the XP machine. Perhaps this should be done on a copy of the .xml file so you have the original that you can still open on your machine

[brainier]

Or create a matching directory on the computer at church and move the images into that - this would only work if you (or at most 2 or 3 others) prepare service lists at home and bring them in.

[nsberry]

That is great, I will try your ideas and see if I can get it to work. I hadn't thought of editing the service file.

I have been using Zionworx for a few years now and absolutely love it. A really well thought out piece of software but simple to use. In fact, a lot of the time we have the kids at church running the projection system! (They don't get as confused with computers as us adults!!)

Thanks again.

[apwood]

I had exactly the same problem, and have found possibly a better solution.

The cause of the problem is that Zionworx looks in different places for the background images in XP vs Vista. Assuming both XP and Vista are installed in C:\ on the two computers, then for a default install the locations are as follows:

XP: "c:\program files\zionworx\backgrounds" (old location)
VISTA: "c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6\backgrounds" (new location)

Now you could, as suggested in the other post, ensure there is a copy of the images at "c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6\backgrounds" on the XP computer. This is easy, but not a perfect solution because even though any backgrounds you save in styles or service lists on the Vista computer will then be found in the new location on the XP computer, any backgrounds or styles selected on the XP computer will still come from the old location.

So what? Well, it might not matter, but it means you have to maintain two sets of background images in two locations on the XP computer. If you add, delete or change backgrounds and forget to update both locations, you get unexpected surprises!

The solution I'm using (though more difficult to implement), is to use a symbolic link (or "symlink"). A symbolic link is a folder created at the "new location" that actually points to the same physical "old location". So there is only one set of background images held on the disk, at the "old location".

See next post for details.

[apwood]

Note - this only works if the drive partition is formatted in NTFS

The idea (and a lot of technical detail), came from here:

http://shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=284

I used "junction" to create my symlink, you could alternatively use fsutil, or a number of other tools listed on the above webpage. Junction is a tiny, standaline executable (very safe, doesn't need to be installed), and is available from:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysint ... ction.mspx

Do all the following on the XP computer.

1. Download the zip file, open it and copy Junction.exe to "C:\windows\system32". You can copy it to somewhere else if you prefer.

2. Create 3 new folders in windows at the following locations (if they don't already exist). Do not create a new "backgrounds" folder. If you previously created a "backgrounds" folder at "c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6\backgrounds" you will have to delete it, move it somewhere else or rename it.

c:\programdata
c:\programdata\zionworx
c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6

3. Click on Start > Run (or you could use a cmd prompt window instead).

4. If you have installed ZIonworx in the default location on both the XP and Vista computer, enter the following command. If not, you'll need to amend the command to the correct locations for your computer.

junction "c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6\backgrounds" "c:\program files\zionworx\backgrounds"

If you copied junction somewhere else other than to system32, for example C:\downloads, amend the above command as necessary, for example:

c:\downloads\junction "c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6\backgrounds" "c:\program files\zionworx\backgrounds"

5. Press enter to run the command, if you get prompted to confirm you want to run junction.exe, click on "yes" or the "Run" button.

That's it. Whenever Zionworx on your XP computer looks for background images in either of the above old and new locations, it will actually find them in the old location.

If anyone needs any help, contact me at adrianpaulwood2@gmail.com. I could create a script to automatically do all this for you if you tell me where the old and new locations. Or maybe someone else could kindly create a more flexible script or utility to do this?

[apwood]

Don't delete any of the new folders you created above (including the new backgrounds symlink folder). If you do, it will probably delete all your background images (as you might expect). If you must delete it, take a copy of your background first.

If you wish to remove the symlink'ed folder you created above, the correct command is something like this (depending on where you save junction,exe and your new folder location):

junction -d "c:\programdata\zionworx\2.6\backgrounds"

... note the -d switch

This is the proper way to delete a symlink'ed folder without deleting the folders contents.

[apwood]

You might want to use Microsoft SyncToy (free) to copy any new or amended service lists, styles, song database, background images and other settings to your flash drive from your Vista computer.

You might want to use SyncToy to synchronise backgrounds held on your flash drive with those held on your XP computer.

Just google for SyncToy, and if you need any help, let me know.

I use SyncToy to do the above (although I do it via a network connection rather than flash disk), so only run SyncToy on my Vista PC.

I have scans of songs from various music books that I display on a couple of latptops at church from flash drives using a image viewer called Irfanview. This means we don't have to fumble with music books or photocopies and have all our music easily available on each laptop. SyncToy keeps all this syncrhonised for me too, so once I have set everything up on my main vista PC ready for the church service (and scanned in any new music), it takes 30 seconds for SyncToy to get everything synchronised. Before I used SyncToy I would sometimes forget to manually copy an updated image, song, setting or something, and then when I got to church something wouldn't work. It also took me at least 20 minutes to manually copy everything instead of a 30 seconds using SyncToy.

One final tip - if anyone wants to know how to control Zionworx using a remote control - then I can help! This allows the zionworx operator to stand up and worship along with everyone else, just pressing one remote control button to move to the next (or previous) song and another button to move to the next (or previous) verse. You do have to be quite technically capable to set it up though.

[brainier]

Thanks. Are you going to post the remote control stuff here too?

[apwood]

If you can't use symlinks, or its just too complicated, then if you use the other idea of maintaining two folders of background images on the XP computer, then you could of course use SyncToy to keep the two folders in sync with each other. This removes the main disadvantage of this method, although it creates extra work unless you are already using SyncToy; and of course means you are using twice the space needed for the background images.

[apwood]

Thanks. Are you going to post the remote control stuff here too?

Will try to find time to give a simple summary of how I do this. If more detail or help is needed it would have to be on an individual basis unless a lot of people showed interest!

[Jonathan Hills]

We have a wireless keyboard at church, I just use the keyboard functions to go through the songs - F3, F4, F10, F11, F12 etc. Works fine.

[brainier]

We do the same - real keyboard rather than wireless though!

I guess the remote control thingy is hardware with buttons for just operating ZW on it???

[AliBy]

Thanks. Are you going to post the remote control stuff here too?

Will try to find time to give a simple summary of how I do this. If more detail or help is needed it would have to be on an individual basis unless a lot of people showed interest!

apwood, it will be really great if you could start a new thread on this subject under Zionworx V2.6 Support... chances are that it will be helpful to have it stand alone as it cold by "sticky-fied" even if no one else has further issues.

It adds a very useful addition to ZionWorx, especially for when you have small groups who would like to worship together.

[pbc_avcontroller]

One final tip - if anyone wants to know how to control Zionworx using a remote control - then I can help! This allows the zionworx operator to stand up and worship along with everyone else, just pressing one remote control button to move to the next (or previous) song and another button to move to the next (or previous) verse. You do have to be quite technically capable to set it up though.

At the moment this question is a moot point as our projector just died on us -- went 'pop' during the singing of a chorus and when we changed the bulb to the spare it went 'pop' again! Anyway, regarding your thread re using the remote control to control zionworx -- could you tell me how this can be accomplished? The projector came with a remote control which has a lead which connects between the projector and the notebook computer (USB) but what I've found is that you have to be very specific where the cursor is (i.e. right over the green tick below the words window) therefore rendering it pretty pointless if, for example, the Minister wanted to control the verse advancement without actually seeing the notebook and pointing the remote at the projectors sensor.

I would be interested to hear any thoughts comments?

Ewan