Cloud vs. Studio

[Pauly]

I am a long time Celtx Studio user and I'm curious, now that Cloud is active, what the incentive is to keep paying for the Studio. I use Celtx Studio predominantly to work remotely with my writing partner without having to constantly email changes back and forth etc. So the online archiving of the projects and instant access for the other party working on the project. I know you can create pitch Previews etc. for Studio, but in my experience that kind of work is typically done in person and for marketing purposes, a website is used. Is there a fundamental difference in how Celtx uploads material to Cloud vs Studio?

[salotti]

I think the biggest advantage of studio is that they get the whole project file. I just uploaded a project file to Celtx Services, and the only thing visible is the screenplay snippets. No other attachments (music, images, captured video, etc) show up there.

Then again, I might be doing something wrong

[spick]

The services aren't 1:1 so if the cloud service will meet your needs then yes, perhaps you would like to cancel your Studio service. We will be rolling out additional features to the cloud to bring the 2 services to parity, and then some. At that point we will be offering a commercial service in the cloud as well.

Though the project isn't all visible in the cloud service, it is all stored in the cloud. If you open the project in the desktop from the cloud all the data will be intact.

[Daniel]

I've just started to switch from Studio to the Services, and apart from the jabber client I notice a couple of other things that differ from Studio to Service.

I consider them of importance in a collaborative environment:

1. The commit-comments made when saving does not show anywhere?
2. There is no option to notify other collaborators about the commits (e.g. via email)?
3. I can only see the latest 15 commits/versions, where is the rest of the history?
(Some people press Ctrl/Cmd+s after just some sentences, so the version number increases rapidly)

[spick]

I see 22 versions for project I have using Safari. That's all the versions available for the project.

No email notifications yet. And commit comments are not visible yet either. Working on it!

But yes, these are differences between the cloud service and Studio.

[Daniel]

I only see 15 versions only of the screenplay - both in Firefox 11.0 and Chrome 18.x (Win 7 32bit).

And they only show one of the team members commits - so the number may be correct, but I can't scroll or sort on any other result.

This project was uploaded and shared by me, and I have made at least a handful of commits myself, but I don't even show up when I sort on "Modified By".

My account: dc11ab at gmail dot com, the project is called "Space Basterds", the screenplay is called "SB-Screenplay".

And by the way, one of the Novels created in this project refuses to be deleted! It's called "Diverse förslag på scener"- it does not show up when the project is downloaded to the desktop app, yet it can't be deleted from the Service, it just sits there how much I try to delete it by all means available. I think our third collab partner uploaded it via the fat client two days ago or so.

Thank's for looking into this. If you wan't I could do a separate thread, it feels like I'm hijacking this one

[spick]

H'ok...

Scripts within a project can't be deleted in the cloud. So you shouldn't have been able to delete the Novel document in the cloud (even though the option is there in the context menu UI). Project based scripts have to be deleted via the desktop. So it's strange that it's listed in the cloud, but not showing up in the desktop.

As per the Modified By issue, I'll have one of the devs look into it and see what's going on there. I'll ask them to check into the novel issue as well.

Thanks,

Steve

[Daniel]

H'ok...

Scripts within a project can't be deleted in the cloud. So you shouldn't have been able to delete the Novel document in the cloud (even though the option is there in the context menu UI). Project based scripts have to be deleted via the desktop. So it's strange that it's listed in the cloud, but not showing up in the desktop.

As per the Modified By issue, I'll have one of the devs look into it and see what's going on there. I'll ask them to check into the novel issue as well.

Thanks,

Steve

Great!

For further clarification: I didn't (and obviously couldn't) delete said Novel in the cloud service. it was created - and deleted - via fat clients (possibly 2.9.6 on a Mac, I'll ask my partner for details if necessary). Yet, still there it in the cloud. We can't open it, just see it there.

[spick]

Ok, that looks like it's a cloud created Novel document, since it's root is Home.

While in the Home folder, clicking off the novel title on the novel row, opening the context menu and selecting Move to trash doesn't do anything?

And you've updated your desktop clients to 2.9.7 which includes cloud novel support?

Thanks,

Steve

[Daniel]

This particular novel was created by one of my collaborators. He might have done it in the cloud, but he usually works from the desktop client only. I'll have to check.

However, it does not show up in my Home root: it's inside the project I created and shared, "Space Basterds", but perhaps I didn't understand what you meant by root?

Clicking off the title, choosing "Move to trash" from the context menu does absolutely nothing: No error message, in fact no message at all. Nothing shows up if I check the Trash. It's like the function is just turned off.

When I click on the title to open it in the browser, there's just a timer-flower rotating endlessly, so I don't get any context meny . The other novels inside this project open just fine.


When I open the project via the desktop, this novel doesn't show up in the application. (I haven't unzipped and checked the actual contents yet.)

[Daniel]

As a follow-up on the mysterious "Modified By"-issue explained above; further tests suggest that Services only display the versions by the latest committer, but not from any other collaboration partner(s):

[spick]

Ok, clearly there is something amiss with your novel document in the project, and there appears to be a bug in the modified by list in the cloud UI. I still haven't heard back anything from the devs.

[Daniel]

Thank's for reporting the status, spick.

We don't care about the particular (corrupt?) novel, we just want to get rid of it.

But I'm afraid we'll have to go back to use my old Studio account until the Services can:
a) Display the commit-comments (upon each Save)
b) Display all the versions available; from all collaborators, to all collaborators
c) (new) Allow to open a previous version of the project, without automatically pushing the reverted project to a new commit.
(see this thread: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=20379)

And to get the sugar on top, the previous feature suggestions I've proposed above; notifications - of who's online, if a commit clashes (and the whole management of that )

[Daniel]

While almost on topic; here's another screenshot! This one is a minor thingy, compared to the issues with collaborators' versions not visible, no commit-comments visible etc.


Look at the date format on the Notes below, which display in various ways. (It would have been four variants if the screen had allowed for more space)

This screenshot is from a shared project in Service, where three collaborators have worked both on their respective platforms (Mac OSX, Windows 7) as well as directly via the Services web interface. It's opened in the desktop app on a Win 7 64bit.

These Notes are all written in the desktop apps, on above mentioned platforms. They appear to be completely separated from the 'general notes' that can be made via the Services web UI. (What's with those, by the way?)


While there is nothing wrong with the Notes per se, I think it would appear more consistent if the date format was global within the project, perhaps a preferences option when sharing?

[Daniel]

Oh, another finding I done when exploring the world of Celtx Studio vs. Celtx Service;

At work I am behind corporate proxy-, firewall- and some real time security scanner system (ScanSafe, I think it's called).
- The legacy Studio opens fine; when I click on the project on the Studio site it launches as loads the project on the Celtx Desktop application, then it saves back OK too.
- But the new Services does not; it launches the Desktop application, but fails to fetch the list and load a project.


There's no error message when trying to 'Open from Celtx' directly from the desktop application splash screen, the same goes for 'Open from Celtx' within the app. Nothing happens; it doesn't fetch a list of projects.

I only get an error message if I try to 'Open Project on Desktop' via the button in the Celtx Service UI at http://www.celtx.com:

Code: Select all

Celtx version: 2.9.7
Locale: en-US
OS: WINNT x86-msvc
Exception: Error: The selected item could not be opened because an error occurred.

Stack:
JS frame :: chrome://celtx/content/celtx.js :: loadCeltxURI :: line 421
JS frame :: chrome://celtx/content/celtx.js :: anonymous :: line 105


Naturally, I have tried various proxy settings in the Celtx desktop application, to no avail.

I'm sorry I don't have any specific details on this particular proxy/security configurations, I can just conclude that behind these great walls the Studio works, Services don't. I assume it has something to do with a difference in the ports and/or protocols used?