Image conversion is an important feature within the WebCenter Content Inbound Refinery. This functionality is achieved by enabling the Digital Asset Management Component. This component provides the necessary libraries to convert between image formats and adds options such as watermarking and text assignment.
In order to enable the Digital Asset Management features first we need to enable the following WebCenter Content components:
- ContentBasket
- DamConverterSupport
- InboundRefinerySupport
- ZipRenditionManagement
Next, we need to enable the Inbound Refinery component DAMConverter.
Once these components are enabled and the WebCenter Content and Inbound Refinery managed servers are restarted the next step will be to configure the Rendition Types and the Conversion Definitions.
If your environment is using an external image conversion engine like ImageMagick, ImageAlchemy or nConvert, then these applications will need to be installed on the same host running the WebCenter Content Inbound Refinery.
Once completed, set up each of the rendition configurations per the image requirements by creating a custom rendition format and specify the name and the image dimensions.
Below are some of the common reasons for images failing Inbound Refinery conversions:
The Incorrect file name for a Rendition Definition
In some cases, after an image is checked-in and the correct Rendition type selected, the status of these content items goes to GenWWW. When checking the IBR for the Conversion History details, these content items show as failed with the following errors:
Log entry for conversion job ‘3’:
Loading set name ‘DefaultGraphicSet’
Writing Search Export resource file.
Launching Search Export
Configuration error: The rendition engine ‘ImageAlchemy’ with class ‘docrefinery.dam.image.ImageConversionCommandLine’ and path setting ‘<$ImageAlchemy$>’ could not be initialized. The ‘<$ImageAlchemy$>’ setting may not be set correctly.
Configuration error: Unable to create rendition ‘Preview’ with engine ‘ImageAlchemy’. Rendition will not be created.
Finished the ‘Preview’ rendition.
Unable to convert. No renditions were created.
stack trace [ Details ]
An error has occurred. The stack trace below shows more information. !csLogJobIdPrefix,3!csLinefeed!csLoadingSetData,DefaultGraphicSet!csLinefeed
!csSearchExportWriteResources!csLinefeed!csExportPDFLaunchSX!csLinefeed
!csRenditionEngineInvalidPath,
c:/<install_dir>/custom/DamConverter/3rdParty/ALCHLONG.EXE
!csLinefeed!csRenditionEngineCouldNotBeInited2
The above error message shows that the path is invalid ‘!csRenditionEngineInvalidPath’ despite the correct file path being provided in the file. The reason for this is the incorrect file name was specified for rendition definition. In the above scenario it was defined as extraRenditions_definitions.hda whereas the actual file name should have been extraRendition_definitions.hda . The extra ‘s’ in Rendition causes this failure for conversion since the Inbound Refinery is not able to look up the custom definition. This causes Inbound Refinery to fall back to the default rendition definition which does not have the path defined.
Image Conversions Failing with no errors in the WebCenter Content Logs
When images fail conversion with no errors in the WebCenter Content Logs the best way to troubleshoot is by setting the IBR logs to Full Verbose and then add the following trace sections:
requestaudit,ibr*,system ,task*
Once the trace sections have been added then repeat the same content Check-In and review the IBR agent logs. Using the logs and the IBR server output you should be able to get the exact command line arguments being used to pass the content item to the external conversion engine. We can then use the exact same command line argument to test the external conversion engine and see if there are any parameters required which need to be changed to get the conversion engine working.
Sample error log:
Info 1/21/13 12:35 PM Log entry for conversion job ‘7007’:
Loading set name ‘BasicRenditions’
Writing Search Export resource file.
Launching Search Export
Starting to create the ‘Web’ rendition of type ‘web’
The ‘Web’ rendition failed. The engine reported the following error: ‘!csUnableToStartProcess,CmdLineConversion_7007_exsimple’
Finished the ‘Web’ rendition.
Starting to create the ‘Thumbnail’ rendition of type ‘thumbnail’
The ‘Thumbnail’ rendition failed. The engine reported the following error: ‘!csUnableToStartProcess,CmdLineConversion_7007_exsimple’
Finished the ‘Thumbnail’ rendition.
Starting to create the ‘Preview’ rendition of type ‘preview’
The ‘Preview’ rendition failed. The engine reported the following error: ‘!csUnableToStartProcess,CmdLineConversion_7007_exsimple’
If you need more information with regards to Inspired ECM conversion please feel free to contact us directly.
