[v6 General Discussion] Where will the media (images,videos,etc) be stored?

I believe EW2009 store only the shortcut to the image in its resource folder unless the image was imported via schedule. So, we still need to remember to where the images are stored so as not to lose that image, and to take note if we are to share out our database (via copying).

So what happens in EW6?
1) When we import via the '+' sign or right click -> import new file, will EW6 copy the actual image to the resource folder or will it just add a shortcut to the resource folder? This will impact on the sharing of data.
2) When EW6 convert EW2009 database, will it still follows the EW2009 old format of storing shortcut in the resource folder?

I may be wrong, but this is what I THINK happens with the database.

Yes, instead of just storing thumbnails when our files were someplace else (everyone had problems with that one) new and complete COPIES of our images, videos, whatever are stored in the PROFILE folder. The profile folder(s) are located under c:UsersPublicPublic DocumentsSoftouch. Everything seems to be an actual copy of the original, which is possible now that hard drives are so huge. Now we can delete the original, pull out the DVD, disconnect the thumb drive, whatever and a real, live COPY stays in the EW profile folder.

SO now all we have to do is burn that folder to a DVD or thumb or to the cloud for a full backup of ALL data.

At least that's how it LOOKS to work. Not much from the EW developers on that subject.
EW2009 and EW6 share the same Resources folder under the profile. I had written a Powershell script to maintain the media shortcuts in the Resources folder. The new images and videos appear automatically in EW6 just like they do in EW2009.

The EW Helper program assigns a unique ID to media each file for use in its collection database but doesn't appear to store thumbnails like EW2009 did.

The files are copied to the same location as EasyWorship 2009. It no longer makes shortcuts due to so many issues with customers moving, renaming and deleting their files then wanting us to do file recovery when they no longer work in EasyWorship. It also made transferring the database messy due to shortcut links being broken when they were transferred to another computer.
Personally I'm glad it still works with shortcuts since I worked out a solution for handling media on different computers. I used the SUBST command to point M: (short for media) to drive with media folders (C:\, D:\, etc.) then writing a Powershell script to add new and remove old media shortcuts automatically every day. It seems to be working in both versions.
Not too sure about but it seems that it is not saving to the location as required - or it save the actual path in the database as well. I tried to copy out the resources and v6.1 folder to PC with new EW6 installation and open the database found that some of the background images seems to be lost, so was the backgrounds in some of the themes. I think I need to clean up to point all images and videos to the resource folder locally and then copy that to the other PC (instead of using the dropbox one).

Not only that, my collections went missing in the PC with new EW6 installation.

Need to play around with the system more to ensure it's working as it should be...
The Resources folders can contain actual media files or shortcuts to media files; so copying them alone without copying the files referenced by the shortcuts will make the shortcuts invalid. The main PC at church only has a 120 GB SSD as C: drive so storing the 50 GB of media (and growing) isn't an option.

Collection definitions are stored in a database; so v6.1Databases folder must be copied also.
All images/videos are in the resources folder, and the entire v6.1 folder was copied including the subfolders, so v6.1\databases, v6.1\Datacache, etc. are all copied to the thumbdrive.

But I noticed that since my thumbdrive is FAT32 format, and the PC is NTFS, I guess there could be some lost of properties!?!?

still testing this out.
I tested copying the folders from one computer to another via Dropbox and it successfully brought over the collections I defined. I purposely didn't use My Collections since it sounds local to user and computer thus not stored in Public folders.
Well, I am still facing issues with the transfer. Most of themes with name are transferred, but it's all with black backgrounds, and if I right click to edit it, it's like creating a new theme totally - Name of theme went missing, only black background and the text area was back to the default. Kind of weird to me... Sigh, I am still having a hard time synchronising and making sure it works on all systems.
When will the importing from schedules be available? It looks like that is the only way to settle this issue I am having.

The one that looks ok on the other PC, had the same issue on my PC. The one looks ok on my PC, have issue the other PC. Trying to resolve this, but it's is really draining on the brain...
Since EW6 embeds media the schedule it should look same everywhere; though this version may be more aware of screen resolution and aspect ratio. As for media files location there are two choices:

[list:228199si]1. Store media directly in Resources folders (C:\Users\Public\Documents\Softouch\EasyWorship\Default\Resources)
2. Use same path on all computers (D:\Media)[/list:u:228199si]
First one assumes default profile location and C: drive has available space. The second assumes all computers have a D: drive.

That's why I decided to take advantage of Windows and EW to programmatically add shortcuts to media using a common location (M:\Dropbox\GRBC Files). I did early in our EW2009 implementation since church PCs only had C: drive and at home I had C: and D: with limited space on C:. So I mapped M: (for media) using SUBST command. This scheme has worked perfectly in EW6 with 98% success; the few that lost media didn't use M: as path.
I use the store media directly in Resources folders (C:\Users\Public\Documents\Softouch\EasyWorship\Default\Resources) method, and still lose the themes configuration. Going to clear my EW6 and then transfer again to see if I get the issue and if so, clear it, and then see if that helps with the other PC.
Whatever hopes i have of this did not work. Even after reinstalling of EW6 and taking the database from the other pc database and did the modification of the themes, before copying it back to the other pc, the themes were not recreated properly on the other pc.

Somehow, somewhere there is a mismatch and i noticed that in the other pc, when i edit the song, i see text area for scripture and if i tried to change the theme, i get access violation. I have to edit the song, save it, goes back to edit it before the scripture textbox disappear and i have no issues in changing themes.

I am begining to suspect it is due to the upgrade db that is causing such issue - somehow it does not like to play nice. I wonder if i should use the last version to convert the database again. But since i also uninstall ew2009, not sure to go about it.

I might just decide to recreate everything again. Might save me more headache later. Who knows.
In preparation for going live at church I cleaned up my local EW2009 Songs database by making sure all referenced backgrounds had correct path (in my case M:DropboxGRBC Files...), changed titles for EW6 collection use and all were using our standard font. It's not something the inexperienced should try; I used a program WinSQL Lite (http://web.synametrics.com/Products.htm) which allows me to run SQL queries against Paradox databases.

I then converted the EW2009 databases using EW6.1.8 and created my Collections for songs and media, themes, etc. Ran my script on main computer and satellite computer. When I load EW6 on satellite computer it looks just like main.

Note: Script has been temporarily modified to handle church computer as main EW2009 and home computer as main EW6. It copies all folders except Datacache since it seems to be local use only.Once comfortable with transition the church computer will be main for both versions.