Running Scapers Amazon and Comic Vine Fails

[balloon-incoming2]

Hello,

So i am running my comicrack from synology nas after having mounted as (M:) on my pc and the program is on my nas that i open. there are no issues using the program. I did take a long pause on using the program from Feb or March till about a week ago. So i am assuming it has to do with an update from the pc, nas, or less possible comicrack. I did copy the program to my desktop and have enabled this to be a portable program in every instance.

Every time i run the scrapers Amazon or Comic Vine there are fail errors. See photo for the errors. I am assuming i have to change something on my PC because it is only for the scrapers i am having issues with. i am unable to open the config gui on these 2 items. If i do a clean install without my old data folder and reinstall comic vine then it works without issue, but its a clean slate and i would like to grab my old configuration if possible. is this a problem because i have it set as portable?

[maforget]

It's missing files in the portable plugin folder. Or you didn't copy the complete data from the appdata folder to the data/plugin one. It looks like it isn't able to load any DLL or EXE. That is why a new install works. Just reinstall the plugins it should not delete the config. Or open the crplugin with 7-zip and extract all the files, make sure that they are all present in the folder (the plugin's specific folder). Make sure to completely close ComicRack from the tray before trying again, because otherwise the errors will not go away.

[balloon-incoming2]

Hi, Thank you for the quick response.

so i followed what you mentioned above. i deleted the plugins and reinstalled and got the same error "ionic.zip.dll". I went to the plugin site re-downloaded and unpacked with 7-zip compared all files in both and both had 55 files. i downloaded the portable folder and put it on my desktop, and got the same error. its only the scrapers that have this issue.

so i decided to do this from scratch again. clean slate, i installed on my local C: folder and changed my .ini file again and it worked, i didnt copy the data folder. Did the clean install on my nas M: mount and i started to get the same error again. so i am assuming it has something to do in my data folder or the set up on the nas, or the ini file? i even copied my local C; copy to the nas and got that error.

is there something that i should be looking at in that case? I even opened my portable copy from 2016, before you started this project. that also gave me errors. or do i just start over completely?

ComicRack.txt

[maforget]

Just to be clear, the ZIP download is NOT a portable version ready made, you still need to modify the ini or use the -local to open it in portable mode. If not it still loads from appdata.

Plugins are done in Iron Python which mixes python & .NET. The error you get is that the plugin isn't able to load the extra libraries. I do not know why. Plugins like PRIAT also uses extra DLL, so it should fail also.

But I test the program from a portable folder and even if I copy it to another drive or computer I can easily use any plugins.

[balloon-incoming2]

Hi, thank you for the explanation it does help alot in my understanding. So the way i have always used it back when it was still updated way back when lol was by having it on an external usb, mainly because i wanted to have a complete back up of the program in case my comp crashed. then when i got my nas i mounted the drive M:// to my comp so i can access it from 2 different computers. eventually the old comp gave out so now i use this current one only. to my understanding as you mentioned, i have to go into the ini file and uncomment the local items, i attached the txt copy of my ini file in my previous post. When you took over i did the process you mentioned,

• download the zip
• unpack the zip (my case into the folder on my nas that i have mounted to my comp)
• compared the ini files from my old version to the new version i unzipped and carried over the changes to the new version. I am unsure how to use that -local still. Apologies for being a complete noob.
• cut and paste the data folder to the new unzipped copy and open the program.

that would always work for me, but it wasnt until recently that i started to get that error in my initial post.

When i unzipped a clean version and did the changes to the ini files to have it create a new portable version on my pc it worked. but when i copy and paste the older data folder to that new portable version on my pc it will give me the same error.

this is the one on my nas

This is the one installed on my pc

I am certain i am doing or did something wrong so thanks for taking the time to teach me. let me know what screen shots more i can provide.

[maforget]

You keep trying to copy your Data folder and that is your problem. Just delete only the problematic plugins and reinstall them. You state I extracted the program and it worked until I copied my Data folder. I am not talking about the program ComicRack working in portable mode, I am talking about the plugins. Do you mean that they were installed and working until you copied the files over and replaced them?

You didn't attach any pictures of the actual folders that have problems like the comic vine scraper. These include dll files that are giving you errors. Why I don't know, maybe they went missing or some kind of security software is blocking them. But I would start just installing them fresh if you have problems. You do not need to copy everything over to keep your library only the ComicDb.xml and Config.xml. Comicvine also stores settings in a %Appdata%\Comic Vine Scraper folder that I would delete. There is clearly a problem with these plugins folders.

Also be certain that whenever you are copying files that the program isn't open when doing so, by default it will hide in your system tray on a fresh install. Also with different versions installed please be aware than only 1 version of ComicRack can be open at the same time. So if you have the program already open in the tray and you open from another location like your NAS it will just open the one currently open.

The -local is a command you can add to your shortcut. After the program name just add -local and it will open in portable mode. So you would have something like "M:\\ComicRackCE_nightly\ComicRack.exe" -local. No need to modify the ini file, which would be replaced the instant you updated. It also prevents the errors you might have, I did notice in your file that you had edited the lines about the database.

Look I really don't know what is going on, the only hint you've given is the error message. It tells me that the plugin can't load these files, my only idea is that these files are corrupted or missing. Maybe the files have permissions from your other computer that the new one don't have. So I would just reinstall them manually. Do it from inside the program, don't just double-click the crplugin because with multiple installations it would probably not open the correct instance. Then you can copy your library (ComicDb.xml), that is really the only important file.

[balloon-incoming2]

You keep trying to copy your Data folder and that is your problem. Just delete only the problematic plugins and reinstall them. You state I extracted the program and it worked until I copied my Data folder. I am not talking about the program ComicRack working in portable mode, I am talking about the plugins. Do you mean that they were installed and working until you copied the files over and replaced them?

Got it. I also have done that. I uninstall the plugin and reinstalled them and still have the same problem on my M Folder after reinstalling the scraper. I compared the downloaded plugin like you mentioned with 7-zip to what was installed and there is no difference. it seems its something to do with how its running on my nas.

when i extracted the comicrack directly onto my comp (D:) and install comicvine there is no issues.

But as a test, i copied the plugin folder (just this comicvine and amazon scrappers folder) from my nas (M:) to pc (D:) with a empty database and this same error pops up.

You didn't attach any pictures of the actual folders that have problems like the comic vine scraper. These include dll files that are giving you errors. Why I don't know, maybe they went missing or some kind of security software is blocking them. But I would start just installing them fresh if you have problems. You do not need to copy everything over to keep your library only the ComicDb.xml and Config.xml. Comicvine also stores settings in a %Appdata%\Comic Vine Scraper folder that I would delete. There is clearly a problem with these plugins folders.

Ah so those (the ComicDb.xml and Config.xml) are the main ones. Good to know , i always assumed it was the entire data folder that was the most important.
my bad, i seem to not include that folder screen shot. Was in a rush before the kids got home. here it is.

Also be certain that whenever you are copying files that the program isn't open when doing so, by default it will hide in your system tray on a fresh install. Also with different versions installed please be aware than only 1 version of ComicRack can be open at the same time. So if you have the program already open in the tray and you open from another location like your NAS it will just open the one currently open.

Yes i learned this when i first ran it the program in the past. either ctrl+Q or close it in the trey. For safe measure i also check task manger just in case.

The -local is a command you can add to your shortcut. After the program name just add -local and it will open in portable mode. So you would have something like "M:\\ComicRackCE_nightly\ComicRack.exe" -local. No need to modify the ini file, which would be replaced the instant you updated. It also prevents the errors you might have, I did notice in your file that you had edited the lines about the database.

Awesome, good to know. i edited the database line because of something i read in the forums when they were around. Should i leave it uncommented, since based on your comment it is safe to assume its not needed for portable mode in this case?

Look I really don't know what is going on, the only hint you've given is the error message. It tells me that the plugin can't load these files, my only idea is that these files are corrupted or missing. Maybe the files have permissions from your other computer that the new one don't have. So I would just reinstall them manually. Do it from inside the program, don't just double-click the crplugin because with multiple installations it would probably not open the correct instance. Then you can copy your library (ComicDb.xml), that is really the only important file.

no worries, this is turning out to be a great learning experience for me since I am a novice at development and these types of thing so thanks for taking the time. out of curiosity, Is the best way to back up the database by making sure i have a copy of the library file (ComicDb.xml at all times? I am just mainly concerned to putting all this time and effort and losing at least majority of the work. right now i am going to go off of using the comicrack on my pc and not my nas anymore, but have the files still stored on my nas, unless there is a better method.

[maforget]

If installing the plugin fresh works, just do that, the only thing you will have to do is perhaps re-enter your API key and 2-3 settings. If copying the files doesn't work, then either the file have maybe been corrupted, you could verify that by comparing file hash. Or it must be security permissions, these are saved with the files themselves. So copying files from a computer to another would could still have permissions from user that don't exists anymore on that other machine.

If you want to backup your database, yes the ComicDb.xml is the main one. It contains all books, lists, list view config, grouping & sorting. The Config.xml can contain things like saved layouts & workspaces that you may want to keep, but isn't catastrophic if you lose them. The cache files are recreated has required and are probably worthless for you because they would have been invalidated the instant the files moved. One reason to keep the plugins is that each may have config files in their own folders that you might want to keep. The main one is probably Data Manager dat files. But since you have a problem if you copy them, you can install the plugins and just copy only the dat files manually after or import them instead.

There is a manual built-in backup system, that basically zips the ComicDb.xml. There is a plugin called Backup Manager (which I updated to work with the Community Edition) that you can use to easily make a backup of your database and also have the option to do a full backup that will save all the data folder. My updated version now also works with portable mode.

Although it kinds of annoyingly hangs the program on start when it does it's backup, so I've made a small change so that it runs in the background but it broke exporting when people failed to configure it. More here #136. So use v1.2 or use the nightly if just don't forget to configure it and don't keep more than 100 backups.

If what you really want is prevent loosing your database having it backing up your database on a cloud service every time the program starts is probably the best way. For the files themselves not much you can do beside backing them up. Portable external hard drive are pretty cheap for multiples TB, that you can use to back them up and store in a safe place.