Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

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ChoccieMuffin
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Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Trying to upgrade from 2019 to 2021 r-current and things don't seem to be working the same as they used to - what have I missed?

Previously, if you tried to build a target, if something was missing the first time the build was run, Flare would run all the import files and then try again. That doesn't seem to be happening with the latest version of Flare. Have I done something stupid?

As background, the reason I need to do this is that a lot of my projects use GPL (global project linking) so for a lot of my projects the stuff that gets imported from my Globals project isn't actually kept in version control for the child projects.

I strongly suspect I've done something ridiculous and obvious that I just can't see because I'm looking too hard, so if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful.
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Nita Beck
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by Nita Beck »

Check your import file. On the Source Project tab, make sure you've selected the "Auto-reimport before "Generate Output" checkbox. That should do it. I think that checkbox was around back in 2019, but perhaps it got cleared somehow. HTH
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ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Thanks Nita. I tried that, and checked all the import files. It's late and I'm off to bed, but I'll look further tomorrow morning. It may be that I've messed up something, seeing as I've been making lots of other changes, so I'm going to try the usual - quit Flare, delete Analyzer folder, and turn my machine off. Let's hope Flare has recovered by the morning.
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NorthEast
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by NorthEast »

No reason I can think of why a project import would behave differently in 2021 to 2019, all things being the same.
Note that Flare definitely does not detect if something is missing before it builds (although that's a nice idea!), the import is controlled by the setting mentioned by Nita.

So you need to enable the import file setting "Auto-reimport before "Generate Output", but you also need to check each target and make sure you haven't selected "Disable auto-sync of all import files" - which does what it says.
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

The problem has been narrowed down.

In my child project I have 25 or so WORD imports, but I also have a Flare import from my Globals project (which is the Flare project that contains the stylesheets, page layouts etc that the child project will use once everything's imported).
We don't keep multiple copies of the Globals stuff in every child project that's under version control, so the Content folder is pretty much empty in version control, because the Globals.flimpfl import pulls in everything the project needs. (I have 40 or so child projects, but I'm just running my testing on one of them to start with.)

To build my child projects, I run a script which:
1. Builds the STARTER target, which has the Disable auto-sync of all import files check box CLEARED. This is intended to populate the Content folder by running all the import files. That's how it works in 2019, anyhow. THIS IS WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES.
2. Runs some FAR HTML search-and-replace operations to tidy up the HTML that Word pulls in.
3. Builds the actual targets, which have the Disable auto-sync of all import files check box SELECTED, so that all the changes made in step 2 don't get overwritten.

Things fall down at step 1, because building the STARTER target doesn't run the Globals.flimpfl file, which means that all the styles mentioned in the Word import files aren't there so the Word imports don't work properly. If I go into my child project and run the Globals.flimpfl import from within Flare and then run the whole script again, it works.

I've tested steps 2 and 3 (thanks Dave for the tablestyles question you answered elsewhere!) and I'm pretty happy with the results so I'm really close to being able to upgrade to Flare 2021, but this problem with the Flare import file is the last thing that's stopping me.

So I have a couple of questions.
1. Any idea why the Flare import file doesn't run when the script tries to build the Starter project?
(I tried building the Starter project in Flare and it didn't work then either so it's not the script, but I know the Globals import file does work because I've run it from within Flare.)
2. If the answer to 1. is "that's just how it is now", is there any way I can make Flare run the Globals.flimpfl using my Powershell script? Is there something in Madbuild that'll do that?

Thanks for your help, you're a great bunch!
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ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

I've raised a Tech Support query for this, I'll update the thread if they're able to find a solution.
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AlanKearns
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by AlanKearns »

Thanks, I'm getting it too. And it isn't related to a particular upgrade. It was working on 2021r1 and then it just stopped. And the only thing I did was put a master stylesheet in the global properties (which I had to do to enable the 'Create new stylesheet' checkbox. Which doesn't work, anyway...)
ChoccieMuffin
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

So as this seems to be a general problem not just something I've done wrong, does anyone know how I can FORCE the Flare import file to run from doing something in Madbuild? Is there some kind of command or script I can use? I'm so close to being able to upgrade I can almost touch it, but until I get a response from Tech Support I'm snookered.

Your help is very gratefully received, and thanks for the suggestions you've made so far.
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AlanKearns
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Re: Forcing imports to run at the start of a build?

Post by AlanKearns »

What worries me is that even if I did a script outside Flare that deleted everything (so that the import wouldn't need to check overwrites and would just redo everything) that would still leave the issue that instead of each import overwriting the marooned 'import.css' file, it would add a line to my master CSS file. Which would grow and grow.....
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