Last month the first PageBuilder blog post came to life, containing some general tips and tricks.
Time for part 2, containing some more technical hints and frequently asked questions from our partners.

Margins, multiple columns, left and right boxes, things you can easily use in your designs right now.
But you're having a problem using InDesign (Server) on MAC, you are unable to get paginating with InDesignServer working, how can the PageBuilder logging help you to find the problem? And what about automatic page numbering?

Time to clear things out.

Automatic / continuous information

We'll start with something simple. You want some continuous information on each page, e.g. automatic page numbering. Important to know is that this information must be added/created on your master template and not on the design templates.
When pagebuilding, information on a design template will be reset for each product that is added. Master templates make it possible to store common (e.g. chapter title) or incremental (e.g. page number) information.

Basic problem solving for InDesign Server

Log locations

There are 3 places where you can find useful debugging/error information when using PageBuilder together with InDesignServer.

• InDesignServer Command Line Prompt (or Windows EventViewer depending on how the Server was started).
• PageBuilder logging. Log level depending on the PageBuilder logging setting (None --> Verbose).
• EventViewer for ADAM logging. Useful when having troubles logging on to ADAM using PageBuilder.

ADAM Settings

It is important that the ADAM Settings for PageBuilder are all correctly filled in. Detailed information can be found in the PageBuilder Admin Guide, but here's a short list of important settings.

• Correct url to the PageBuilder Services?
• Correct path to the Scripts folder?
• XMLSetting containing PageBuilder information correct?

Configuration for MAC

A common problem is that pagebuilding on a MAC is not working properly, while PageBuilder on Windows generates your catalog fluently. First thing to do then is to check the PageBuilder Verbose logging. 9 out of 10 you will find following debug info:

16:42:08 [normal] : Got 1 design template(s).
16:42:08 [verbose] : Template 1 - path: .

On Windows the same debugging info will be:

16:19:37 [normal] : Got 1 design template(s).
16:19:37 [verbose] : Template 1 - path: \\PageBuilderShare\MyCatalogue\Templates\abc.indd.

As you can see the path on MAC is empty. Normally this means that ADAM can not update the Windows path to a MAC path. For ADAM to be able to convert the path, the convertion setting needs to be properly configured. Detailed information can be found in the ADAM Admin Guide, but here's a little example.

If the path "\\PageBuilderShare\MyCatalogue" was mapped on Mac as "PageBuilder:DATA", you have to add the following line to the appropriate System Setting:

<conversion>
    <add pcPath="\\PageBuilderShare\MyCatalogue" macPath="PageBuilder:DATA"/>
</conversion>

Important things to remember using a MAC:

• Conversion table setting must be filled in correctly.
• This setting can be a Site-setting, so make sure that the correct site is used.
• Mount the correct share (that holds the files) on your MAC so the files are available for PageBuilder.

Connection problems

If you're having troubles to connect, you'll start by checking the logs: PageBuilder debug info and ADAM logging. If the ADAM log does not hold any information there's probably a problem with your PageBuilder webservice.

• Did you enter the correct url in the PageBuilder Plug-in Settings (e.g. http://yourserver/PageBuilder/)?
• Is the authentication service available? Check this by entering the service url (e.g. http://yourserver/PageBuilder/AuthenticationService.asmx) in your browser.

That's it for now.
Season's Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year!