Forums Technical Discussion Comparing embedded images in an HDA help card?

Comparing embedded images in an HDA help card?

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Zybrand
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I am adding some much needed help documentation to some of my HDAs and I am using some images embedded in the asset in Extra Files. I can get the icon to work with #icon: opdef:.?my_image.pngand images work with [Image:opdef:.?my_image.jpg].

But I can't get compare images to work with images in extra files, I can get them to work just fine with images from an external urls so I know I am making some sort of syntax error but I have no idea where I am going wrong and I tried all the combinations I can think of.

This is my latest unsuccessful attempt:

:compare_images:
    #image1: opdef:.?my_image1.jpg
    #image2: opdef:.?my_image2.jpg

Anyone know the correct way to write this?

Thanks
Z
Edited by Zybrand - Nov. 20, 2018 13:20:41
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AnimGraphLab
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After some digging...

Houdini markup page example images are stored at this path: C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 20.0.653\houdini\help(ZIP file) so they're not embedded.

Using the absolute path to images also doesn't work: Qt Error: Not allowed to load local resourceeven though using absolute paths in HDA is inappropriate.

Solution:
1. SideFX team, please, update Compare Images Markup documentation [www.sidefx.com] 💛
2. Copy-paste your images inside C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 20.0.653\houdini\help\images.zipZIP file.
2.1. (optional) In ZIP file, create a subfolder like my-mega-custom-folderto store custom images for HDAs.
3. Use your image without opdef.?. Use this: /images/spiderman2.jpg. If using a custom folder: /images/my-mega-custom-folder/spiderman2.jpg
4. Important: close and open Houdini. I believe that this is to compile all files from \houdiniand other folders.
5. Open your help page.

Result:

Edited by AnimGraphLab - May 1, 2024 03:57:45

Attachments:
sidefxHelpPageCompareImages.gif (2.3 MB)

3D Generalist. Transforming 2D images to 3D animations.
Socials: https://linktr.ee/AnimGraphLab [linktr.ee]
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kodra
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Man having to put the images into a .zip manually is UX horror. They really should've made it work with embedded images and external URLs.
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AnimGraphLab
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kodra
Man having to put the images into a .zip manually is UX horror. They really should've made it work with embedded images and external URLs.

Possibly there's another, proper way that somehow does all those mentioned steps automatically But yeah, using [Image:opdef.?<IMAGE>]would be much more intuitive and expected

P.S. - I've submitted enhancement request.
Edited by AnimGraphLab - May 1, 2024 04:17:31
3D Generalist. Transforming 2D images to 3D animations.
Socials: https://linktr.ee/AnimGraphLab [linktr.ee]
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mchaput
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Because browsers obviously don't understand `opdef:`, the help system has to find places where it's used and rewrite them into plain old paths. Unfortunately that means I have specify by hand all the different places to check for them, and I missed out on the image comparison block. Should not be hard to fix at least.

The next version of Houdini should make this kind of manual whack-a-mole no longer necessary, thankfully.
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