Adobe file format transformation support

[manders]

From what I've gathered:

• Alfresco uses ImageMagick to handle image transformations


• ImageMagick handles PSD (Photoshop) and EPS (Illustrator PostScript) formats

Yet Alfresco does not have built-in support for converting from PSD and EPS to more basic, web-ready formats (JPG, PNG). In fact, the PSD mime-type is not even included in Alfresco Labs - PSD files are identified as "octet-streams" only when uploaded.

Am I alone in thinking that support for Adobe's image formats would be incredibly useful, especially as Alfresco is increasingly going in the direction of web-delivery of content? A workflow where artists can collaborate on PSD and EPS files, and where the final step in the workflow is to publish the result to a web-ready JPG or PNG with pre-set, standardized resampling parameters without having to go through the step of having the reviewer check out and open up the content in local Adobe products, convert it, then re-upload it elsewhere, would be ridiculously useful for us. Furthermore, with ImageMagick's explicit support for these file formats, it seems like a low-hanging fruit to me. Yet I have seen no modules or documentation on how to make this happen, or even notions of people being interested in something like that.

Is there a reason that's not obviously apparent why widely used and well supported formats like PSD and EPS are not included in Alfresco's list of supported formats? Are there reasons why a workflow such as the one above is not useful? Is anyone using any other workarounds I haven't thought of? Finally, is it even really that difficult to extend Alfresco's capabilities to register a new conversion method (from PSD to PNG, for example), using an existing ImageMagick-based transformation as a template?

[mrogers]

First question last, you can plug in different content transformers to Alfresco, its easy to extend.   Its just a case of providing a transformer and then telling alfresco which formats it can convert.

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Content_Transformations

Since image magic does appear to support PSD files,  Getting support for PSD files could be as simple as a couple of configuration changes.   Give it a try and see what happens.

[jottley]

Both of these transformations are quite easy to achieve in Alfresco. As you noted ImageMagick supports both of these filetypes. The key is configuring Alfresco to know about them. This is accomplished by adding the appropriate image/* mimetype. Alfresco's image transformation service will reject any content that is not of mimetype image/*. Once you have added the appropriate mimetypes and restarted Alfresco you will be able to convert both psd and eps images to gif, JPEG or png. A couple of notes: any content already in the repository before the mimetype change will require you to update it to the new mimetype. They won't automatically be changed. A simple script can do this for you. The other note is psd specific:  you must pass the -flatten option to merge all visible layers down to a single layer for appropriate transformation. If you want to create animated gif files, don't pass -flatten. Each visible layer will then be used as part of the animation.

[manders]

Thanks for your help. I'll try to implement this in our Labs test install ASAP.

I had seen the Content Transformations wiki page. I assume we're talking about a runtime transformation then? As in, no actual Java code needs to be written to define the transformation?

Two quick follow-up questions:

• Is it possible to override the image transformer such that mime-type image/* is executed with one set of options, but image/photoshop is executed with a different set (in this case, -flatten)?


• Is there a specific reason Alfresco (Labs?) does not provide transformations and mime-types for these pretty common formats out of the box, if the addition is so trivial? Seeing how Alfresco and Adobe recently became technology partners, and the obvious benefit of using content management products in creative workflows, I would've thought these formats would be high on the priority list.

[jottley]

I had seen the Content Transformations wiki page. I assume we're talking about a runtime transformation then? As in, no actual Java code needs to be written to define the transformation?

Correct. No Java code needed to implement this.

* Is it possible to override the image transformer such that mime-type image/* is executed with one set of options, but image/photoshop is executed with a different set (in this case, -flatten)?

Yes.  The options are to write a custom transformer or extended the existing transformer to handle the the specific cases for PSD images.  Or you can handle this through the rules engine (no coding, just specific space applications/rules).

[dmatejka]

hi manders,
Im also interested in using alfresco with adobe products.. the psd was one of the questions I have run into.. the other is using indesign files via CIFS.. as indesign links can be only to local drive it is essetial if we want to use alfresco and indesign together in the workflow..

Unfortunatelly it seems that indesign has a big problem with alfresco handling of his temporary file. We were trying to find some workaround but no luck..   Any success on your side??

Anyway, if you have a luck with psd transformation please let us know.. that would be very nice feature to have.. 

thank you

[erictice]

I have the same question regarding the indesign links issue.  I noticed the last post on this was in April of last year.  Has a solution been found since?

Thank you