Trouble finding Ghostscript path

Thanks for your question and for the details of your install.

By default, MLA looks for Ghostscript in /usr/bin/gs, and it looks like this does not match your configuration. Just below the “Enable explicit Ghostscript check” checkbox is a “Ghostscript path” text box where you can enter an alternate location. Have you tried entering /usr/local/bin/gs in the text box, then scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking “Save Changes” to record your new setting?

Thank you for your response. I’ve tried this, but it does not help. I’ve even tried putting a symbolic link to /usr/bin/gs.

Thanks for your update and for taking the time to try out my suggestion. I regret that it did not help.

You wrote “Yosemite with MAMP” – that sounds like an Apple Mac platform; is that right?

Here are a couple of earlier topics with more information on configuring Ghostscript support:

Installing ImageMagick on Mac OSX for PHP and MAMP

Nothing but error messages

It sounds like you have done what they suggest. It is possible that the symlink isn’t properly handled by the MLA code.

When you add /usr/local/bin/gs in the Ghostscript path text box MLA uses a shell command to test the value. Could you enter test -e /usr/local/bin/gs at the command line and post the results?

Do you have access to your PHP error log? If so, you can try adding mla_debug=log to your shortcode to produce some debugging information in the log (along with any possible error messages). If not, you can try adding mla_debug=true to write ugly but helpful information to the page containing the shortcode. Anything you can capture and post would be helpful.

You can also try changing mla_viewer=single to mla_viewer=true just to see if the single threading path is part of the problem; that seems unlikely.

I do not have any direct access to a Mac system, but I will try to find one so I can experiment with an environment more like yours. Thanks for your understanding and your patience.

Yes indeed, I’m on a Mac platform with MAMP. And I did follow all those links that you have mentioned for installing and configuring on Mac.

test -e /usr/local/bin/gs returns empty. So does test -e /usr/bin/gs

Mac is my development environment. I will try this on the deployment server, which is Redhat Linux, and see if it works there. If it does, that’s good enough for me.

Thanks for your help with troubleshooting this.

David,
It seems that my deployment server is working quite well with the first-page thumbnail creation. However, in reading more on your plugin, it sounds like PDFs work well, but there isn’t a good mechanism in place for MS documents – pptx, docx, etc. I have 2 questions in this regard:
1. Is it not possible to dynamically convert/export the pptx to PDF and then create a thumbnail from it?
2. The featured image solution is not the most ideal, however, it could work for me if I can assign the same featured image for all pptx files. Is there a way to do this currently?
This is my shortcode:
[mla_gallery mla_viewer="true" post_parent=all mla_viewer_extensions="pdf,txt,doc,docx,xls,ppt,pptx" post_mime_type=all size=full link=file]

Thanks for the good news regarding your deployment server; I am happy to hear that the problem seems to be Mac-specific. I will continue to work on a fix for that.

You wrote “… dynamically convert/export the pptx to PDF …” That would require a program on the server that understands and exports the PPTX file format. I am not aware of any such program other than Microsoft PowerPoint or Open Office on a Microsoft Windows OS platform. Most sites run on other operating systems.

You wrote “… assign the same featured image for all pptx files.” The current MLA version does not have anything that supports that. You can use size=icon in your shortcode to use an appropriate icon for non-image file types. It’s an interesting idea; I will think about some way to associate a “default thumbnail/default Featured Image” with an extension or MIME type.

I will leave this topic unresolved for now and post an update with any progress I can make. Thanks for your ideas and for your interest in the plugin.

David,
Coming back to this after a month, I’m wondering if you have any suggested workaround for displaying some sort of default thumbnail for a given file extension.

I have not had time to work on a “default Featured Image” for a specific file extension, but it is on my list. I will post an update here as soon as I have something for you.

If I can’t build this in to MLA, a custom plugin using the MLA filters might be an interim solution. Would that be of interest in your application?

I haven’t looked into MLA filters, but will check t out. In the meantime, I’ve been able to accomplish what I need by creating a style template and adding something like:
`.gallery-item a{
background-image: url(“https://cdn2.iconfinder.com/data/icons/windows-8-metro-style/512/document.png”);
height: 100%;
}’

However, it’s not giving me the desired result in terms of size. I might need to apply the background to a different element or handle it differently so that it is the same size as the generated thumbnail. Any suggestions you can provide on this will be very helpful.

I have uploaded a new Development Version dated 20151228 with a new filter, mla_gallery_featured_image, that allows modification of the Featured Image assigned to an item. A new example plugin, mla-default-featured-image-example.php.txt, has been added that uses the filter to supply a default Featured Image based on the item’s file extension.

To get the Development Version, follow the instructions in this earlier topic:

Shortcode not working in (special) widget

You can follow the instructions in the “MLA Gallery Filters and Actions (Hooks)” section of the /Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab to access the example. I can also send you a copy if that would be easier for you to use. You can give me your contact information using the Contact Us page at the FTJ web site:

Fair Trade Judaica/Contact Us

Do not post your e-mail address in the forum; personal details in a public forum violates WordPress guidelines. If you have trouble accessing the FTJ site, post a note here with your country of origin and I can temporarily unblock it.

To add default Featured images to your [mla_gallery] display, first install and activate the example plugin. There are no arguments or option settings for it.

Then, find the Media Library item for the image you want to use as your default. Assign a WordPress custom field named default_thumbnail_for to the item and put a comma-delimited list of file extensions (e.g., pptx or ppt,pptx) in the value of the custom field.

You can use the Settings/Media Library Assistant Custom tab to add the field to your Media/Assistant submenu table and the Quick/Bulk edit areas, but that is not necessary. You can simply use the WordPress Media/Edit Media screen to assign the custom field to the item(s) you want to use as your default image(s).

Thanks for your help with this new example and for your patience in waiting for it.

David,
This is working out even better than I expected. I was expecting to modify the short code, but this setup makes it so configurable. Thanks so much for all your help!

I have finally been able to spend some time on a Mac/MAMP system with someone who knows more about the Mac environment than I do. We were able to reproduce your symptoms and we were able to get Ghostscript going and had success with MLA thumbnail generation.

On the system we used, MAMP had installed Ghostscript in a different location:

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/gs

We entered this path in the Settings/Media Library Assistant MLA Gallery tab’s “Ghostscript path” text box and we unchecked the “Enable explicit Ghostscript check ” box. Then, we went to the Media/Assistant submenu, selected a PDF document and executed the “Thumbnail” bulk action. We got a dialog box which displayed:

To open “gs”, you need to install X11. Would you like to install X11 now?

X11 is no longer included with OS X. Apple continues to support the development of X11 on OS X with the open source community. Clicking “Continue” will take you to an Apple Knowledge Base Article which provides information about installing X11.
[Cancel] [Continue]

We clicked Continue and went through the process of installing “XQuartz 2.7.8” for OS X 10.6.3 and later. After installing X11 we logged out and back in, restarted MAMP and all of the MLA thumbnail generation features worked without errors.

You wrote “If I uncheck the Enable explicit ghostscript field, my page tries to open ghostscript with X11.” That is correct; Ghostscript requires X11 support and will not run without it. Installing X11 support solves the problem.

I hope that gives you what you need to get your Development System going. I am leaving this topic resolved, but please update it if you have any problems or further questions regarding the above suggestions. Thanks for your patience while I was looking for time on a Mac system.