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SP2 and Quicklook problem under Leopard


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Terminal commands

qlmanage -m not listed

qlmanage -r + qlmanage -m still not listed.

(grumble grumble grumble)

Well, for some reason the OS is simply not finding the Quick Look plugin.

So, you've already stated that you've launched the application at least once and restarted your machine ... try restarting once more (if you haven't already done so) and perhaps things might start working.

If it still isn't working, I would then recommend doing:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump > ~/lsregisterOutput.txt

The lsregister command is something Apple really doesn't want 'normal' users to ever use and you shouldn't ever have to use it for anything else again. Mac OS X has something called the Launch Services Database. This database holds everything the OS knows about what applications are installed on your machine and what plugins they contain (like the Quick Look plugin). The -dump flag simply shows all of the information contained in the database and the '> ~/lsregisterOutput.txt' part will place that output in a file called lsregisterOutput.txt in your home directory.

If you could compress and attach that file to a posting, I would love to take a look at it.

Edited by EricG
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Thanks for digging into this Eric.

Here is the output from running these commands (plain text file):

Well, taking a look at the output of qlmanage -m both times, I can see that the OS hasn't located the Quick Look plugin on your machine either - this is why is not working...our Quick Look plugin is not even getting the opportunity to do it's job. (aarg!)

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Here's the output from the lsregisterOuput.txt dump (had to change the extension to post, but it IS compressed):

Ah...very cool. thank you.

So, in that output, I see

path: /Applications/VectorWorks 2008/VectorWorks 2008.app

name: VectorWorks

identifier: net.nemetschek.vectorworks (0x80001560)

...

...

library:

library items:

The last two lines should be:

library: Contents/Library/

library items: Spotlight/VectorWorks.mdimporter/

QuickLook/VectorWorksQL.qlgenerator/

The problem is that for some reason the OS hasn't been able to detect that the application has both the Quick Look plugin and the spotlight importer...so neither are actually working or can work at the moment since the OS doesn't have a clue they are even there - this should be automatic and handled by the OS. It is very odd that it is not working.

If you control-click on the VectorWorks 2008 application, a contextual menu will appear with the item 'Show Package Contents'. Select this menu item. A new window should appear with a single folder labeled 'Contents'. Navigate to Contents/Library. Inside of the Library folder there should be two folders called 'QuickLook' and 'Spotlight'. Inside of the QuickLook folder should be a file called 'VectorWorksQL.qlgenerator' and inside of the Spotlight folder there should be a file called 'VectorWorks.mdimporter'

(You should now close these folders you just opened.)

If there is not, something went wrong with the installation.

If these files exist and if you want to continue trying stuff to see if we can kick the OS into finding the plugin

1. Select the VectorWorks 2008 application

2. Select File > Duplicate from the menubar

3. Trash the original and empty the trash

The application should now be called 'VectorWorks 2008 copy'

4. Rename the application to be 'VectorWorks 2008'

5. Launch and then quit the application

6. go back to the terminal and enter:

qlmanage -r

qlmanage -m

you should hopefully see that 'net.nemetschek.vectorworks.do13' line in the output of qlmanage -m. You may need to restart your machine as well, but hopefully that would not be necessary.

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Genius, man! That fixed it.

Thanks for your assistance!

Very cool. It looks like we just needed to tell the OS who is the boss. :) Enjoy the new feature...I've heard several reports that Quick Look with Cover Flow is changing the way people are interacting with their documents. Combine it with Spotlight searching and Apple's smart folder features and you've got a powerful way to quickly find documents.

Please note, instead of going back to the terminal after duplicating the application, it should only have been necessary to launch the application at least once and restart the machine.

Edited by EricG
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Quit VW - still a nice VW icon instead of a QL preview.

I think we're close to a definitive, relatively easy solution based on what worked for exocubic.

Try this:

1. Select the VectorWorks 2008 application

2. Select File > Duplicate from the menubar

3. Trash the original and empty the trash

The application should now be called 'VectorWorks 2008 copy'

4. Rename the application to be 'VectorWorks 2008'

Try viewing the preview with a recently saved document from SP2.

It may be working at this point. If it is not,

5. Launch and then quit the application

Try viewing the preview with a recently saved document from SP2.

It may be working at this point. If it is not,

6. Restart your machine

Try viewing the preview with a recently saved document from SP2.

It should be working at this point.

If it is not working, please let me know.

If it starts working, please let me know at what stage it started working.

(I am assuming there are still not duplicate copies of the application or the Quick Look plugin on your machine. If there are, it may not work depending on the exact circumstances...this is a known bug in Leopard.)

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After rename: not working.

After launch and quit: not working.

After open and save file, quit VW: not working.

After restart: WORKING! W00T!

Great. Enjoy the new feature.

(btw, the 'spotlight' folder is not inside ~/library/. Only QuickLook)

I am curious about this comment. You should not have either the Quick Look or Spotlight importer in ~/Library/. Placing them here may prevent us from being able to efficiently deliver new functionality to you in the future.

They should only be in:

VectorWorks 2008.app/Contents/Library/

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Just FYI, but the saved view is the screen extents, not the sheet edges. Have to zoom in to have QuickLook show the drawing boundaries as its limits.

Yes, this behavior is expected and as designed at this time.

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me too, no preview. Just installed the SP2.

Just saved a file to my desktop in VW 2008 SP2 and quit VW. No quicklook. Restarted my macpro 8 core with 4 Gb ram and saved a few more files under VW2008 SP2, quit the app and still no quicklooks.

Please try the procedure that worked for Luciole Design and let me know.

It was:

1. Select the VectorWorks 2008 application

2. Select File > Duplicate from the menubar

3. Trash the original and empty the trash

The application should now be called 'VectorWorks 2008 copy'

4. Rename the application to be 'VectorWorks 2008'

5. Launch and then quit the application

6. Restart your machine

Try viewing the preview with a recently saved document from SP2.

It should be working at this point.

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The QuickLook folder is in VectorWorks 2008.app/Contents/Library/

(the Spotlight folder is not)

I was just being lazy about typing the full path name. I never moved it from where the installer put it.

Bad installer? It did the same thing on two machines now - and I had to copy VW, delete, restart to get QuickView to work on both machines (one Intel and one G5).

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The QuickLook folder is in VectorWorks 2008.app/Contents/Library/

(the Spotlight folder is not)

I was just being lazy about typing the full path name. I never moved it from where the installer put it.

Bad installer?

Yes, it appears to be a bug in the installer. The spotlight importer should be there.

It did the same thing on two machines now - and I had to copy VW, delete, restart to get QuickView to work on both machines (one Intel and one G5).

Hopefully a better solution can be found soon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The OS has 2 places to look for QL plug-ins (3 actually). /Library/QuickLook (both ~/LibraryQuickLook and /System/Library/QuickLook and in the Application/Contents/Library/QuickLook. It is generally a bad thing having 2 quicklook plug-ins for one file type as it is completely unpredictable which plug-in will get the call from the OS to generate the preview. Moving it out of the application bundle means that after the next update, you will likely end up with one QL plug-in in the app bundle (where it belongs as it was where the developer put it) and in whatever /Library you put it in. You'll forget that you did that in the week/months from now and will spend a lot of time pulling your hair our wondering why you are not getting the new functionality you were expecting.

Cheers,

rcomeau

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I see, although this is new for me as usually the OS just looked at ? and then ~ for these sorts of plug-ins in past iterations. Of course QL and 10.5 are whole new beasts.

I will toss my QL and SL plug ins right before the next update seeing what a hassle it is to make the app recognize them properly since the installer is not quite refined yet.

Thanks for the explanation.

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  • 5 months later...

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