'Importing' list of cinemas from one computer to another

[rtX]

My understanding is that the list of cinema certificates is stored in the cinemas.xml file, found in the C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\dcpomatic2 sub folder on Windows 11. I want to use the cinemas.xml and config.xml file from another computer so that I have a backup machine for KDM generation, if necessary. I've replaced the cinemas.xml file in the C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\dcpomatic2 directory, and have put the config.xml file in the C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\dcpomatic2\2.16 folder. When I run KDM Creator 2, it seems to pick up the config.xml file but the cinemas from the cinemas.xml file do not appear in the cinemas window.

Is there something I am doing wrong? I wonder if it may be down to the order in which I do things, as I've noticed that after installation the 2.16 folder is not created until after installation I actually run dcp-o-matic, and that if I put the config.xml file in the C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\dcpomatic2 directory, dcp-o-matic seems to copy it to the C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\dcpomatic2\2.16 folder leaving the original in the directory one level higher.

Any suggestions as to possible cause or workarounds etc. gratefully received.

dcp-o-matic KDM Creator 2 (2.16.13)
dcp-o-matic 2 (2.16.13)

[Carsten]

The cinemas.xml file is in the '2\' folder, the config.xml in the 2\2.16\ folder. I suggest you first start up a fresh installation of 2.16, then quit it and copy the files where they need to be. Note that the GUI Prefs also allow you to set specific file locations for these two files. Some people copy config.xml and cinemas.xml to e.g. a dropbox or network path and then share it automatically between different machines.


The 2.16 subfolder was created to prevent possible complications in the course of the 2.14->2.15->2.16 development. When 2.16 starts up, it will look for a config file in the 2\2.16\ folder. If it isn't there, it looks for a config file in the 2\ folder, and, if present, copies it to the \2\2.16\ folder and uses it. That way, 2.14 (or lower) and 2.16 each can have their own config files. The cinemas.xml file has little conflict potential, so it is used by both versions.

[rtX]

Many thanks, I'll try this. Using the prefs to change the location is a good idea and I'll do that, too.

[rtX]

I've used a synchronising service (Sync, not Dropbox - both work by synchronising to a local folder) to enable automatic update. I've got the cinemas.xml file to come up in KDM Creator. All okay in that regard.

I'm now struggling to get DoM on the back up machine to be a clone of the original machine. By that I mean that the list of DKDMs (within KDM Creator) available on the main machine is not transferring to the clone automatically. I'm careful to have KDM Creator running on only one of the machines at a time. I have used the Pref GUI to 'point' KDM Creator to the config.xml file in the synchronised directory on both the original and the clone. The config and cinemas files have both synchronised to the local directories on both machines, but on starting KDM Creator, the window where the DKDMs usually appear is not populated.

I'm wondering if there is a third xml file that has the DKDM information or if there's something I am not getting right here?

TIA.

[carl]

I think that should work. Are there some <DKDM> tags in the config.xml that you are using?

[rtX]

There are definitely <DKDM> tags in the synchronised config.xml file.

[Carsten]

And where is that config.xml file on those two machines? In the original 2\2.16 folder?

Because, if you use a copy of the config file, you need to make sure it uses the same path. If you relocate the config.xml from the original location using the GUI prefs, the new location has to use the exact same path, like c:/dcpomatic.

I probably have to re-check it myself, but as far as I remember, if you choose a different config.xml location, there will be a config.xml at the default location, 2\2.16, and there is a pointer in that file to the config.xml, that actually will be used.

So, you may check this. e.g. in my case, the config.xml in 2\2.16 only contains the actual config.xml location:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Config>
<Link>/Users/myname/Desktop/config.xml</Link>
</Config>


If that config.xml is shared between two machines, BOTH machines need to have the actual config.xml in that exact same path.

[rtX]

@Carsten. Thank you for the help on this.

My config.xml file in the 2.16 directory has a link to where the shared config.xml file is located. But the KDM Creator does not seem to pick up the DKDMs in that config.xml file? The two machines have different User IDs for the Windows login to access DoM. I can see paths in each of the xml files to various other xml files. Because some of these exist in the Users directory structure, the two different user names are in those paths.

May I make a suggestion?

Rather than the proliferation of config.xml files (one in the main DoM data directory, one in the 2.16 sub directory and one on the third location (a shared folder in my case)), might it be better to retain the config.xml file in the main DoM data directory (for backwards compatibility with earlier DoM versions, but which could be deleted when redundant), and have a preferences.xml file in the version (2.16, in this case) folder, which simply contains the paths and potentially filenames to individual files like config and cinemas? Like what happens now but have any paths DoM requires to xml files in there, too. The actual config file would contain the sort of information it currently contains but without paths etc. This would mean that the version directory data for different versions could point to a single config file or separate config files, for example, and would mean that if the file is shared over multiple computers, the directory structure does not have to be identical on the separate machines. But importantly the machine identity etc could easily be cloned in the same way as the cinemas.xml file is.

Many thanks again.