Live Preview Products | Troubleshooting Common Problems

Live Preview Products | Troubleshooting Common Problems



Overview

This article is designed to help troubleshoot some common problems related to product setup and configuration

Errors

  1. If you are using a distributed Smartlink, any product changes can take up to 4 hours to re-cache fully across the CDN, use Print Test to check how the product currently functions
  2. There may be a problem with the font, try switching fonts and see if the problem persists
  3. Check there isn't an unused Aspect (empty with no options) set on the product and if there is, delete it
  4. A common reason for this is orphan image or text areas that aren't assigned to a print area, or a print area that isn't assigned to an aspect etc etc.
  5. An aspect option that was assigned to a print area has been deleted, re-assign the print area to an available aspect option


  1. Check to see if the product has been Disabled. Click the 'Enable' contextual action button to re-enable it
  2. This error is also caused when trying to load a product that was originally created as a Stock product that was subsequently turned into a live preview product which is not possible.  The product should be created from scratch as a live preview product in the Platform


Product Duplication Error: Aspect option mapping failed


There is a Print area on the product that is referencing an aspect option which has been deleted

Connect the Print area to the correct aspect option or remove it before attempting to duplicate the product

Product Duplication Error: Aspect mapping failed


This is usually caused by variants referencing Aspects or Aspect options that have been deleted

Either reconnect or delete the broken variants before attempting to duplicate the product

Invalid layout configuration specified


This error can occur when trying to use the place order function with a product that has an invalid app configuration specified in the App defaults section of the product

Please note the the value 'default' should not be set here if no configuration is necessary, simply leave the default app config field empty

Create Products

When creating a Virtual product the choose colours option is unavailable to me at the review stage


This option is hidden if the number of aspect options is not the same for all Aspects.  Check to make sure you have the same number of aspect options (colours) for each Aspect and also that you do not have any additional Aspects which do not relate to the product colours.

Aspects

My aspect preview image is not being accepted by the system


Aspect images must always be square, CPP will reject non-square images

Aspect images must be jpeg or png format

Aspect images must be less than 1mb in size (you should make them as low as possible for performance reasons, ideally under 200kb)


My aspect mask is not working


Aspect masks must be black (visible area) on transparent

Black and White images will not work as all pixels are opaque

I have multiple Aspects with options for colours but they do not synchronise


The colours must have either the exact same Name or SKU (note both are case sensitive) to synchronise correctly in the app

My print output won't generate


There is a maximum limit on print dimensions of 1000 x 1000mm @ 300 dpi, if you need larger dimensions you must reduce the resolution / dpi accordingly

My artwork is coming out the wrong colour


Artwork added to Print Areas must be RGB format, CYMK files undergo a conversion to RGB during the print file generation process which can result in a colour shift

We recommend colour management is performed using RIP software wherever possible

How can I output my files on a transparent background?


Go to the Print Area, open the Options (Advanced) roll-out menu and enable the 'Use Transparent Fill' option

Note this option only works for png output as jpeg/pdf outputs do not support transparency

If you are uploading an artwork file for a design, ensure the file itself is saved in png format with a transparent background

I have 'apply color' enabled on my Print area but the colour is not being output


Colour output will only generate if there is no Artwork file set on the print area, the system will only accept one or the other and the presence of an artwork file overrides background colour

If you require both, here are some suggestions:

Add your artwork using an image placeholder instead that is set to 'use in artwork'. You can disable interaction to prevent the user moving, rotating or scaling the image

Use a Print Layout to combine the output of two separate print areas, one for the Image and the other for the Colour

Image Areas

I upload an image but nothing shows in the preview when I print test


Check your image area is connected to a print area and set within the print area boundary

Check your aspect mask is covering the area with the image and is not transparent in this location (this would mean personalisation is hidden in that area)

My image area mask is causing my images to not be displayed correctly


Image area masks should be relative to the image area shape and not the print area (unless the two are the same)


My artwork requires angled image areas, how can I set these up correctly?


There are two methods to achieve this result, one through the use of image placeholders to create a border, the other method uses image areas masks



The solution is to create a blank image gallery with nothing in it and link this to the image area(s) which should not display an image gallery


Add the gallery to the image area, turn off Allow move, Allow Rotate, Allow Resize options and lastly enable the 'Gallery only' option

I am using a placeholder image but it is not appearing in the print output


Ensure that the Placeholder image is set to Use in Artwork otherwise the placeholder will only display in the app preview


This issue can occur when the change in state of the gallery has not been correctly received by the distribution.  Please make sure you have allowed sufficient time for any distributed Smartlink to update first (this can take up to four hours).

To manually re-trigger the gallery information being sent to the distribution, try making a modification to force the changes through (eg; add a space to the gallery name, save, then remove the space and save again). 

Once the distribution has re-cached the deleted image should no longer be visible in the gallery.

Text Areas

My text is not visible in the preview

  1. Check your text area is connected to a print area and set within the print area boundary
  2. Check the aspect mask is not hiding the area the text area is placed in
  3. Make sure that if you are using a text boundary that the text position is set inside the boundary, if it is outside it will not display as the boundary will hide any text outside of it
  4. Make sure you have not disabled fill and stroke on the text area and made it invisible
  5. If using Text Shuffle then it could be because it has ASCII validation enabled.  There should be no validation on this text area as there is no interaction by the user with it

My text area is set to use Autofit but the text does not get smaller when I preview in the app / print test.


Make sure you have defined a text boundary on the text area and that the width and height are not set to 0

Make sure the text area is not set to multi-line, auto-fit is a single line only feature

Check with a different font to make sure it's not an issue with the font file

Make sure you don't have a character limit enforced which is preventing the text from resizing (try setting to 0 to remove the limit and see if text resizes normally)

What fonts are available in the platform?


A list of publicly available Google fonts for use with 2d and 3d Products can be accessed in the Text Area > Formatting rollout either by setting the default font or creating a font set.  Simply change the source drop-down to 'Google'.  There are currently nearly 400 Google fonts available for free use

How can I add my own fonts to the platform for use with my products?


Customers are currently not able to add their own fonts (though we expect this to change with future releases of the platform)

In the meantime please use our support portal with a request for a font installation https://support.custom-gateway.com/portal/en/home

Please note that there will be a cost incurred for the addition of a large number of fonts.

Variants

Problems can arise with products featuring Variants when Print Sizes, Aspect Options or Attributes referenced by an individual Variant are deleted but the Variant itself remains on the product.

In the platform it may appear as though the Variant has defaulted to the next available option but this is misleading. The Variant will in fact still be referencing the deleted option. To correct this, remove the connected Variant option (print size, aspect option or attribute), Save and then re-add the Variant option and save again.

Left unresolved this issue can result in problems with product publishing and thumbnail generation. There is also an associated issue in that products with outdated variant connections return an error, more details below.

A mapping error when duplicating a product is because there is a variant on the Blank product that is referencing either an aspect option, an attribute or a print size that has been deleted.

If the user does not own the Blank product they will need to contact the Fulfiller and notify them that there is an issue with the Variants tied to the Blank.

If the user does own the Blank product, they can export the variants and compare the columns shown below and search for discrepancies.
  1. variant.aspect_option_1_id or variant.aspect_option_1_name
  2. variant.aspect_option_2_id or variant.aspect_option_2_name
  3. variant.print_size_id
  4. variant.attribute_1_id
  5. variant.attribute_2_id
For instance, if in the Variants export the same Variant size (eg: XL) is referencing two different print size IDs, this would suggest one is incorrect and the variant needs to be updated to point to the correct ID.

This can be done either manually in the platform by re-selecting the print size for that specific variant and saving the product, or it can be done by using the Variants import and ensuring the correct print size ID is specified for all XL sizes..

Aspect Mapping Failed


This error is caused by variants referencing Aspects or Aspect options that have been deleted

Verify that the Aspect options currently set on the product are those that are referenced by the Variants for both Aspect 1 and Aspect 2 (a Variant export will reveal if any deleted aspect options are being referenced)

Attribute Mapping Failed


This error is caused by variants referencing Attributes that have been deleted from the product

Verify that the Attributes currently set on the product are those that are referenced by the Variants


This error is caused by variants referencing Print Sizes that have been deleted

Verify that the Print Sizes currently set on the product are those that are referenced by the Variants


Real-time Variant Stock Checking


Some apps (ie: Disney) support real-time stock checking whereby they have the ability to check the inventory value for stock products tied to the Blank product's variants.

When a specific size and colour combination is unavailable due to 0 inventory, the size option in the app becomes unavailable for selection.

Note that Place Order does not currently support this functionality.