INFO: Why Files are Renamed in the DATA Folder

[Support]

INFO: Why Files are Renamed in the DATA Folder

Document ID: IR04032

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The information in this article applies to:

• AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0
• AutoPlay Menu Studio 3.0

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SUMMARY

This article provides information as to why files are renamed in the DATA folder in AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0.

DISCUSSION

In AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0 files that you reference will fall into two groups, internal files or external files. Internal files are files that your AutoPlay application accesses as internal references. An internal reference is a path that points to where the file will be at build time. We call it an "internal" reference because AutoPlay Media Studio will build a copy of the file right into your AutoPlay application.

When you build your AutoPlay Application, all internal references are built into the DATA folder. When files are built into the DATA folder their names will generally be changed to match the form: "MENUXX.XXX". For example: "Menu3.dah" or "Menu2.brl".

There are basically two reasons why internal files are renamed when they are built into the DATA folder.

The first is because it makes the files a bit less accessible to the user. For example if you had a Flash file (MyFlash.swf) that was an internal reference but was not renamed when it was built into the DATA folder, your end users would be look in the DATA folder and see that there was a flash file named MyFlash.swf. But since AutoPlay renames the file to something like "Menu2.dav" it becomes a bit more difficult for the average user to find the flash file.

Renaming internal files also helps avoid naming conflicts. For example, you internally reference two separate images named "Background.jpg". Even though they are different files, since they have the same name they cannot exist in the same directory. So AutoPlay renames the files to something like: "Menu1.bah" and "Menu2.bah". Now the two files will be able to exist in the DAT folder without any naming conflicts occurring.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information please see the following topics in the AutoPlay Media Studio 4.0 help file: