The General tab of the Helper Configure menu is where you'll spend the most of your time when adjusting settings for your event. Follow along below to review the settings available on the General tab of PPU Helper.
Network Location: This will display your network location. If you click on the link that is displayed, a browser should open stating "Service - Endpoint not found." This means your system is not detecting a firewall (that's good). It looks like this in Google Chrome:
If it says "Cannot find..." or "This site can't be reached..." that means a firewall is enabled and you should verify your firewall settings.
Selected Event: This will display the current event that is selected. If the wrong event is displayed, select the correct event from the drop down list. If your event is not displayed on the list, hit Refresh Events and the Helper will download any missing event settings from the Event Manager. Any time you make changes to your event at login.photopartyupload.com, you need hit Refresh Events to update Helper.
Refresh Events: This will update Helper to reflect all the current events and settings configured on Event Manager.
Selected RFID station: Here you can choose an RFID station (if configured within your event).
Printer
This section lets you choose the printer(s) you would like to use
Select your printer from the list of printers in the box on the left. If you do not see your printer listed, click Refresh Printers for Helper to detect any printers on your computer. If you're still having issues detecting your printer, make sure it is turned on, plugged into the PC, and you have installed any necessary drivers for the printer.
Log Printer Jobs: This will log any prints made by PPU over the course of your event.
Crop to Page Size: This will crop your image to fit the selected paper size in your printer.
Page Margin (inches): You can adjust the page margin (in inches) by adjusting the left, top, right, and bottom values.
Watched Folders
The Watched Folder is what the Helper looks at to find the media you want to share. This section will display the name of the folder, as well as a link to the folder path. Click Change Watched Folder to change the folder you wish Helper to view. Make sure whatever folder you select matches the Output Folder set in the Preferences tab of PBU settings. Changing the Output Folder in PBU will automatically change the Watched Folder in the Helper.
Click Add watched folder to add additional watched folders.
Include Subfolders: Checking the box to enable this option will make it so that the content of any custom subfolders inside the Watched Folder will appear in any Kiosk applications that are connected to this Helper. This does not include automatically generated subfolders, such as the Originals, thumbs, or faces folders.
Logs, DB Folder, and Auto Printing
This section shows a link to the folder with your Helper logs. If errors occur, the LA Photo Party Tech Support team may need to inspect the Helper logs. Click the link under Click to open folder with your logs and you'll see a list of folders with dates. Find the folder that corresponds with the date of the event in question, and send it to us in a zip file with as much information as possible.
Click to change folder: This will change the file path of where your Helper logs are being stored.
Click to open DB Folder: Generally you will not have to worry about this link, however, sometimes Tech Support team will need to investigate the DB folder.
START upload photos in watched folder to fan page: If enabled in your event, this button will start uploading all photos and videos in the watched folder to your Facebook Fan Page album.
START upload photos in watched folder to SmugMug gallery: If enabled in your event, this button will start uploading all photo, videos, and GIFs in the watched folder to your SmugMug gallery.
START Auto-Printing: Click this button to enable or disable auto printing. Adjust the number of copies to print if so desired.
The green START buttons will become red STOP buttons when they are clicked. If the button is red that means it's doing its thing!
Check for updates at startup: With this enabled, Helper will check for any available updates when it starts up. We recommend leaving this on to receive the newest features and bug fixes.
Congrats! You're now familiar with the General tab of Helper.