Detailed instructions for a new background image from scratch

• On the Manage Customization Package tab of Discovery > View Configuration, you can download a copy of your current Primo customization folder.
• Inside this folder, the homepage image needs to be placed in the assets > homepage folder and must be named homepage_background.svg to work properly.

Creating the background image

• To create the SVG, we started with a digital photograph of our library. In Photoshop, we then...
  1. Reduced the image size to 1400px across
  2. Cropped the height to match the sample image ratio.
  3. Played with the Photoshop filters to give it a painterly look.
  4. Saved the resulting image as a .png file
  5. Opened the image in Illustrator where I was able to export it as an SVG file. I checked the minimize checkbox when saving to reduce load time.
  6. My first attempt took too long to load so that's when I reduced the image size to 1400px. I'm still not quite happy with the load time, but it's a lot better than what it was.
  7. Placed the image in the homepage folder and renamed it homepage_background.svg to match the required file name.

Uploading customization file

• Compress the entire view folder
  1. If you're on Windows, use 7-Zip
  2. If you're on a Mac, you'll likely need to compress it with a command line prompt. Substitute your view code in for mine here...
  3. zip -r 01OHIOLINK_MU-MU_NDE26.zip 01OHIOLINK_MU-MU_NDE26 -x "*.DS_Store"
  4. This command is needed to delete the hidden .DS_Store files Mac automatically includes in all folders.
  5. If these files are not deleted before zip compression, Primo will be unable to process the customizataion package and the upload will fail.
• Upload the resulting zip file and you'll ideally see a prompt that it was successfully uploaded.
• Then hit the Save button at the top right to implement the new changes.

See the changes...

• Return to Primo and force-reload (shift-command-R or shift-control-R) your homepage to see if the new image kicks in.
• If it's not working, try the following in order...
  • Try a second force reload.
  • Try uploading and saving the config folder a second time. (Occasionally I've not had an upload not take, but no clue why).
  • Double check that the file name and file type are correct and that files are correctly formatted.
• Still not working?
  • Read the documentation for the umpteenth time and/or scream at the sky.
  • Seriously, after 2-3 tries, I'll often reach out to someone to see if they can see the issue I'm missing.
  • In one case, I saw an SVG that missized to 140px across instead of 1400px across so it did not appear. A new attempt at creating the SVG at 1400px succeeded and the background image appeared.