When Admin users log into Asset Bank they see a number of additional menu items that allow them to configure and manage the application. This document explains the extra pages that are available to admin users and how to go about using them.

1. Users
2. Groups
3. Content
4. Export / Reimport
5. Reports
6. Download Options
7. Categories
8. Attributes
9. Publishing
10. System
11. Optional Functionality
12. Ecommerce

Users

As an admin user you have the ability to manage other user accounts within the system via the Manage Users page. To get to the Manage Users page, click on the 'Users' link in the Admin section of the main navigation.

On the Manage Users page you are presented with a search form so you can find the users that you want to manage.  If you want to see all the users in the system then simply click the 'Find' button without filling in any of the fields. You can also use the 4 tick boxes to search users via a certain criteria.

• Hidden/inactive – This tick box allows you to search for users who have been marked as hidden (via the individual user edit page) and whose accounts are not active (i.e. they can no longer log in).
• Unapproved – This tick box allows you to search for users who have registered for a user account, but have not yet been approved.
• Expired – This tick box allows you to search for users who had an expiry date set on their account, which has subsequently passed (i.e. their account has now expired).
• Admin user – This tick box allows you to search for admin users (selecting this on its own and then clicking 'Find Users' will return a list of all admin users).
  

Once you have searched and found a list of users, there are a number of actions you can perform.

• [edit] -  Edit the users details (e.g. update a telephone number).
• [reset password] - Create a new password for the user any optionally notify him/her by email.
• [message] - Takes you to the Message Users page, with this users name already filled in.
• [login as this user] - This allows you to quickly login as a particular user, to enable you to quickly troubleshoot for example. Note, you will then see a link at the top of the page that allows you to return to your admin account.
• [X] - This will permanently remove the user from Asset Bank, and delete any information associated with that user.

Exporting Users

Once you have searched and found a list of users, you can then export the details of these users by clicking the 'Export users' link. The system will then automatically create a tab delimited file and present you with a link to download it.

 

Adding New Users

If you click the 'Add a new user link' toward the bottom of the Manage Users page, then you will be taken to the Add User page. Here you can enter the details of the new user, define their password, specify whether or not they are an admin user, and select what user group(s) they belong to.

When adding new admin users, you can also decide whether they will receive system alerts, for example when a user requests approval, or sends a message from the Contact Us page. Simply tick the box labelled ‘Receives alerts'.

Importing users in bulk

You can also add users to the system in bulk by clicking the 'Import users' link on the Manage Users page. This takes you to the User Import page, which asks for a tab delimited file containing the details of the users with a heading row that identifies the values in each column. 

Approving New Users

By default, Asset Bank is configured so that new users who register in the application have to be approved before they can log in. If this is not required, the need for approval can be turned off by setting users-can-register-without-approval to false. If approval is disabled, it is possible for admin users to be sent an email every time a new user registered, which is done by setting send-admin-user-reg-emails to true.

If approval is turned off, the user will receive an email confirming their registration, and can access Asset Bank straight away. If approval is enabled, admin users will receive an email alerting them to the registration. In both cases the emails that are sent can be customised in the Admin > Content area.

If users do require approval, this can be done from the Admin > Approve Users page. This page lists users who have registered and have not yet been approved, along with the date on which they registered and the organisation to which they belong if they entered one during registration

Click on the ‘view' link next to a user to view the Approve User page.

Approve User

This page allows you to approve or reject users who have registered with Asset Bank but have not yet been approved or rejected. You can set the user's permissions by choosing access levels for them, and optionally set their expiry date, after which they will no longer be able to log in.

You can also choose to send the user an email to inform them of their approval or rejection. (Note that you can control the default value of this option by setting notify-user-on-update-default to true or false.)

If you do sent the user an email during approval, you can choose to have Asset Bank generate a password for them which will be included in the email. If not, you will have to enter a password for the user yourself.

If sending an email, you may also include a personal message to the user that will be included at the bottom of the email.

Once you choose to approve the user they will be able to log in; rejected users will not, and wil be removed from the list of unapproved users.

 

Messaging Users

The Message Users tab allows you to compose an email to send out to either entire user groups or individual users.

Once you have written your email and selected who to send it to, click the Preview button to check your email before sending it.

If you are not happy with how your email looks then you can go back and re-edit it by clicking the 'Back' button. Once you are happy, click 'Send' to send it.

User Fields

The User Fields tab allows you to configure the fields that a new user is asked to complete on the registration page:

To add a new user field you need to specify the following:

• Field Name - This will be displayed as the label for the field.
• Field Type - You can choose between  a simple texfield, a textarea, a dropdown list or a checkbox list.
• Required - Tick this box if you want the user to have to enter something for this field before they can register.
• External user registration - Tick this box if you wish to allow external users to register, doing so will create an external user form and a link on the log in screen to allow external users to reach it.
• Show on Profile Page: Tick this box if you wish to allow users to see and edit this field through "Your Profile" page. This will not prevent the field from showing on the registration page though.

If you create a dropdown list or a checkbox list, then you will need to provide a set of values for the user to choose from. To do this, click the 'edit field values' link next to your newly created user field. This takes you to the User Field Values page where you can enter your values one at a time.

 

Hiding default fields on Users' profile page

You can also hide some of the default user fields editing the ApplicationSettings.properties file (you will need to restart Tomcat to apply the changes).
Those fields are:

• Forename
  setting name: show-forename-on-profile
• Surname
  setting name: show-surname-on-profile
• Organisation
  setting name: show-organisation-on-profile
• Address
  setting name: show-address-on-profile
• Receive Alerts (checkbox)
  setting name: show-receive-alerts-on-profile

Note: these fields will be always visible on registration page.

Importing Users

Users can be imported via a tab-delimited file. This functionality can be accessed via the Import users link at the bottom of the Users page in the Admin section. The User Import page contains instructions on how to use this functionality.

---

Groups

One of the more sophisticated features of Asset Bank is its concept of user groups and permissions. The idea is that you can set up groups of users in the system and define a number of permissions rules and other settings specifically for that group.

One of the most powerful elements of this is using Access Levels to define permissions. For example you could define a user group that is allowed to both upload and download assets in the system intended for internal members of staff in your organisation. Additionally you can create a user group that can only view assets in the system (i.e. they have no download or upload permissions), which could be intended for external clients or members of the public. 

 The scope of this functionality goes further, you can define which categories a user group can edit and also which attributes a user can see against the asset.

Working with Groups

To view the Groups page, click on the 'Groups' link in the Admin menu.

Every Asset Bank starts by default with two groups already set up:

• *Logged-in users - Any user that logs into the application falls into this group, be they an admin user or normal user. 
• *Public - Any user on the site whether they are logged in or not falls into this group. So if a user has logged in he will be in both the *Public group and the *Logged-in users group.

These default groups are displayed with an asterix to indicate that they are special system groups that cannot be deleted.

Adding new groups

Click 'Add a group' to add a new group. This will take you to the Add Group page where you can specify the properties of your new group.

 

• Name (required field) - the name of your new group.
• Description - a short description of your new group. 
• Maximum daily downloads - specify how many downloads users within this group are allowed per day (leave this blank or set to 0 for unlimited daily downloads).
• Max download height - specify the maximum height of an image that users in this group are allowed to download (leave blank for unlimited).
  
• Max download width - specify the maximum width of an image that users in this group are allowed to download (leave blank for unlimited).
• Users can email assets - if ticked, users in this group will get the option to send assets as an email when downloading.
• Users can view larger size - if ticked, users will see the 'view larger size' or 'view full size' links when viewing the detail page of an image.
• Editors can only edit their own files -if ticked, users with edit permissions are restricted to only editing assets that they have uploaded to the system themselves.
• IP Mappings - if you enter one or more IP addresses in here then any user accessing the system who is coming from one of these IP addresses will automatically inherit the permissions of this group without having to log in. A common use for this is specifying your own companys IP address so that your employees will have the same permissions and access to the same assets of, say, the *Logged-in Users group without having to actually log in.
  
• Advanced viewing of unnapproved assets - If the advanced-viewing-enabled setting is true then this option will allow members of this group to see unnapproved assets that have also been ticked as 'advanced viewing' (still subject to the permissions of the access levels that the asset is in).

If your Asset Bank is configured to integrate with an LDAP server then you can enter the DN (Distinguished Name) of an LDAP group. When a new user is added to Asset Bank from the LDAP server then, if that user is a member of an LDAP group that is specified in one of Asset Bank's groups then the user will be added to the Asset Bank group automatically.

Once you have added the new group it will show in the list of groups on the Groups page. Alongside it will be a list of possible actions you can perform::

• Edit - rename  the group or change some of its basic settings.
• Access Levels - configure access permissions for this group.
• Categories - specify what categories users can edit.
• Attribute Exclusions - exclude access to assets depending on their attributes.
• Attribute Visibility - control which attributes are visible for users in the current group.
• Filter Exclusions -
  
• Usage Exclusions - select usage types that will not be visible to users in this group.
  
• Remove all users - clicking this will remove all users from the group. Note: this will only disassociate the users from this group it will not remove them from the system.
  

 

 

Access Levels

Access Levels are similar to categories, and can be used to categorise assets. There is an important difference between categories and Access Levels: you can set permissions for user groups on Access Levels. This enables you to restrict assets, so that they are visible to some users but not others, and to specify the upload permissions that users have, e.g. to allow some users to upload assets while others can only download.

Access levels work in conjunction with groups - each group has a certain permission level for each of the access levels.

Admin users can maintain and edit Access Levels through the admin menu:

By default there is just one access level - called 'Universal'. You may not need to create any more - one access level might be enough for your needs. For example, you may want to give the group 'Logged in users' download permission 3 for the access level 'Universal'. This means that standard users that have logged in can download any asset (note: for more detailed information on group permissions, click here ). If you then create a group called 'Uploaders', you can set this group to have upload permission 2 on the access level 'Universal'. Any users that you then add to the 'Uploaders' group will be able to upload and edit all assets.

Once you have more than one access level in the system an admin user (and any other user that has upload permission on more than one access level) has to choose which access levels to add a new asset to when they upload it. For example, you might want to create a new access level called 'Managers Only'. If you choose to add an asset to 'Managers Only', and not to 'Universal' then it will be visible only to users that are in a group that has permission to see the access level 'Managers Only'.

Each Access Level can have the following options set:

Selected on load
When this option is selected, the acces level will automatically be selected when someone uploads an asset into Asset Bank.

Is Browsable
This option (which is selected by default when a new access elevel is added) dictates whether an Access Level can be browsed from the Browse menu.]

Always Assignable?
If this option is selected the access level can be assigned to assets even if the access level has sub-access levels. By default it is not selected, meaning that an access level can only be selected for an asset when it has no children.

Image
Like categories, access levels can be assigned images that will appear on the homepage and in the Browse view.

If an access level is not at the top-level (i.e. it was added as 'child' of an existing access level) there will be an addition option:

Has Own Permissions
This option dictates whether an access level can have its own set of permissions for each user group (set via the menu option Admin->Groups->Access Level Permissions). If the option is not selected, the access level will have the same group permissions as its 'parent' access level. This will also mean that, if the access level has sub-access levels (children), these cannot have their own permissions.

Extended Access Levels

If the category-extension-assets-enabled setting is true in your Asset Bank's ApplicationSettings.properties file then you will be given the option of creating extended access levels on the add new access level form. For a description of how extended access levels will behave, please refer to the 'Categories > Extended Categories ' section of the admin user help. 

Setting Access Levels

From the Groups page, click the 'access levels' link next to one of the groups to view and modify the access levels for that group.

 

This takes you to an Edit Group page displaying the current permissions configuration that group relating to all access levels in the system.

Note: memebers or more than one group will inherit the most open permissions of each. As all registered users are members of the '*Logged In Users' Group, they will all inherit these permissions by default.

The various permissions you can set are defined as follows:

Download Permissions:

• 0 = None: users in this group cannot view assets marked with this Access Level, unless the assets are also marked with an an Access Level that the user does have permission to see.

• 1 = View: users in this group can see assets marked with this access level. They cannot download, add or edit assets marked with this access level.

• 2 = Download after approval: users in this group can request approval to download assets marked with this access level. If approval is granted, by an admin user or approver user, they can then download the assets.

• 3 = Download: users in this group can download assets marked with this access level without requesting permission.

• 4 = Approve downloads: users in this group will be able to approve downloads for assets in the relevant access level that it is ticked for. If these users also have 'Recieves Alerts' ticked in their profile, then they will receive an email alert when approval is needed. Note, if you do not have any groups configured to approve uploads or downloads then Admin users will fulfill this role. If you set up a group to handle this, then Admin users will not be notifed via email.

Upload Permissions:

• 1 = Upload (requires approval): users in this group can add assets to this Access Level, however the items have to be checked and approved by an admin or approver user before they are visible to non-admin users.

• 2 = Upload (without approval): users in this group can upload assets to this Access Level, without the need for approval, i.e. the asset will be live immediately.

• 3 = Edit (requires approval): users in this group can edit (but not delete) assets in this Access Level. This creates a new version that needs to be approved by the relevant admin or approver user before it replaces the existing asset.

• 4 = Edit (without approval): users in this group can edit (but not delete) assets in this Access Level without the need for approval.

• 5 = Delete: users in this group can delete assets marked with Access Level.

• 6 = Upload, Edit, Delete, Approve: users in this group can upload, edit and delete without the need for approval. They can also approve assets that have been uploaded, edited or have been requested for download (for this Access Level). This permission is useful if you want to have users that can approve assets but to whom you do not want to grant full administrator rights.

Advanced Permissions:

• 1 = Advanced download: if this is checked then users in this group will see the ‘Advanced Download' tab. This includes the ability to download a copy of the original file, re-size or crop before download. Uncheck this if you want to hide this tab from users in this group, for example if you want them to be able to download only predefined sizes from the ‘Quick Download' tab.

• 2 = Download originals: if this is checked then users in this group will see the ‘Download original' button on the Download page, i.e. they will be able to download a cop y of the original source file. By default this should be set for groups who have download permissions.

• 3 = Requires approval for high-res: if this is checked the users in this group will require permission from an admin user before they can download a high resolution version of the asset (assuming the asset is an image). 

Example, Logged in Users Group

In the example below, there are 3 access levels in the system: 'Universal', 'Restricted' and 'Free':

Lets say we want any assets in the 'Free' access level (highlighted) to be downloadable by any logged in user. To achieve this we simply set the download permission for that access level to 3. We don't however want logged in users to be able to upload assets to this access level so we do not tick any Upload Permissions. We have also ticked Advanced Permission Key 1 and 2 as we want to give these users the freedom to download a copy of the original file and to be able to use the Advanced Download options.

Opening your Asset Bank up to the public

Another example is when you want users to be able to access your Asset Bank without having to register and log in. To achieve this you need to change the download permissions of the special *Public group:

If you make sure that for the *Public group there is permission to view (i.e. permission 1) at least one access level then users coming to the site will see the home page without having to log in. You cannot set upload permissions for the *Public group because a user must be registered to be able to add an asset to the system.

 

 

 

Categories

Clicking the 'categories' link next to a group takes you to the Edit Group Categories page:

Here you can specify which categories users in this group can edit. When ticked, users in this group will be able to add and edit sub-categories of the selected category (ie. they will not be able to edit or delete the category itself). 

Once a user group has permission to edit a category, users in this group will see an Admin section in the left hand menu containing a link to the Categories admin page:

 

Attribute Exclusions

Clicking the 'attribute exclusions' link next to a group will take you to the Group Attribute Exclusions page. Here you are able to exclude access to certain assets based on the attribute values of that asset.

For an attribute to show up on this page, it must be a dropdown list.

On the Group Attribute Exclusions page you will see a list of qualifying attributes and their potential values. Put a tick next to each value for which you would like the asset to be  invisible to users in this group. For example, most Asset Banks will contain a dropdown list attribute called Active Status. This has the potential values: 'Inactive', 'Active' and 'Expired'. If we only want assets with this attribute set to 'Active' to be visible to users in the current group then we would put a tick next to 'Inactive' and 'Expired'.

 

Attribute Visibility

Clicking the 'attribute visibility' link next to a group will take you to the Group Attribute Visibility page. Here you can specify which of your attributes are visible to users within the current group.

There are 3 choices available for each attribute: 'Not visible', 'Visible when viewing', and 'Visible when editing and viewing'.

So it is simply a case of going through each of your attributes and selecting if and when they are visible to users in the current group.

 

Filter Exclusions

The Group Filter Exclusions page enables you to exclude certain filters from being accessible for users in the group.

Simply select which filters you do not want to be visible to members of the current group. Read more about Filters.

Usage Exclusions

If you click the 'usage exclusions' link next to a group you are taken to the Group Usage Exclusions page.

This page enables you to select Usage types from a check box that will not be visible to members of the current group. This means when a user in the current group is downloading an asset, they will not see any usage types in the 'Usage Type' dropdown that have been ticked on this page. Read more about Usage types

Importing Groups

Groups can be imported via a tab-delimited file. This functionality can be accessed via the Import groups link at the bottom of the Groups page in the Admin section. The Group Import page contains instructions on how to use this functionality.

---

Content

Managing Content allows you to manage the text that users see on your version of Asset Bank. This includes information text on the pages and the text against headings and the actions users can take. You can also adjust the text on some of the background information such as Terms and Conditions.

Most of the content shown on the pages of Asset Bank can be changed by an admin user from the Content page. To get to this page click Admin->Content.

In this area, admin users can manage featured images and customise the copy on pages throughout the application.

Edit mode

The easiest way to edit content is to simply click the 'Turn edit mode on' button. This will append a small edit icon to any content on any of the pages in your application that is editable. You can still navigate around the application as usual, and to edit a piece of content simply click the edit icon next to or below it.

Clicking any of the edit icons will take you to an edit page. For example if you click on the edit icon for the main section of copy on the home page you will end up on a page like this:

The edit page gives you the title and a short summary of the content you are about to change and a rich text editor for updating the content. When you have finished editing the content click 'Save' to save your changes and go back to the page you were on when you clicked an edit icon. Alternatively, click 'Cancel' if you don't want to save your changes.

To turn edit mode off, navigate back to the Admin > Content page and click the 'Turn edit mode off' button.

Content Areas

You can also edit items by navigating through the content areas on the Content page. Content items are organised by areas according to the type of content they represent. For example, the 'Menu copy' area contains all the content items for the left-hand navigation menu.

Clicking 'edit' on any of the content area will take you to a full list of the content items in that area. Clicking edit next to a content item takes you to an edit page, where you can make your changes.

Email Templates

You can choose to 'hide' emails via: Admin > Content > Email templates and clicking on the [hide] link next to an email template. This will remove it from the main list of email templates. 

The 'View hidden templates' link at the bottom of this page will take you to a list of hidden email templates, where you can click on the [show] link to enable you to add such hidden templates back in, should you need them at a later date.

The "Change the 'from' address for all email templates" link allows you to make a global change to the ‘from’ address of all template emails. Alternatively you can [edit] individual templates to change this information on an email by email basis.

To turn off particular email notifications for all users/admins,  you will need to select the appropriate email template and click on the [edit] link. You will then see an 'Enabled?' tick box. Once un-ticked and saved, this will stop this particular type of notification being sent. 

Message Templates

Message Templates are similar to Email Templates but are used as templates to internally send messages to Asset Bank users rather than via email. Message Templates are split into groups:

 

Once a Message Template group is chosen, a list of Message templates is shown:

You can choose to 'hide' a Message Template by clicking on the [hide] link next to the template. This will remove it from the main list of templates. The 'View hidden templates' link at the bottom of this page will take you to a list of hidden templates, where you can click on the [show] link to enable you to add such hidden templates back in, should you need them at a later date.

To turn off particular message notifications for all users/admins,  you will need to select the appropriate template and click on the [edit] link. You will then see an 'Enabled?' tick box. Once un-ticked and saved, this will stop this particular type of notification being sent.

 

 

News

The News page allows you to add news articles to Asset Bank which are displayed on the home page. To get to the News page, click on the 'Content' link in the Admin menu, then click on the 'News' tab.

If you don't have any news articles yet, click 'Add news item' to create your first one. This will take you to the Edit News Item page where you can fill out a title,date and the content of your article:

If you don't want your article to appear on the home page yet leave the 'Published?' check box unchecked. Clicking 'Save' takes you back to the News page, where you can see your article has been added:

 

Featured Assets

Featured assets are the assets showcased in the upper-right hand corner of the Home Page. To see a list of all assets that have been flagged as ‘featured', click ‘edit' next to the label ‘Manage featured assets':

To remove an asset from the ‘featured' set, edit the asset details and untick the box ‘Is featured' on the Update Asset page.

To add any asset (image or video) to the ‘featured' set, search or browse for the desired asset, edit the asset details and check the checkbox ‘Is featured' on the Update Asset page.

If there are no assets in your featured asset set some text is shown. You can edit or remove the text by going to Admin - Content, selecting page copy then clicking [edit] next to 'Home Page featured asset placeholder'

Multi-language

Asset Bank allows you to provide alternative-language versions to your users. You can add as many additional languages as you need, including those using non-latin alphabets and those that read from right-to-left such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Providing a matching language has been added to Asset Bank, each user will be presented with the language that is chosen in their web browser. Additionally, users can choose to switch between languages, either in their user profile, or from links at the top of each page.

Enabling Multi Language

The multi-language functionality is enabled by setting the configuration option 'supportMultiLanguage' to 'true' in the application setting file. (Note that you will require an Enterprise license for this to take effect).

You are then able to see and maintain the list of supported languages by clicking on the Multi-Language tab in the Content area of the admin menu.

Adding Languages

Initially, Asset Bank is configured with just the default language (English) which is used in the admin pages, and thus cannot be removed.

Additional languages can be added by clicking the 'Add a new language' link, which will prompt you to enter some details about the new language.

Name
This is the English name for the language, which will be used in admin screens.

Native Name
This is the name of the language in that language, and will be displayed to users when choosing a language or adding a translation.

Code
This should be the 2-character ISO 639-1 code representing the language (see http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php).

Uses Latin Alphabet (also know as Roman Alpabet)
This indicates that the language is based on the Latin alphabet (e.g. like modern English). If this is set, keywords in this language will be organised by alphabetical grouping, otherwise grouping will not be used.

Right to Left
Should the language be displayed right-to-left.

Icon Filename
The links that switch between languages can optionally be displayed with an icon - typically a flag. If a filename is provided, a corresponding image file should be placed in \images\standard\languages within the Asset Bank installation directory. Note that Asset Bank comes with a small number of standard icons.

Activating / Deactivating Languages

When a new language is created it is initially 'suspended', meaning that it is only visible to admin users. Users who have the permission to upload assets will be able to enter translations for suspended languages, but they will not be able to switch Asset Bank to the suspended language unless they have admin rights.

A language can be activated for all users by clicking the 'yes' link in the Suspended column in the list of languages.

Activated languages can be suspended again by clicking the 'no' link in the Suspended column.

Editing the Default Language

By default the default language is English. It is not advisable to change the name and code of the default language to that of another language as you would then have to change all content items for this language (i.e. to translate them).

However, you might want to change the default language so that it does not actually represent a real language but instead holds the default translations for all the other (real) languages. See how to make your multi-language Asset Bank less English-centric

Deleting Languages

Languages can be deleted by clicking the delete link. Note that all translations entered for a language will be lost when it is deleted.

If you are planning on deleting a language that is currently activated, consider suspending it for a while first to allow any users currently using the language to exit the system.

Adding Translations

All publicly visible (i.e. non-admin) content in Asset Bank can be translated into the alternative languages added in the above process.

Translations for 'static' content can be entered in the Manage Content admin section in the same way as for the default language. Initially, the content items created for any alternative languages are the same as the English versions, but these can be replaced with translations as required.

Translations for attribute data (e.g. field labels), keywords and asset metadata can be entered in the same screens as the English language versions. For each translatable metadata field (i.e. those accepting text input) the input field will be repeated for each alternative language.

When editing attribute data, keywords or existing assets, the alternative language version of each field will initially be empty. When this is the case the English version will be displayed when viewing the asset. To provide a translation, simply enter or paste it into the field that is relevant for the language. To remove a translation and restore the English version, just delete the content of the relevant field.

Export & Import

The content in asset bank can easily be exported into a file for selected languages outside the application and can be imported back after the content has been edited.

Export

If the the asset back has configured for multi-languages, all the configured languages will be displayed for selection, otherwise only default language is displayed.  Default language is always selected.

User has an option to export only missing content, otherwise whole content will be exported. 

 

Once the export  has finished successfully the link to the exported file will be shown on the status page. 

 Import 

Once the content in the exported file has been edited, it can be imported back into the application. Import operation will not be successful if the user selects a wrong file or if one of the selected lanugages is not present in the file that is being imported.

  

 

 

---

Export / Reimport

Asset files and/or their metadata can be easily exported from Asset Bank.

The first step in the process to do this is to run a search in order to derfine the set of assets that will be exported. On the search results page, a link is shown below the results titled "Export all results..." - clicking this link will show a page on which you may specify how the export should work.

Alternatively you can add assets to your lightbox, view the lightbox and select certain assets to export using the 'export assets' option from the 'more actions' drop down.

Exports can be run by admin users and optionally org unit admin users (if the setting org-unit-admins-can-export) or standard users if a group that they are in has been ticked as 'can export assets' (from the Admin > Groups > edit page). 

Export Assets

This page allows you to run an export, exporting either just the asset metadata, or the metadata and the asset files themselves. The metadata will be written to a tab-delimited text file, and the asset files added to one or more zip files.

The file that is generated will contain all the chosen assets' metadata, both standard attributes such as Filename, DateAdded, etc. plus any additional flexible attributes that are currently configured. Each attribute's column is identified in a header row, with the attribute's name appearing at the top of the column. Flexible attribute names will be given a prefix of "att:" and will also include the Id of the attribute.

The options presented on the export page are described below:

Append to filename
If you are generating an export file for a particular purpose, you can append a text value to the filename to help you identify it later. If the application setting export-append-mandatory equals 'true' this field will need to be filled in to continue with the export.

Description
Any text you enter here will be written to the exported metadata file in a header, so again you can you can use this to help you identify the export at a later date (for example, if you are archiving assets this could contain a summary of the archive's contents).

Export Translations
When Asset Bank is configured to be multi-lingual, this option allows you to control whether any translations entered for assets are also exported. If this is selected, each text-based attribute will have multiple columns in the resulting file, one for the default language, and one for each of the additional languages. Each additional language will be identified in the column header by its (typically) 2-letter code (e.g. att:lang_fr:Title).

Export asset files
If this checkbox is left unchecked, only the metadata text file will be generated. Furthermore, the resulting file will be written in such a way that if it is subsequently used in a metadata import, the data will be matched up against the source assets. This process can be used to support an offline bulk edit, where metadata is manipulated in the exported txt file and then re-imported. It is also useful for taking backups of metadata that can later be restored if requried.

If the 'Export asset files' checkbox is selected, one or more zip files will be generated containing the original asset files, which can be downloaded alongside the metadata file. In this case, the metadata file is generatated in a way that is suited to being later matched up with the exported asset files. For instance, any related assets are identified by their filename rather than the id in Asset Bank.

If application setting 'allow-image-substitutes' is true, any converted/working versions of files will also be exported. They will be named the same as the main asset files thet accompany, but with a prefix (typically '_') taken from setting substitute-file-prefix. These files will be used during a re-import so that working version (for example, versions of an image before it was ritated) are preserved.

Export files to directory
By default, exported assets are packaged into zip files for download via the browser (as described above), however by de-selecting the 'Export as zip file(s)' checkbox will result in the files being written instead to a hard-drive directory. The directory will be named the same as the metadata file (without the suffix) which will be placed in the 'export' directory in the current system storage device.

Export immediate children

If youre Asset Bank has types enabled then you can optionally include immediate child data in your export file by checking this option

Export attribute template

You can define attribute templates (i.e. a set of attributes) from the Admin > Attributes > Display Attributes > Export area to use when exporting. If you have any export templates defined then they will be presented as list box on the export form and when you run an export using a template only the values for the selected attributes will be exported. You still have the option of not selecting a template which will export all attribute values for the assets in question.

Exported Asset Filenames

The format of the filenames used by Asset Bank when adding asset files to the downloadable zip files is configurable using the setting exported-asset-filename-format. Its value can contain the characters 'i', 'f' and/or 't' in any order, symbolising Id, Filename and Title (name) respectively. For example, the default value ("if") specifies a format containing the Id followed by the Filename. By default these values will separated by a dot (e.g. 1234.MyFileName.jpg) although the separater character is also customisable using setting exported-asset-filename-field-delimiter. Note that where instances of the exported-asset-filename-field-delimiter value are found in the filename elements (for example if the title is being used and contains a '.' character) they will be replaced with the value of exported-asset-filename-delimiter-replacement, which is '_' by default.

There is also a further filename format that can be used in special cases: specifying "fl" denotes that the name of the file of the asset in the repository (the FileLocation column) will be used. This may be useful when a whole Asset Bank repository is migrated from one instance to another, and the asset files are being bulk uploaded from an existing Asset Bank repository filesystem.

Exported Metadata Filename

It is also possible to customise how the filename for the asset metadata export file is generated. The setting export-file-stem can be used to specify a custom prefix for the filename (the default is 'export') and export-file-name-dt can be set to true or false to control whether the date & time are appended to the chosen prefix.

My default, the metadata file is given a ".xls" extension, so that it is automatically opened using Excel. However, as the file is not strictly in xls format it can sometimes be mis-interpreted by Excel. If this happens (or if Excel is not available to admin users) an alternative file extension can be provided in setting export-file-extension.

Date Formats

The format of date values written to the export file can be specified using the application setting export-date-format. By default this is set to "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss", although this can be changed to any format accepted by the Java language SimpleDateFormat class documentation (see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html).

Note that changes to the export-date-format setting should probably be mirrored by changes to import-date-format if the exported metadata is going to be re-imported.

Exporting Related Asset Data

Note, this section is only relevant if relationships are enabled.

When setting export-relationship-data is 'true', the exported metadata will include columns identifying other assets to which each asset is related. Separate columns are provided for parents, children and related (peer) assets. If only the metadata is being exported, these columns will contain the Asset Bank id for each related asset, otherwise the filename (without extension) will be used. Multiple related assets are separated by commas.

It is possible for exported assets to include metadata from their parent assets. This is enabled by setting include-metadata-from-parents-for-export to 'true' in the configuration, and does not depend on exporting the relationships. By default, a space will be used to delimit data that is added to an asset's attribute values from its parent, but this can be customised using setting export-data-merged-field-delimiter.

Exporting Agreements

If agreements are enabled, the content of each asset's agreement (and any previous agreements) can be exported by changing application setting export-agreement-data to 'true'. The agreement data will be exported in a column containing an XML document for each asset that has an agreement status of 'requires agreement' and one or more agreements.

---

Reports

Asset Bank automatically records information about user activities, for example when a user searches for, views, uploads and downloads assets. The Reports section allows admin users to access this information and can be found by clicking on the 'Reports' link in the admin menu.

Various reports are available, which show this information broken down in a number of ways. Before viewing each report you have to specify a date range, over which the report will be run. Once you have specified the report you want and the date range, you can either view the report immediately (by clicking the 'View report' button) or you can schedule the report.

Thumbnails
You can control whether asset thumbnails are shown in the reports featuring assets by changing application setting show-thumbnails-in-asset-reports to true or false.

Usage Reports

Usage reports provide a detailed overview of how the system is being used. From here you can find out the most popular item in Asset Bank, calculated by how many times it has been viewed or downloaded, which can be further organised by user and group. You can also find out how many uploads different users are performing.

Search Reports

These reports are useful for gauging what search terms users are using to find items, and the success rate of searches.

A grouped report will display the frequency of different search terms to enable you to see the most popular searches. You can filter your results to display only successful or only failed searches.

You may specify a date range to further refine your results. If you don't, the system will return all the data available.

Asset Reports

Asset reports provide details of the items that exist in the system. There are the following types of asset report:

• Assets by Category - This returns all the items in the system organised by category. You can order the data by a given attribute if you require, but a suitable attribute must have been set up (in the Attributes section of the admin area) for this to work.
• Assets by Date - specify a date range and choose whether you want to see items that were uploaded, created or modified in this date range.
• Duplicate Assets - This looks at the file sizes and file names of assets to uncover any potential  duplicate asset. This report gives you the option to select and delete the assets that are found.
• Items by Popularity - An easy way to see the most (and least) popular assets in the system in terms of both number of downloads and number of views.

Audit Reports

Audit reports enable you to trace a specific users' use of the system. There are two report options in this section...

Audit Log Report:

This report gives a detailed list of audit log transactions constrained to the specified date period. Audit log transactions include details of things like users uploading assets, asset deletions, asset changes etc. The report can be limited to the transactions for a particular username or IP address.

User Login Report: 

This report details, for a given date period, the user's that have logged in to the system and the date and time that they logged in. The report can be downloaded as a tab delimited file.
 

 

 

Scheduled Reports

If you want to be reguarly updated of a specific aspect of your applications usage you can set up scheduled report.

To schedule a report, specify a report type and date range then click the 'Schedule report' button.

You will then be asked to specify a name for the report and how frequently you want it to be generated (daily, weekly or monthly). By default, scheduled reports are sent to all admin users as an email attachment at the frequency you have defined. You can also specify other groups of users to receive the reports using the 'Additional groups' checkboxes.

You can view what scheduled reports you have set up at any time by clicking on the Scheduled Reports tab. From here you have the option to delete any of your scheduled reports.

 

---

Download Options

When a user downloads an asset, we can ask them to indicate what they will be using that asset for by giving them usage type options. 

For example we could create a usage type called ‘Website’, When a user downloads an asset for use on the website they would select that option on the drop down list shown above. There are two purposes to this. 

Reporting

Asset Bank has reporting functionality built in and with it you can generate reports on many aspects of Asset Bank activity. In this example you could generate a report of downloads against usage types and discover how many and what type of assets were being downloaded for use on a website.

Formatting and re-sizing assets

The format and size of assets is often different depending on how you plan to use an asset. For example if you were using an image for printing purposes you would tend to want the original (source) file (see /go/knowledgebase/high-res-usage-type.html ). If you were using that same image on a website you would want a lower resolution (72dpi) and in a suitable format for websites such as JPG. You may also want it at different dimensions to suit the website’s layout.

Asset Bank has the power to hold the asset in its original format and change the dimensions, resolution and file type at the point of download. Using usage type sizes you can go one step further, you can set up these changes to happen automatically. In other words when a user selects the usage type ‘websites’ they will be served up the image in the way you have defined, they will not need to make these changes themselves.

Masks

A mask is an image or design with transparent areas that sits on top of an asset. You can give users the option to overlay a mask at the point of download. This will help users easily fulfil any branding or design requirements. Specific masks can be offered as part of the usage type sizes set up.

Managing Usage Types

How to add, amend and delete usage types

To add a usage type

• From the menu click Admin – Download options, you will be taken to the Download Options screen;

•  Fill in the form fields;
  • Usage type name - this is required, and will be shown in usage type dropdown list on the download page.
  • Media type - select whether this usage type applies to images, videos, audio files, files (e.g. word documents, spreadsheets etc) or all media types.
  • Image Download Tab - the download asset page often has both a simple download options and an advanced download options tab. Specify here which this usage type should appear in (or both).
    

    Note: If you allow users to see the advanced download tab they will be able to set their own size and format for the asset overruling any settings you may have created.
  • Download Message - when a user selects this usage type a message will appear below the dropdown containing whatever is typed in here.
  • Can specify details - ticking this box will give your user the opportunity to provide further details of how they are going to use the asset.
  • Details mandatory - ticking this will mean your users have to provide further details of how they are going to use the asset before they can proceed with the download.
  • Download original - ticking this box will give your users the option of downloading the original version of the asset when they select this usage type. This should be set to true if you are configuring a Usage Type called, for example, 'High Res (original)'. See /go/knowledgebase/high-res-usage-type.html
  • Is considered high resolution - this ties in with the sizes associated with the usage type. Tick the box if you want to classify assets with this usage type as high-resolution. You can then modify group permissions to restrict certain users from being able to freely download such sizes.
  • Click Add – You have created your new usage type. This is enough to help enable you to generate reports for this usage type. Now if you want to set the size and format of the assets people download for this usage type you should move onto ‘How to add and amend usage type sizes’.

To edit, move or delete usage types

• To edit a usage type
  • Click [edit] next to the usage type.
  • Your usage type details will appear in the form at the bottom of the screen.
  • Your usage type details will appear in the form at the bottom of the screen.
• To delete a usage type click [X] next to it.
• To move your usage types click the [up] or [down] links next to it.
• To create a hierarchy of usage types, that is a type within the usage type click [open].
  • The usage type will then open.
  • You can create subtypes within this ‘parent’ usage type in the usual way.

Usage Type Formats

How to add and amend usage type sizes

Now that you have set up your usage type, you are going to set up some sizes for the users. This means that once the user has selected the usage type, they will be asked to select a size and, based upon that selection, they will download the asset in the size and format they require.

•  From the menu click Admin - Download Options. The Usage Types screen will appear.

• Find your usage type and click the [edit sizes] link next to it. You will be taken to the User Type Format screen.

• Fill in the form to add your new size, use the following guide to help you.
  • Name - the name of your usage type size, give this a name which the user will be able to identify, it is also a good idea to state the dimensions in the title e.g. ‘Web Article – 200px by 200px’.
  • Max Width/Max Height – this defines the bounding box which your images will be proportionally resized to fit within unless the crop to fit checkbox is on.
  • Crop to fit - selecting this means Asset Bank will scale the image to cover entirely the bounding box. It will be centred and any remaining parts of the image and the tip and bottom or either side will be cut off,. As a result the image will be exactly the dimensions entered in the max width and max height fields.
  • Convert to - select the format you need the image needs to be. For example JPEGs and GIFs are best for use on websites and newsletters as they are less cumbersome to download.
  • Except for - this creates exceptions for the format conversion above. When converting a file format there is always the possibility that the file quality deteriorates, for that reason it is a good idea to specify file types which need not be converted. For example GIFs and JPEGs are both suitable for websites, therefore if the original asset is a GIF there is no real benefit to converting it to a JPG.
  • Density - this gives a density value to the image in DPI (dots per inch). The DPI value is used for printing. A higher value (typically 300dpi) will result in a smaller image of better quality as there are more dots per inch. If in doubt leave the field at 0 and do not set a value.
  • JPEG quality - sets the quality of resulting JPEGs, higher values result in a higher quality JPEG which may take longer to download. If in doubt leave at the 0 default, this will apply a standard web quality of 85%.
  • Color space - this drop down allows you to define the color space that will be applied to the downloaded image by default. If your Asset Bank version is newer than 3.695 then the selected color space will automatically be applied to a download with this usage type size. However, if your version is prior to this the relevant color space checkbox will automatically by ticked for the user. Please note however that the user can override this by ticking an alternative checkbox themselves. The reason for this option is purely to provide a default color space in case users are not aware of the implications of selecting an inappropriate color space for an images usage. As an example, if your usage type was called 'For a website' then it would be sensible to set the default color space to RGB, because CMYK images are not properly supported by many browser. You can also add new color spaces .
  • Scale up - if the image that the user wishes to download has dimensions smaller than those you have set, you can instruct Asset Bank to increase the size to your dimensions.
    
    
    Note: It is likely that scaling up will make the image blurred, use this option with caution.
  • Strip - ticking this checkbox will strip out any of the embedded metadata that may exist within your asset.
  • Watermark - Asset Bank will overlay your watermark on the downloaded image if you select this tick box.
  • Omit if image is of lower resolution - you have the option to hide your usage type size from the user on images that are smaller than the height and width you have specified.
  • Fill background - If you tick this option you can select a background colour to fill any canvas space with after the image has been resized (i.e. if you specify a canvas size of 800 x 800 and your image only takes up 600 x 800 of the canvas after resizing then it will end up with 100px wide bar down either side in the solid colour that you selected).
• Click Save, your usage type size has been created and will appear at the top of the screen.
• All existing usage type sizes are listed at the top of the screen.
• To edit, click the [edit] link next to the usage type.
• To delete, click the [X] next to the usage type.

Masks

Masks are images that can be overlaid on asset images during the asset download process.  Mask images should have transparent areas to allow the original image to show through.

To add or remove masks go to 'Download Options' in the Admin menu and then click on the Masks tab.

Availability

Masks were introduced in version 3.578 of Asset Bank.  They are only available when credit strips are disabled (credit-strip-enabled=false in ApplicationSettings.properties).

Requirements for Mask Images

Mask images must be in a format that supports transparency, for example PNG.  The transparent area of the mask image should correspond to the area of the asset image that you want to show through when the mask is applied.

Mask Colours

By default the masked area takes its colours from the colours of the mask image.  However, when a colour is chosen then the non-transparent areas of the mask are filled with that colour before it is applied.

You can define preset colours at the bottom of the Mask Images page.

Preset Masks

All masks are available on the advanced download tab.  However, you can define preset masks and mask colours for the quick download tab on the usage type format admin page.

Audio Options

Audio download options allow users to select an audio quality at which to download, specified by Bitrate. 

Availability

Customisable Audio Options were introduced in version 3.1147 of Asset Bank - previous to this there were three hard-coded options for Low (96kbps), Standard (128kbps) and High (256kbps).  These are now supplied as the default options.

Custom options

Asset Bank comes with the default download options described above. To customise the audio download options go to 'Download Options' in the Admin menu and then click on the Audio Options tab.

Note that the bitrate should be entered in bps, so for example enter 128000 for 128 kbps. You should also enter a label for each option, which will appear in the selector on the Download Audio screen for the downloader. 

---

Categories

You can help users browse to the assets that are most relevant to them by effectively managing categories.

Categories appear under the quick search on the homepage.

When a user clicks on a category they will be taken to a results screen similar to the search results.

By adding subcategories, that is categories within categories, you allow users to further refine their results based upon the categories they need. As you can see in the example above, the user has navigated to the Animal category and now has the option of choosing that category’s subcategories (Mammals, Birds etc).

How to manage categories

• From the menu click Admin – Categories.

To add a category

• Add your category name in the ‘New category name’ field and click ‘Add’.
  • Your category will appear at the bottom of the list.

To manage your category list

• You can move your category up and down the list by clicking the [up] or [down] link next to your category.
• Alternatively you can put your categories in alphabetical order by clicking the ‘Alphabetise categories’.

To edit your category details

• Click the [edit] link next to your category, you will be taken to the following screen

From here you can

• Amend the title in the ‘Name’ field.
• Add a description that will appear at the top of the results screen for the category.

• Add a thumbnail image for your category, click the choose file button and select your image.
  
  
  Note: Your image will be automatically resized to the thumbnail dimensions (40px by 40px). For best results make sure your image is square and will still be useful at this size (i.e. if, when re-sized the thumbnail is hard to make out, then this will have a negative affect). We recommend that if you are adding a thumbnail image to one category, then you add one to all categories at the same level, resulting in more consistent formatting of the page they appear on.
• Give your users access to the Advanced Download options on this category by ticking the ‘Show Advanced Download’ tick box. (Note, users must also be in groups that have Advanced Download set in order to see this option at point of download.)
• Hide this category on the homepage by un-ticking the ‘Is browsable’.

To add subcategories

• Click the open link next to your category. You will be taken to the following screen.

• Add the sub- category name in the ‘New category name’ field and click Add.
  • The  category will appear in your list of sub-categories.
• This screen behaves in exactly the same way as the main categories screen, follow the same process to edit details, move or delete your subcategories.

To move a category to within a sub-category

• Click move next to the category you wish to make a subcategory of another.

  • You will be taken to a screen similar to the following, it will list all your categories and subcategories

• Select the category you wish to move the subcategory into.  

To delete a category

• In the category list, click the [x] next to your relevant category or sub category.
  
  

  Note: If you have assets in that category, you will be asked to specify which category you wish to move those assets to. You will be taken to a screen similar to the Move Category screen above. Select the relevant category and click Save

 

Extended Categories

If you have extended categories enabled on your Asset Bank (via the category-extension-assets-enabled setting in ApplicationSettings.properties) then you will see the following form when adding a new category...

A standard category will be as previously described, but selecting an extended category will enable you to associated extra information with the category you are creating but tying an asset to the category in question. If you have Asset Types enabled then, when creating an extended category, you will be allowed to create an instance of any type that you have marked as a category extension type in the Admin > Asset Types section. If you don't have asset types enabled then you will be able to associate a standard asset instance with the category in question.

Selecting the 'Extended Category' option will remove the category name field because the category's name will be automatically populated from the asset instance's name attribute when you create the associated asset.

Creating an extended category will result in a block of extra information being displayed at the top of the browse page for the category in question. The information displayed will be the values of attributes selected on the Admin > Attributes > Display Attributes > Category Extension Assets section for the associated asset. You will also see a link to view the full details of the asset.

Editing the associated asset's name will result in the name of the category being changed to match the asset's name. Deleting the extension asset will revert the category to a standard one. 

Importing Categories

It is possible to import your entire category structure via a tab-delimited file. To do this, click on the 'Import categories from a file' link at the bottom of the Categories page:

This takes you to the Category Import page, where you can browse for your import file. There is also instructions and an example file to help you when creating your import file.

 

---

Attributes

When a user views an asset, they will see attached to it a series of data fields. This is often known as metadata; in Asset Bank we call these fields’ attributes.

Attribute fields are varied and serve many purposes. Generally they either describe the asset and help users find it when relevant, or they help manage the behaviour of the asset. For example there are a range of attributes which help us manage who is able to see the asset and how it is delivered to them.

As an Asset Bank administrator you have almost full control of the attributes themselves. You can add or remove attributes, amend which are visible to the user, what values users can enter, make attributes mandatory and more.
On asset bank there are two types of attribute;

• Standard attributes – attributes such as ‘title' and ‘size' are always present, and cannot be deleted. However you can change the way they appear to users, for example you can change the label.
• Flexible attributes – you can add and remove attributes as you need them. Asset Bank comes with a number of preconfigured flexible attributes, which can be removed if they are not needed.

Different attribute fields types request different information from the person inputting the information. This can range from a free text field to choosing form a drop down list. For a full list of the attribute field types available to asset bank attributes click here.

Manage Attributes

• From the left hand menu click Admin – Attributes. You will be taken to the following screen.

• On the Manage Attributes screen you will see listed all the attribute fields that are applied to your assets.

To add an attribute

• Click ‘Add a new attribute’  You will be taken to the Add Attribute screen.

• Select your attribute ‘Type’. This it will define what the users can enter in this field. It will also generate the options you will then have on the Add Attribute form. You can select from the list of Attribute Type Options.
• Enter the rest of the attribute’s options. The range of options will depend on the type you have selected. Configuration options include;
  • Label - how the attribute is labeled when viewing or editing items.
  • Auto complete - if this is ticked then users will be offered suggestions when they start typing in this field on the Advanced Search or Edit Asset pages.
  • Include in keyword searches - this is ticked by default and means that any values entered into this attribute are searchable using the Quick Search.
  • Mandatory – you can ensure this attribute is completed by selecting this options meaning the user must enter a value to be allowed to continue.
  • Mandatory on Bulk Upload - the attribute must be filled in during a Bulk Upload.
  • Required for completeness - if you are adding metadata to your assets over a period of time you may want to define which attributes must be filled in before the asset is considered 'complete'. Assets which are missing values for such fields will be highlighted to admin users on the search results page (their panel will turn red with a dotted border).
  • Help text - add some text in here and a help icon will appear next to the attribute label when you are editing or uploading an asset. Hovering over the icon will display your help text as a tool tip.
  • Hide from sort - if selected the attribute will not show up as an option in the 'Sort by' dropdown shown on the browse and search results pages.
  • Highlight on view - attributes with this option selected will be highlighted when viewing an Asset Details page.
  • Show on download - the value of this attribute will be shown on the download asset and download lightbox pages (unless it's empty). This can be useful if you want to bring something to the user's attention just before they donwload an asset. For example, it is commonly used to highlight the value of a 'Usage Rights', 'Credit' attribute.
  • Populate from child data (this option will only appear if you have 'Asset Types' enabled) - if this is true then if a parent and a child Asset Type both include this attribute then the attribute will not be directly editable for an asset of the parent type. Instead, parent assets will have this value populated with a concatenation of the values set for all its child assets. NOTE: the child Asset Type cannot itself be configured to have children (through relationship types) - if it is then the attribute will not show for the child either.
  • Keyword search links on view - attributes with this ticked will be turned into search links when viewing an Asset Details page.
  • Keyword delimiter - this is used to split attribute values into keywords/tokens. Find out more.
  • Value if not visible - value set for a flexible attribute, when a user is adding a new item but does not have the right to see the attribute.
  • Default value - the default value of the flexible attribute - this will be pre-set when a user is uploading a new item.
  • Input validation mask - add a regular expression to validate against when saving values for this attribute (Textfield only). Regular expressions are very powerful string comparators and hence can be quite complicated to write. For further information about regular expression syntax please read the following documentation. Common examples are (\w+)@(\w+\.)(\w+)(\.\w+)* for loose email validation and \d\d\/\d\d\/\d\d\d\d for loose date format validation.
  • OnChangeScript - This enables you to add some javascript code to execute on the onChange event for this field (obviously this only applies when uploading or editing an asset, ie. when the field is editable). be careful to only use single quotes in your code as the whole thing will be contained within double quotes.
  • Initially visible to - Here you can choose whether the attribute is visible to all users or just logged in users.
• Click Save. Your attribute will appear on the list in the Manage Attributes screen.

To edit and delete attributes

• To edit an attribute click [edit] next to it. You will be taken to Edit Attribute screen, very similar to the Add Attribute screen.
  
  
  Note: One significant difference is that in the edit screens, you are unable to edit the ‘Attribute Type’. If you need to add a different ‘Attribute Type’ you will need to add a completely new attribute.
• Make your changes and click save.
• To delete an attribute click [X] next to it.

Manage Attribute Display

Managing how a user sees assets

Asset Bank allows you to manage both attribute visibility, and the order in which they appear, for various areas (e.g. the asset page itself, advances search, browse result panels, etc.).

You are able to configure which attributes are displayed and in what order for each of the available areas in the Display Attributes tab of the Attributes section. The available areas are View/edit, Browsing, Searching, Lighbox, Printing and Downloading (and, if enabled, Category Extensions). Select the area you want to change via the tabs on the page. Note, any areas of the site that don't have their own explicit tab in this area will use the same display attributes as the ones defined for Search.

Within each section, you can use drag and drop to determine what order the attributes are displayed in. Click [x] to remove an attribute from any display list.

When adding or editing display attributes you can configure the following:

• Add an attribute to display - Select an existing attribute that you want to be displayed in the relevant area.
• Max display length? - This is useful for preventing potentially long attribute values (e.g. values for the 'Description' attribute) from overflowing the asset panel on the browse and search results pages. If, for example, you were to set the max length to 50, then any values exceeding 50 characters would be truncated and have a '...' added to the end.
• Show attribute label? - If this is ticked the label and value will be displayed (e.g. 'Title: My image title' as opposed to just 'My image title').
• Is Link? - Ticking this will make the attribute value display as a link to the view deatils page of that asset.

How to amend which attributes a user sees on 'asset panels'

'Asset panels' contain a thumbnail of the asset along with a sub-set of metadata, usually asset ID and 'Title' attributes. These panels are visible when browsing categories, looking at search results or viewing assets in your Lightbox.

 

So in order to set these, just find the relevant areas in the Display Attributes page. Specifically:

• Browsing (both panel and list view) 
• Searching > Search Results
• Lightbox 

Additional control over asset visibility

You can manage which attributes different users can see according to the groups they are in.  Learn how by reading about Attribute Visibility in the Groups section.

More attribute related functionality

Highlighting a specific attribute on asset view page

• Click [edit] next to the relevant attribute.
• Select the ‘Highlight on view’ tick box.
• Click Save, your attribute will appear in bold and surrounded by a red border as shown below.

Grouping attributes together on the asset view screen

• You can structure you attributes by creating a group heading and placing relevant attributes under that heading. The heading will appear as an expandable section.
• Click 'Add a new group heading', you will be taken to the Add Attribute Group Heading screen.
• Complete the following fields.
  • Label – the name of your group heading.
  • Show open on view – select this if you would like your expandable to section to be open when the user first sees the screen.
  • Initially visible to – this field allows you to select whether your heading is visible to public or logged in users. As with all other attributes, their visibility to other groups is adjusted in the Attribute Visibility functions of individual groups.
• Click Save. You will be taken back to the Manage Attributes screen, your group heading will be visible at the bottom of the screen.
• You can now go to to the Display Attributes page and move the heading so that it appears in the correct position
• When users reach the asset view page, they now see the group heading with the relevant attributes listed underneath as shown in the example below.

How to display an attribute at point of download

• On the Manage Attributes screen, click [edit] next to the relevant attribute.
• Select the 'Show on Download' tickbox and click save.
• The field will be visible when a user downloads the asset as shown in the example below (where we have chosen ‘Title’ to be displayed).
  
  
  Note: you can show multiple attributes at this stage. Clients sometimes use this to re-enforce any usage rights that accompany a particular asset. For example ‘Internal use only’.
  
  

  Fig 6 - An attribute made visible on download

Attribute Rules

Date attributes are a special case in Asset Bank in that it is possible to configure rules that are automatically triggered on the date defined in the value of the attribute.

Each rule is triggered automatically per item on a certain date, according to the value of the attribute on the asset.

Rules on datepicker attributes are run at midnight on trigger dates, and rules on datetime attributes are run at the exact time when one or more item datetime attributes trigger the rule.

You will notice on the Manage Attributes page that any date attributes, will have an 'edit rules' link alongside them:

Clicking this link takes you to the Attribute Rules page, where you can manage any existing rules configured for that attribute, or create new ones. There are 2 types of rule available:

Send email rule

An email is sent a given number of days before or after the set date. For example this may be used to send an alert to a group of users when an item is near its expiry date.

Click on the 'Add a new Send Email rule' on the Attribute rules page to take you to the Add Send Email Rule page. 

Here you can define whether the rule is enabled, a name for the rule, when the email will be sent, the message in the email and who the email should be sent to. Please note, the final option of the 'Other recipients' list, "Email the last user who approved the asset" refers to the approval of the asset during upload (i.e. it does not relate to approval of downloads).

Change attribute value rule

Change the value of another attribute of the item when the set date is reached. For example this may be used to control the Active status for an item for given user groups, to make Activation date and Expiry date work.

Click on the 'Add a new Change Attribute Value rule' on the Attribute rules page to take you to the Add Change Attribute Value Rule page.

Again, you can define whether the rule is switched on (tick the enabled box) and a name for the rule. You can also specify which attribute you want to change the value of, and the value that it should be set to.

The 'Action on assets' field gives you the choice of a number of additional actions that you can perform when the rule is triggered, such as restricting the asset, or marking it as sensitive.

 

Attribute Sorting

Amending the order of search and category results

When a user finds assets by searching or browsing through categories, they will be taken to a page showing the assets they have found.

Attribute Sorting allows you to set the rules which manage the order in which the assets are displayed to the users on these pages.

How to add an Attribute Sorting rule

• From the menu click Admin – Attributes – Attribute Sorting (tab), the Attribute Sorting screen will appear.

• Select the ‘Search Ordering’ or ‘Browse Ordering’ tab.
  • Choosing Search Ordering applies your changes to the results when a user searches assets using Quick or Advanced Search.
  • Choosing Browse Ordering applies your changes to the results when a user browses through categories.
• Complete the Attribute Sorting form, the fields are;
  • Sort field - the attribute you wish the results to be sorted by.
  • Sort type – how that field will be ordered, it will be sorted either alphanumerically or by date.
  • Reverse sort - select this if you wish to reverse the sort order e.g. If Alphabetical it would be Z – A instead of A – Z.
• Click Add, your sort criteria rule will appear in the list above the form.

How to edit, delete and move Attribute Sorting rules

• You can add other sort criteria by repeating the process above. This would mean that the results would be sorted according to the first rule in the list and then within that, by the second rule in the list.
  • e.g. In the example Attribute Sorting screen shown above you can see that 2 sorting rules have been set. In this instance the results would be displayed according to the date they had been added to Asset Bank. If 2 assets had been added on the same day they would be ordered alphabetically by the username of the person who had uploaded them.
• To change the order of the sort rules click the [up] or [down] links next to them.
  • If we were to change the order on the screen shown above, assets would be sorted alphabetically by the username of the person who has uploaded them. If two assets had been uploaded by the same person they would be ordered by the date on which they were uploaded.
• To delete sort criteria click [x] next to it.
  
  

  Note: When you have added all your sort criteria you must click ‘re-index existing assets’. This will apply your criteria to the assets in the system.

Filters

A filter is a collection of attribute values that, when applied to your Asset Bank, restrict what assets a user can see (the user will only be able to see assets that have attribute values that match the values defined for the filter). When you create filters they are shown to your users as options in a drop down box. This allows users a user to control which filter is currently applied or to switch filtering off by selecting 'no filtering'.

Filters apply to quick searches, browsing assets through categories, promoted assets, featured assets recent assets. Filters are also applied to the Advanced Search form.

Filters are created and managed in the Filters tab of the Attributes section of the Admin menu:

When you create a filter you need to define the set of attribute values that you want the filter to apply and give it a descriptive name that will enable users to determine what the filter does when they are selecting a filter to apply.

For example, let's say you are a company that has multiple brands to your name and you have a 'brand' attribute that specifies which brand an asset applies to (this would probably be a drop down box or a check box list).

Once created, the list of filters will appear on the bottom-left of any Asset Bank page below the Lightbox.

You may want to set up a filter for each of your brands so that users can know that they are only looking at assets for the brand they are interested in. To do this you would need to create one filter for each brand.

In each filter the only attribute you would specify a value for would be the brand attribute, where you would choose the correct brand for the current filter. This would then give your users a filter control in the left hand panel allowing them to filter by brand:

Category/Access Level Linked Filters

There are two types of filters in Asset Bank:

• Global Filters - which are what we have been talking about so far. These are applied globally to quick searches, browsing assets, promoted assets, featured assets, recent assets and the Advanced Search form. Once created they will show up in the filter control underneath the left-hand navigation.
• Category/Access Level Linked Filters - these are essentially the same as global filters except that they are applied to specific categories or access level.

When you add or edit a filter you will see the links 'Show in category' and 'Show in access level'. Clicking either of these reveals a checkbox list of the categories or access levels in the system:

If you select any of these categories then a link will be added to the browse page of that category allowing users to quickly apply the filter while they are browsing:

The main reason for this particular functionality is to eliminate the need for duplicate subcategory structures. Let's say for example that you have set a top level category in your Asset Bank for each of your company's office locations. Now lets say that for each office location you want to subcategorise by department (e.g. Human Resources, IT, Sales, Customer Support).

One way of achieving this would be to create a subcategory for each department and duplicate this structure across all your office locations. But this would be time consuming to set up and difficult to maintain. Alternatively, assuming you had a 'department' attribute for your assets, then you could set up a filter for each of your departments. You could then show this filter in all of your office location categories. This would mean that when your users browse an office location they can still drill down to departments within that location without you having had to set up the same subcategories in every location.

 

Filter Groups

If you are creating lots of global filters then you may want to group filters together into separate dropdowns in the filter control. This is where Filter Groups come in.  For example, the following figure shows a filter control panel where the filters have been organised into 2 groups: 'Brands' and 'Department'.

 

To create a new filter group click the 'Manage filter groups' link on the main Filters page:

This takes you to the Filter Groups page where you can edit or delete any existing filter groups and add new ones. The only property of a filter group you need to specify is its name. Once you have set up some filter groups you will be able to specify which filter group a filter should belong to (if any) whenever you edit or add a new filter. 

 

 

 

Attribute Keyword Delimiters

The keyword delimiter of an attribute is used to split the value of that attribute into keywords or 'tokens'. It is used both for "Keyword search links on view" and when tokenising the attribute value before adding it to the search index.  If it is not set then values are tokenised on word boundaries when they are added to the search index.  Setting a keyword delimiter can make it possible to search for things that it would otherwise be impossible to search for.  For example "2009-2010" would usually be tokenised as two words, "2009" and "2010" which would make it impossible to search for "2009" without also finding results for "2009-2010".  Setting the delimiter to "," would mean that searches for an attribute value of "2009" (including quotes) would not include results where the attribute value was "2009-2010".

If you require an attribute's value to be used for running searches from an item's details page, you need to decide whether the whole value, or parts of the value should be used as search 'tokens'. If you wish the entire value to be used as a single search term, no delimiter is required and this field can remain empty. If you require the value to be broken up into separate search terms, the delimiter will tell the system where one term finishes and another starts.

The attribute's value will be split around matches of a 'regular expression' which this field contains. This could be a single character such as a comma or space, or a much more complicated expression. If you are familiar with regular expressions then you just need to be aware that the syntax should conform to Java's java.uti.regex.Pattern class's implementation, which is detailed in the JavaDoc:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html

If you are not comfortable with regular expressions and wish to make use of this feature, it is safest to contact Bright Interactive for assistance.

 

 

Embedded Data Mappings

Images often have data embedded into their source file which is usually inserted by the device that created the image (e.g. a digital camera). In Asset Bank it is possible to harvest this data and use it to populate an assets attribute values automatically. To do this you need to first set up a mapping between the embedded data field and an attribute in Asset Bank. This is achieved on the Embedded Data Mappings page:

When adding a new data mapping you need to provide the following information:

• Attribute - Select an attribute that you want the embedded data field to map to. You may want to set up a custom attribute for this on the Manage Attributes page.
• Embedded data type - There are a number of different formats for embedded data depending on the file format of the image and the device used to create the image. Each format has a different set of fields, so you will need to know the format of the field you are interested in and specify it here.
• Mapping direction - Select 'Upload' if you want the system to copy an embedded data value into an attribute value when you upload the image. Select 'Download' if you want the system to copy an attribute value into an embedded data field when you download the image.
• Delimiter - If the attribute contains multiple values (such as a keywords fields) then you can specify a delimiter here. 
• Binary data - If the value of the metadata field is a binary value then this checkbox needs to be ticked for the mapping to work.

GPS data mappings

You can define some special mappings for mapping GPS EXIF data in images to and from Asset Bank attributes. These mappings are found when you select 'Other' as the Embedded data type. The following options are included for Embedded data value:

• GPS Position Signed - in the Upload direction, this mapping reads EXIF Longitude and Latitude data simultaneously, and maps to the asset attribute value. Usually the attribute should be of type Spatial Area, in which case the data will be mapped to a point value for the attribute. Otherwise (eg for text attributes) the value will just be of the format '(latitude,longitude)' with the coordinates in Signed Decimal Degrees format.
• GPS Longitude Signed - this reads EXIF Longitude data and maps to an asset attribute value in Signed Decimal Degrees format. Eg, longitude 11°53'4.34" W is mapped to ‑11.885. Usually an attribute of type Numeric should be chosen, but text attributes would also work.
• GPS Latitude Signed - similarly reads EXIF Latitude data and maps to an asset attribute value in Signed Decimal Degrees format.

If you have an attribute of type Spatial Area, then you should choose GPS Position Signed as the mapping (GPS Longitude or GPS Latitude mappings are not supported for Spatial Area attributes).  

GPS mappings can also be applied in the Download direction. For the GPS Position Signed mapping, this will only work if the attribute is a Spatial Area (so that the longitude and latitude values can be correctly read out from the asset attribute value). For GPS Latitude and GPS Longitude mappings, then the attribute should be a Numeric type.

Applying your mappings

Depending on what mapping direction you have defined then data will be transferred automatically on upload or download. You can also apply your mappings retrospectively by clicking the 'rerun metadata extraction for existing assets'.

In addition, for dropdown attributes you can enter, for each dropdown entry, a corresponding ‘Metadata value’ so that if that value is found embedded in an image when it is uploaded, that dropdown entry will be automatically selected. (To do that, go to Admin > Attributes, then click ‘edit list values’ next to the dropdown attribute, then click ‘edit’ next to the value you want to edit and then enter the corresponding ‘embedded value’ in the mapping field.)  

 

Attribute Types

The following list describes the field types you can use as attributes:

• Text field – A field allowing one line of text (around 170 characters).
• Text field (long) – A longer one line field (allowing around 270 characters).
• Text area – A field allowing several lines of text including carriage returns and different text styles (e.g. bold), you can set the number of lines and maximum characters for this field.
• Datepicker – Opens up an interactive calendar allowing the user to select dates. You can set rules against the date. For example you can send an email or change the status of the asset when the date is reached (e.g. from active to inactive). Read more about attribute rules.
  Note: If you are using Asset Bank Version 3.939 or later you also have the following two datepcker options

  Year and Month - Allows the user to specify a year and month by selecting it from a pop up calendar.

  Year Only - Allows users to enter a year.
• Dropdown – Creates a drop down list allowing users to pick one from a list of values you have specified.
• Checklist – Creates a series of tick boxes against a list of values you create, the user is able to select more than value.
• Optionlist – Creates a list of options against a list values you create, the user is able to select multiple values.
  
  

  Note: The Dropdown, Checklist and Optionlist attribute types all rely on creating list values. Once you have created your attribute type, you will need to create the  values by clicking [edit list values].
• Keyword picker – You can develop an extensive list of controlled keywords that users can select from when adding descriptive metadata to each asset. The keywords will be presented to the user alphabetically.
• Datetime – Enables you to set a date and time and attach rules for when the date is reached, for example you can send an email or change the status of the asset (e.g. from active to inactive). Read more about attribute rules.
• Hyperlink – Users will be able to place a hyperlink against each asset. At the point of entry Asset Bank will be able to verify the hyperlink limiting broken links.
• Group header – You can create an attribute which acts as a heading allowing you to group attributes.
• Numeric – Allows you to set up an attribute that can only accept numerical values. You can also stipulate min/max decimal points if relevant.
• Autoincrement – Creates a numerical field that will increment in value automatically as assets are uploaded. Optionally you can specify a start value and increment amount for the sequence, and control the formatting of the identifier using a prefix and a padding width. So for example you could have a counter formatted like NUM00001, NUM00002 etc.
• If you have Asset Bank version 3.1166 or later then there is an option of 'Enforce Uniqueness'. If this is unchecked, then values are allocated to new assets using the sequence, but can be freely changed by editors, with no uniqueness checks applied. Hence more than one asset can have the same value for the attribute.
  If 'Enforce Uniqueness' is checked, then the system will enforce uniquess in two ways:
  a) When allocating new values from the sequence, the system will check if the next value exists before allocating it for the next asset. If the value is already used then it will skip through to find the next free value to use.
  b) When editors are changing the values of the attribute for existing assets, then the system will check to see if they are already used, and give a validation error if so (for example when editing assets, or when importing metadata).
• Spatial area – An attribute to represent a spatial area or a point. By default the attribute will have four bounding values: West longitude, South latitude, East longitude, North latitude. If you check the 'Single point only' field, then this will restrict the attribute to represent points only, with just Longitude and Latitude values. Each coordinate value is in Signed Decimal Degrees format, with the number of decimal points controlled by the max and min fields on the set up form (as for Numeric types).
  
• Data Lookup Button – This type of attribute displays a 'Data Lookup' button which can be mapped to allow a user to perform a lookup on a tab-delimited text file and populate other attribute text fields with the pre-defined value(s) from the text file at the press of a button. Read more about the data lookup button.

Data lookup button

---

Publishing

Publishing Actions allow admin users to publish sets of assets to a local or network directory.  A publishing action can be triggered manually from the admin interface, or configured to automatically run daily (you can specify the hour of the day on which it will run using the setting run-publishing-actions-hour-of-day).

Creating a 'Publishing Action'

The first step is specify the "Search Criteria" which will define the sets of assets to publish by the action.

When a publishing action is triggered all the assets that match the given publish criteria will be "published".
The filename used to publish the Assets is the Asset 'Id' by default, and can be changed in:
Admin > Attributes > Display Attributes > Publishing

Once you have set the 'Publish Criteria' you can choose which transfer method to use: Simple Copy, FTP, SCP or Asset Bank Copy.

 

When using Simple Copy, directories can be specified as regular local directories or as UNC paths (e.g. "\\PublishServer\PublishDirectory").
Local publish directories can be constrained using the setting publishing-file-copy-jail-directory (in the ApplicationSettings.properties file) so that every 'publish location' will be automatically set inside this folder.
Admin users must ensure that the Asset Bank service has the correct permissions to create files in the given directory and that the publishing-file-copy-jail-directory setting is set to an ancestor of the directory.

When an Usage Type for resizing is selected the Image Assets will be published in different format size, according with the settings specified in the given Usage Type.
If nothing is selected then the original Asset file will be used instead.

A publish action Attribute used for Subdirectory Name is available to create sub-directories in the top-level director associated with that action. When creating a 'publish action' the admin user will select an attribute - the value of this for a particular asset will be used when that asset is published to determine the name of the subdirectory into which to copy the published images.

The Unpublish option specify whether the Assets that no longer match the search criteria should be unpublished (i.e. deleted) when the publish action runs.

If FTP/SCP option is selected then the server details like, server IP, user name, password and the port number need to be provided (please read this article  for SCP configuration).

NOTE: The default port numbers are used for the FTP – 21 and SCP – 22 are used, this can be changed depending on the setting of the environment.  

 

 

What happens when a Publishing Action "changes"?

If one of the publishing options changes (i.e. Usage Type, Subdirectory, Publish Location or Publish filename) then the published Assets path will be affected the next time the action runs.

When re-publishing the "new versions" Asset Bank will automatically delete the "old versions" (unless you have changed the Transfer Method).

Note:  if you want to apply your changes to all published Assets you must manually run a "full" publish action.

Publishing (old)

Publishing Actions allow admin users to publish sets of assets to a local or network directory.  A publishing action can be triggered manually from the admin interface, or configured to automatically run daily.  When a publishing action is triggered all the assets in the given access level will be copied to the directory configured for that publishing action.  

Directories can be specified as regular local directories, (e.g. "C:\PublishDirectory") or as UNC paths (e.g. "\\PublishServer\PublishDirectory").  Admin users must ensure that the Asset Bank service has the correct permissions to create files in the given directory and that the publishing-file-copy-jail-directory setting is set to an ancestor of the directory.

 A publish action `Attribute used for Subdirectory Name’ is available to create sub-directories in the top-level directory associated with that action. When creating a 'publish action' the admin user will select an attribute - the value of this for a particular asset will be used when that asset is published to determine the name of the subdirectory into which to copy the published images. 

 

 

If FTP/SCP option is selected then the server details like, server IP, user name, password and the port number need to be provided (please read this article  for SCP configuration).

NOTE: The default port numbers are used for the FTP – 21 and SCP – 22 are used, this can be changed depending on the setting of the environment.  

 

---

System

The System section of your admin menu contains tools used for making server based  changes to your application.  You should only be using these pages if you are comfortable making changes to (and have access to) the server that your Asset Bank is hosted on.

If you would like to upgrade your Asset Bank to the latest version, please get in touch with support@assetbank.co.uk for assistance.

Updates

The Updates page shows any available updates to the Asset Bank software.

You can reach the screen by clicking Admin - System - Updates (tab) 

A brief description is given for each version explaining the new functionality or change to existing functionality.

If your Asset Bank is hosted by us then please contact support@assetbank.co.uk to arrange an upgrade. However, if you host Asset Bank you can perform the upgrade yourself.

Please follow the knowledge base article How do I upgrade Asset Bank? for full details on how to perform an upgrade. Importantly a full backup should be taken before commencing the upgrade.

You may only upgrade Asset Bank if you are in a warranty period or customer support. Should you experience any issues with license errors when attempting to upgrade please contact support.

Developer

The Developer Tools page currently only contains a single action. The 'Overwrite' button is used to apply or essentially 'publish' any customisations that you have made to the look and feel of your Asset Bank.

For more information on how to make changes to the look and feel of your Asset Bank, please refer to this configuration support page .

 

Storage Devices

In Asset Bank, storage devices are configurable areas of storage for digital files. A storage device can contain the asset files themselves and/or files created by the system for various operational purposes (thumbnails, converted versions, preview video clips, exported metadata, etc.).

A storage device relates to a directory on a local or mapped/mounted network hard drive accessible via the server's local filesystem, an Amazon S3 bucket or the Asset Bank database.

By default, a single unlimited storage device is configured to store both asset files and system files within a directory called 'files' within the application filespace. This will be suitable for many installations, but in situations where more control is required, it is possible to reconfigure the default storage device and/or add further devices.

Admin users can add new devices from the Admin > System > Storage Devices menu. Select the type of device to add (filesystem, Amazon S3 or database) and click Add. 

Below is a description of the configuration options for each device.

Name

A textual identifier for the device (i.e. 'Asset storage on server X' or 'Storage on Amazon S3'). 

Type

What type of resources will be stored in the device: system files, asset files,  thumbnails, a combination of the above or repurposed files. 'System files' refers to any versions of asset files that are created by the system for displaying within the application, plus temporary files created for a variety of purposes such as uploading, caching, importing, exporting, etc.

Local Path
The filesystem path of the device. This could be the path to a mapped/mounted network location or a path inside an Amazon S3 bucket. Be aware that Asset Bank's performance will be impacted by accessing files across a network.

Http Base Url

Alternative URL to serve the images from (allows images to be served by a server other than Tomcat - i.e. Apache). Requires the webserver to be setup prior to this field being populated.

Authentication ID (Amazon S3 only)

The key associated with the Amazon S3 account or IAM user that you want Asset Bank to use to access S3. The user / account will need full access to the Amazon S3 bucket that the Asset Bank is going to use. 

Authentication Key (Amazon S3 only)

The secret key associated with the Amazon S3 account or IAM user that you want Asset Bank to use to access the Amazon S3 bucket. 

Is Relative (File System only)
Whether the provided Path is relative to the Asset Bank web application root ([tomcat]/webapps/asset-bank), or an absolute path (which should start  with a '/').

Max Space
If necessary, a maximum storage limit can be provided for each device. Rather than being necessarily related to the physical size of the disk, this is a configurable maximum that allows you to limit the amount of space used by Asset Bank on a particular device (although clearly it doesn't make sense to make this more than the physical disk can accommodate). Once this limit is reached (given the safety margin - see below) Asset Bank will consider the device full and will look for another device in which to store files.

To try and ensure that the storage limit set for a storage device is not exceeded, there is a configurable 'safety margin' for each file device type. Asset Bank will consider a device full if its used space (according to the last assessment), plus the configured safety margin, is within the configured storage limit. Since (with default settings) the usage data may be up to 4 hours out of date, the safety margin should reflect an amount of space that is unlikely to be filled in this time.

The default settings for the safety margins for asset and system files are 100Mb and 1Gb respectively. If it is critical that each device's limit is not breached, it may be necessary to i) increase the frequency of the space usage scans by reducing the value of setting storage-device-usage-update-period-minutes and/or ii) increasing the safety margins.

The storage limit for a particular device can be changed at any time, so more space can be allocated to a device that is regarded full, for example. If the space allocation for a device is reduced, this will not reduce the amount of files already stored on the device, but may prevent further files from being stored if the remaining space becomes less than the configured safety margin.

Locked
It is possible to 'lock' a storage device to prevent it from being used for future file storage without affecting the files current stored. Note that when a storage device that stores System files is locked, it may still be used (until the next system restart) for cached converted images. It is unlikely that the overall space requirement will grow significantly, but new cached versions of files may be stored on the device.

Locking Storage Device Editing

In order to prevent the configuration of storage devices from being edited, it is possible to lock the current configuration by changing application setting storage-device-edit-lock from false to true. Obviously this process would need to be reversed in order to subsequently make further changes.

Deleting Storage Devices

It is generally not a good idea to delete storage devices if this can be avoided. If you do need to do this, clicking the delete link next to the storage device will take you to a page that will try and inform you about how the storage device is currently used. Pay close attention to any warnings on this page before continuing. Deleting a storage device that is currently being used for asset or system storage is likely to result in errors.

Facebook Integration

---

Optional Functionality

This section details some of the more specific functionality that the majority of Asset Bank users will not require.

Autocomplete

Introduction

Auto complete provides suggestions when you type in the following text fields:

• quick search (on the home page and the header of all pages)
• attributes on the advanced search (including search builder)
• attributes on the asset add/edit page and variants of it (e.g. bulk update)

Security and Performance Considerations

Auto complete does not check the visibility of attributes when deciding which completions to show a user.  This means that the data shown to users as auto complete suggestions could be data that would otherwise be invisible to them.  For this reason it is recommended that you disable auto complete if your Asset Bank contains highly sensitive data.

If users are given a lot of completions that don't have any search results the completions could be coming from text in document assets that are not visible to them.  Setting auto-complete-include-file-keywords to false may help (you need to rebuild the auto complete index after changing this setting).

Rebuilding the auto complete index can take a very long time if your Asset Bank has a lot of assets and/or attributes, so we do not recommend enabling auto complete if your Asset Bank is very large.  Disabling auto complete based on text in documents can also improve performance (you can do this by changing auto-complete-include-file-keywords to false).

Enabling or Disabling Auto Complete

Auto complete is completely disabled if the auto-complete-enabled property in ApplicationSettings.properties is set to false. If you want to use any this setting must be enabled. If you enable auto complete after assets have been added to your Asset Bank (i.e. not when you are initially setting it up) then you will need to rebuild the auto complete index.

Data for all attributes that have "Include in keyword searches" enabled will be included in the suggestions for quick search.

Auto completion is enabled on the advanced search and asset edit pages for the individual attributes that have "Auto complete" turned on on the "Edit Attribute" page. The suggestions are based on the values of the attribute for existing attributes, except for keyword picker attributes where the suggestions are based on the keywords in the master list.

Indexing

The auto complete index is separate from the main search index. Like the search index the auto complete index is usually updated by Asset Bank automatically but there are some circumstances in which it is necessary to rebuild the index.

You can rebuild the auto complete index by going to Admin -> Attributes -> reindex the auto complete index.

The auto complete index needs to be rebuilt when:

• You change auto-complete-enabled to true in ApplicationSettings.properties.
• You edit an attribute and enable or disable "Include in keyword searches" or "Auto complete".
• You rebuild the main search index (you should rebuild the auto complete index after the main index because the main index is used when building the auto complete index).
• You change include-category-names-in-keyword-search in ApplicationSettings.properties.

Workflows

Workflows define how an asset transitions from an unapproved state (i.e. not visible to anyone except approvers) to an approved state (i.e. visible to any user that has permission to view it) within your Asset Bank.

A workflow is a collection of states and transitions. Each state defines who can see assets in that state, the transitions that can be performed and who can perform the transitions. It can also include help text that is shown to relevant users to guide them on how to process assets.

These workflow definitions are specified in a commented xml file stored in the WEB-INF\manager-config\workflow directory of your Asset Bank webapp (this file should only be edited or changed by people who have a full understanding of the system's current approval process, the states that any assets in the system are currently in, the process that is trying to be achieved and how to install the new workflows). Here is an example of the workflow XML:

Organisational Units

Summary

Organisational units enable devolved administration of Asset Bank groups and users.

The super user creates organisational units and adds one or more administrative users to each.These org unit administrators can then manage the set-up of access levels, users and groups inside their own organisational unit.

Access levels are used to manage access to items. Each organisational unit has one root access level. If required, sublevels may be added.

In general, organisational units are self contained "departments" - so users within different organisational units will have access to disjoint sets of items.

Enabling organisational units functionality

To enable 'org units' change the following setting (in ApplicationSettings.properties) to true:

orgunit-use=true 

Creating organisational units

When you add an organisational unit, the following are created as part of it:

• An access level with the name you give
• An admin group, with full permissions on the new access level, and the right to manage users
• A standard user group, with view-only permissions on the new access level.

You must add at least one user to the admin group (Users menu item), so that you can devolve responsibility for the unit to them. Further users may be added by them or by yourself.

In addition, the following setup actions can be done by yourself or by org unit admins, as required:

• Add sublevels to the access level
• Add further groups
• Set permissions for the groups in the organisational unit.

Removing organisational units

When you delete an organisational unit, the access levels, groups and users within will also be deleted. Any users and items within will not be deleted but will be orphaned. So before deleting an organisational unit, first:

• Delete all users in the org unit or move them to different groups
• Delete all items in the org unit or move them to different access levels.

Managing your organisational unit(s)

Usually you will have one organisational unit to manage, although there may be more than one. You can manage an organisational unit in the following ways:

• Change the name (and the name of the corresponding access level)
• Add sublevels to the root access level if required
• Manage the groups within your organisational unit (Groups menu item).
• Approve users wanting to join your organisational unit (Approve Users menu item).
• Manage the users within your organisational unit (Users menu item).
• View details of the org unit (the admin users, normal users and outstanding acknowledgements) (from the Admin > Org Units page)
• Update the content for the org unit extra content page. This extra content page is shown in the left hand menu for all org unit users if content has been provided for the page. You can edit both the content of the page itself and the text that is used for the left hand menu item (from the Admin > Org Units page)

Asset Types

In your business domain you may have more than one type of asset you want to store in the same Asset Bank, where each type of asset has different metadata fields and may have different types of files (or no file at all). You may also want to relate assets of different types together in parent/child hierarchies, or non-hierarchical (peer) relationships. Asset Bank supports all this through Asset Types.

An example of this is where a 'Photo Shoot' asset type might be created (maybe allowing upload of a contact sheet as a PDF file) which has metadata relating to the shoot itself. A 'Photograph' asset type could then be created to represent the photos themselves, and these asset types could be configured to allow Photographs to be children of Photo Shoots. This would allow all the photos for a shoot to be grouped together, and shown together as thumbnails when viewing the Photo Shoot or Photograph metadata.

Taking this example a stage further, another asset type 'Model Release' could be created to store PDFs or scans of model release forms, and could be configured as a child of the Photograph type. You would have the flexibility to link the same Model Release to multiple Photographs if you wish.

Asset Type Configuration

Asset types can be turned on via the settings file by setting the following to true:

# Is creating and managing 'types' of assets allowed?
asset-entities-enabled=true

The settings file can be found here:

program files/Apache foundation/...

(Note: Once the changes have been made you'll have to re-start the Asset Bank application for the change to be picked up.)

 

Most asset type configuration is accessed from the Admin > Asset Types page. Here you can add, edit, remove and reorder asset types.

Note that you will not be able to delete an asset type when there are assets of that type in the system. You will first have to delete all the assets of this type first. This can be done by searching for all such assets, then choosing the 'Export all results' option and after the export choosing to 'Delete exported files'.

Asset types can be reordered by clicking the up/down links. This will define the ordering of the asset types when they appear in a list, for example when the user is prompted to choose a type to upload or search.

The options when adding or editing asset types are detailed below.

Name
This is the name as it appears to users, e.g. Photo Shoot in the above example.

Thumbnail file
You can optionally specify a file that will be used for the thumbnail in search results etc. when assets of this type has no uploaded file. This should be the name of a file that has been added to (or already exists in) the /files/thumbnails directory.

Media Types
You can select which media types (file, image, video, audio) the asset type should accept. If you do not select any of the available options, the asset type will be 'metadata only' and will not allow file uploads. This is typically useful when a particular asset type is being used to group other assets, although in this case consider whether Asset Bank's category functionality is more suitable to your needs.

In addition to selecting the media types, you can provide a list of file formats that should be included or excluded from the asset type. The list of file formats should take the form of a comma-separated list of file extensions, without the dot (e.g. "jpg,jpeg,gif,png"). Note that you cannot specify both an included and an excluded list - when you provide an included list all other formats are implicitly excluded, and visa versa.

Once set, the included/excluded list of file extensions will (along with the media types) will dictate what types of files can be uploaded to a particular asset type. If the user tries to upload a file that is not supported (or where applicable not supported by the asset type that they have chosen) they will be shown a message informing them of the problem and the file will not be uploaded.

Setting up the assets types to be as restrictive as possible in this manner has 2 advantages.

• You can ensure the suitability of the uploaded files for your organisation (e.g. make sure that all documents are in Word format).
• Uploading users will not have to choose an asset type when in fact only one type is applicable for the file they are trying to upload.

This latter advantage is due to the fact that Asset Bank will work out whether it's possible for any one file type to have more than one corresponding asset type, and only shows the choice of asset types if it is.

Note that using the included/excluded file format list in combination with the media types may result in 'nonsensical' configurations where an asset type requires a file but will not accept any particular formats (e.g. selecting only media type 'Image' but setting the included file formats to be "doc").

Is category extension? 

If the category-extension-assets-enabled setting is set to true then a checkbox will show that allows the user to define an asset type as a 'category extension' asset type. This type will be an option when users are creating extended categories and won't be available for standard uploads. 

Attributes
You can choose which attributes are available to the asset type. If you do not choose any of the available options, and have not selected any media types, it may be that a category is a better solution than an asset type.

Note that when you add new attributes in the Admin > Attributes section they will not be selected for any asset types automatically; you will have to return here to select them. Also be aware that if you de-select an attribute from an asset type, any data associated with that attribute for any existing assets will be lost and cannot be recovered.

There is also an option to hide a particular attribute on add. This means that when a user uploads an asset of this asset type then this particular attribute will be hidden. It will be visible and editable as normal when editing the asset.

If you choose to hide an attribute on add you can also give it a default value. This will automatically set the value of the attribute for any newly uploaded assets of this type - it will not update existing assets' attribute values.

Show Attribute Labels
This option can be unselected to hide the labels of metadata attributes when viewing an asset of this type. This is typically useful when a type is set up to have a small number of attributes whose value is sufficiently clear.

Match Attribute
There are 2 scenarios where the 'match attribute' can be significant: when adding/updating files to existing assets, and when adding additional file variants to an existing asset as 'children'. These operations are described below:

1) Adding files to existing assets:
When Asset Bank is configured to allow empty asset records (i.e. setting allow-empty-assets=true) it is possible to add a number of empty assets, and then at a later stage add the asset files to those empty asset records. In order for Asset Bank to match up these empty asset records and the files, it uses the 'match attribute' that is set for the asset type in question. For example, if the match attribute for a type called Photo Shoot is set to be ID and you add some empty assets of this type, you can then (at some later time) bluk upload some files whose filename matches the ID of the empty records (ignoring the file extension, e.g. 1234.jpg) and have them attached to the empty Photo Shoot records.

2) Adding child assets:
If the asset type is configured to have parents (and at least one asset type is configured to be able to have this type as a child) then the match attribute can be used to automatically link new chilld assets with their parent. An example of where this is useful is when there is a requirement to have variants of a particular asset file in different file formats (say, a Word file that also has a PDF variant). In this case the parent asset will be the original file, and it will have a child asset that is the variant. If the child asset type has a match attribute selected (say, 'Original filename') then it will be possible to bulk-upload files with the option 'Add new child assets to existing parents' where any files found whose filename match the original filename of a parent asset (ignoring the extension) will be linked to the parent assets as its child. So in our example, if we bulk-upload a file called AnnualReport.pdf and there is an existng parent asset whose filename is AnnualReport.doc, the new asset for AnnualReport.pdf will be created as a child type and linked to the parent.

Default Category Id
You can provide the id of a category that will be automatically selected when adding new assets of this type. The user will be free to add other categories. If you select 'Only allow this category' then all assets of this type will automatically only be in the chosen category and users will not be able to edit the categories of the asset. Whenever a pre-existing asset of this type is edited, its categories will be changed to match the new default category. You can do this immediately by ticking 'Update existing instances' which will require a re-index of the affected assets.

Root Category Id
You can provide the id of a category that will form the 'root' of valid categories for this asset type. This means that assets of this type will only be able to be placed in one of the root category's sub categories. This can be combined with the default categoryid to provide a reasonable default, providing the default category is a descendant of the root category.

In rare cases there may be a conflict where an asset type restricts an asset to specific categories and a user hasn't got permission to place assets in those categories. In this case the user will be unable to edit the asset and will be shown an error message describing the problem.

Can create copies
This option allows you to choose whether it will be possible to make copies of assets of this type. This will also require setting can-create-asset-copies to be set to true.

Can download children from parent page
If this option is selected, there will be a button 'Download Children' when viewing a parent asset that has children. Clicking this button will show a page listing all the child assets, giving the choice to download them individually or together in a zip file.

Show when browsing descendant categories
If this option is selected, then whenever an instance of this asset type is created in a category X it will be browseable in the category itself as normal but will also be visible when browsing any sub category of X.

Searchable
If one or more of the asset types in the system have this checkbox selected, only assets of the selected types will be returned in searches. Note that if no asset types have this option selected all types will be returned in searches.

Quick searchable
If one or more of the asset types in the system have this checkbox selected, only assets of the selected types will be returned in quick searches (i.e. those performed from the homepage or page header). Note that if no asset types have this option selected all types will be returned in quick searches.

Article
Tick this checkbox if you want assets in this asset type to display more like articles then assets when a user views them. 

Run immediate reindex of instances of this entity
There are a number of options on the edit asset type page that are only reflected on the front end of Asset Bank after assets have been reindexed. Clicking this checkbox prior to saving an asset type will launch an immediate reindex after the save that just reindexes instances of the type in question. There is a info message at the top of the edit Asset Type page that explains which elements of the type require a reindex if they are changed. 

Saved searches

A full overview of saved search functionality is given here in the general online help.

As an admin user however there is some extra functionality available to you that allows you to set up saved searches that are visible to all users in the system.

When creating or editing saved searches you will see a couple of extra options, when first saving a search. Once selected, the type can't be changed. The types are listed below;

• Personal - this a personal search that only you can see. Selecting this also gives you the option to "Show on homepage" which gives you a link on your homepage that runs the Saved Search - this option is effectively what non-admin users are allowed to select.

• Recommended - this is similar to a Personal search, show on the homepage, except it is for all users.
• Featured - a featured search appears as a (limited) set of thumbnails on the homepage for all users. It also allows a description to be added, that will appear when the user clicks through to the full saved search results page.

 Fugure 1 - a Featured Search appearing on the homepage for all users.

Marketing

When users register or view their profile, they will have the opportunity of subscribing to any of the marketing groups that have been set up (and if applicable, are available in their chosen language). They will see a list of all the marketing groups, and will be able to check a checkbox against each one in order to subscribe. They can then unsubscribe at a later time by unselecting any of the checkboxes on their profile page.

On the Marketing Groups admin page, all the current marketing groups are listed, and for each the number of currently subscribing users is shown.

Each of the existing groups can be edited or deleted, and new groups can also be added.

Once marketing groups have been set up, they can be used to find users when sending marketing emails, or when sharing a lightbox.

Adding/Editing Marketing Groups

To create a new marketing group click the 'Add a new group' link on the Marketing Groups admin page.

You must provide a name for each marketing group. In addition you may provide a description in order to explain why users might want to subscribe or what to expect.

Each group has a notes field that is not shown to non-admin users. You can use this to record additional information about the group, for instance information about the last email that was sent to the group.

If the application is set up for more than one language, you will be given the opportunity of entering the name and description in each language. Unlike many other translatable items, marketing groups in alternative languages do not receive data from the English version. If the name field for an alternative language version is left blank, the group will not be shown to users who have selected that language.

If a marketing group is required for an alternative language, but not for the English language, you may select the 'Hidden in default language' checkbox.

Slideshow

Asset Bank supports slideshows of images from the Lightbox, Search Results and Browse pages. To enable the slideshow functionality you need to make the following settings change:

Set enable-slideshow=true

The slideshow will generate images to display on the fly, this can result in the slideshow running quite slowly. If you find this to be a problem then you need to enable large image caching by doing the following:

• Change setting cache-large-images=true
• Change setting cache-unwatermarked-large-image=true
• The view-unwatermarked-large-image-size setting defines the size of the images that will be created for use in the slideshow. The default size of 800px is normally suitable for most uses but if you are expecting to have a set of users with very high resolution monitors you may want to increase this size.
• After settings changes have been activated login to your Asset Bank as an admin user
• Determine the minimum and maximum id of assets in your Asset Bank (either via the database or via the search page and the id sorting functionality)
• Call the url http:///asset-bank/action/regenerateImage?lowerId=[minId]&upperId=[maxId] (replacing the [minId] and [maxId] as appropriate)

This will cause Asset Bank to generate cached large versions of the images in your system and once this routine has completed (which may take a number of hours depending on the number of assets you have in your system) you should find the slideshow loads more quickly.

Direct Link Cache

• Create a new group (called for example 'Direct Link Group')
• Set relevant permissions in this group (this is where you decide what assets will be available for direct link, and what will not)
• When editing this new group (Admin > Groups > Edit) , you will see its 'id' in the URL, note this down (e.g. ...viewGroup?id=13...).
• Edit your Asset Bank settings file (<tomcat home>\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\classes\ApplicationSettings.properties) and add the 'id' after the equals sign for the following setting:

direct-image-link-permission-group=

• Then save the settings file, and re-start your Asset Bank web application to enable this feature

URLs to call the action will look like this:

Using asset ID:

 ^{...asset-bank/action/directLinkImage?assetId=297&width=1000&height=1000} 

Using an attribute to match on: 

^{.../directLinkImage?attributeId=4&attributeValue=MyImage&width=1000&height=1000} 

Downloading the target file (i.e. a download dialog will be shown):

  ^{...asset-bank/action/directLinkImage?assetId=297&download=true}

Batch Releases

Deleting a batch release

Agreements

Please see: http://www.assetbank.co.uk/go/knowledgebase/rights-management.html

---

Ecommerce

Price Bands

---