Customisable Features

Overview

In this document the Customisable aspects of Asset Bank are summarized.

We consider 4 roles with respect to the Customisations:

IT Admin - install and configure Asset Bank at the server level (and who will update configuration files).
Developer - who can Customise Asset Bank colours, styles logo etc.
Asset Bank Admins - who manage Asset Bank using the Admin interface provided.
Asset Bank End Users - who use Asset Bank: browsing, searching for and downloading assets (and possibly uploading assets if they are in a group with upload permissions).

This document goes on to summarize the main Customisation functions available to the first three roles, and how the end user screens are affected. It does not go into depth in any area, but provides links to further documentation.

If Customisations are needed that are not covered by the functions below, then Bright Interactive will be happy to quote for development of the required changes as part of your Asset Bank implementation project.

Asset Bank Admins

See the Asset Bank Documentation.

Asset Categories

Descriptive categories are managed in the Admin interface, under the Admin > Categories section.

You can define any number of categories, and they can be hierarchical (ie a tree structure for browsing).

For end users, the browsable categories appear on the Asset Bank home page and in the Browse section.

Asset Attributes

You can fully Customise the set of attributes that your assets can have, under the Admin > Attributes section. You can define any number of attributes, and each attribute can be one of several types, eg text field, date field, dropdown selector, keyword picker.

The behaviour of each attribute can be defined in detail, eg whether it is included in keyword searches, and whether it can be searched on in the Advanced Search page.

You can configure which set of attributes should appear for particular groups of users, in the Admin > Groups screen ('attribute visibility).

For end users, attributes can be searched on via the Advanced Search screen, and appear when the detail page for a particular asset is viewed. You can also configure which attributes will show by the thumbnails on the browse and search results screens.

Usage Types

When end users download assets, they will be asked to provide their intended usage (if Usage Types are enabled). The purpose behind this is two-fold:

1. The usage data given is recorded and can be reported on.
2. The system can be configured so that usages map to download formats.

Usage types and the mapping to formats is defined in the Admin > Usage Type section. For example, when an image is downloaded, the image is converted to a convenient size for MS Word documents if a usage type 'MS Word' is selected, or a lower quality version is provided if the usage 'Website' is selected.

Content

All page text that appears on screens that Asset Bank end users see can be Customised using Asset Bank's inbuilt content management system.

This applies to any text in the page template (excluding of course the actual asset attribute and category fields and data), for example:

introductory text
help text
section headings
menu labels
button text

Content is managed in the Admin > Content section. The 'Edit mode' feature allows easy in-place editing of specific labels throughout the end user pages.

System generated Email Content

You can change the content of the emails generated by the system, also in the Admin > Content section.

Featured and promoted images

You can select a set of images that appear in the Featured Image section on the homepage (Admin > Content > Featured Image).

Any assets can be flagged as 'promoted' , so they appear in the Promoted Assets section.

Developer

The following areas of Customisation are based on having a special 'customise' folder in the Asset Bank file system. Developers with some knowledge of CSS and HTML can place customisations in this folder, then run a tool in the Asset Bank Admin pages to apply the customisations (Admin > System > Developer section).

Colours and Styles

Asset Bank CSS files are designed so that overall colour scheme and fonts are easy to change. See 'Changing the Look and Feel', in http://www.assetbank.co.uk/support/documentation/configure/

Logo

See 'Changing the Logo'.

Watermark

See 'Changing the Watermark'.

Advanced User Interface Customisation

The Asset Bank user interface is developed using JSP technology. JSPs are a mix of logic elements and HTML code. Developers can create Customised copies of JSP pages, with HTML changes to effect changes in the layout, and place them in the appropriate place in the 'customise' folder.

Note: direct editing of JSP pages carries the risk of introducing defects if logic elements are affected. Furthermore, we advise against extensive Customisation of JSP pages from a support point of view, since Asset Bank upgrades may contain changes to the JSP logic which would need to be merged into the Customised copies where appropriate.

Bright Interactive will be happy to assist, or to quote for including your requirements in the core Asset Bank product.

IT Admin

Settings file

Asset Bank includes a single settings file called ApplicationSettings.properties, which contains many settings for controlling global system behaviour. Note: there is a risk of introducing defects if settings are changed from the defaults in such a way that they conflict.

Examples of such settings are:

Whether to use FTP, Java Applet or Flash for bulk upload of assets.
Whether users need to have their registrations approved by an admin before using Asset Bank.
Whether users need to accept Ts & Cs on registration.
Whether users need to accept Ts & Cs on registration.
Whether to have a 'remember me' option on login.
Define the fields you want to include for user accounts: eg division, organisation, fax, title, job-title, address, website.
Which registration fields are mandatory.
When user generated emails are sent.
Watermark positioning, brightness and size.
Thumbnail and preview image sizes.
Featured Image size.
Logo dimensions.
US/UK format for dates.
Webmaster email address.
Whether users need to accept Ts & Cs on download.
Whether users need to accept Ts & Cs on upload.
Enable credit strip in downloads.
Enable cropping on download.
Enable emailing of images (as alternative to download).
Enable compression of downloads.
Whether users can have multiple and shared lightboxes.
Whether to show a 'request on CD' button in the lightbox.
Number of images per browse page.
Number of images per search results page.
Number of promoted images to show on homepage.
Number of recent images to show on homepage.
Whether to get related assets on asset pages.
Whether to enable zoom function on full size view.
Whether to enable the hover preview in search results.
Whether to use 'AND' or 'OR' for multiple keyword searches.
Whether to enable stemming on keyword search.
Whether to disable right-click on preview images.