Asset Deletion 3 - Remove versions

Purpose

Each time an asset changes, censhare creates a new version. If this frequently happens for many assets, a lot of table space is required in the database. For some operations, many asset versions can slow down the system. For assets that store large asset files like images or videos, asset versions can correspond to many content versions. These asset files consume a lot of disk space.

To manage and remove the version history of assets, censhare provides Asset Deletion 3. Asset Deletion 3 applies definable policies to automatically deletes asset versions and the corresponding asset files.

Context

• Asset Deletion 3 is the successor of Asset Deletion 1 and 2.

• Asset deletion 3 works with censhare systems that run with a PostgreSQL or Oracle database.

• As of 2019.2, Asset Deletion 2 is no longer available. 

• As of 2019.3: Asset Deletion 1: Deactivated by default. No parallel execution of Asset Deletion 1 and 3: Asset Deletion 3 is not automatically executed if Asset Deletion 1 is activated.

Prerequisites

• Asset Deletion works at the core of the censhare system: To configure and manage it, you must be an experienced administrator of the censhare Server.

• To configure asset version policies, you must be familiar with the concepts of assets, relations between assets, domains, and asset types in censhare.

• To monitor the deletion process, you must be familiar with censhare log files.

• Access to the database with an administration tool and the execution of SQL queries is required.

Introduction

The main purpose of Asset Deletion 3 is to remove asset versions that are no longer needed in the system. Asset version policies define which versions to keep.

Asset Deletion 3 has built-in fixed constraints that prevent the deletion of asset versions. For example, versions of a system asset cannot be deleted. The deletion report shows all versions of an asset that have at least one constraint.

The asset deletion process

The asset deletion process (1) consists of three steps: Mark asset versions (S1), Delete asset versions (S2) and Delete storage items (S3). The steps are executed consecutively by a deletion server action.

Mark asset versions

Asset Deletion 3 walks through the assets and checks if an asset version policy applies. If a policy applies for a given asset, censhare then checks if any fixed constraint exists. The result is a list of asset versions that are marked for deletion.

Delete asset versions

Asset Deletion 3 processes the list of assets that are marked for deletion. It checks for an asset version if the time to keep is over. If this is true, censhare removes the asset version physically from the respective database tables. If a deleted asset version has a storage item (asset file), censhare writes the file on a list in the database to delete them in the next step.

Delete storage items

Asset Deletion 3 processes this database list and deletes the files physically.

Configure asset version policies

The Asset Deletion 3 asset version policies are configured in the censhare Admin Client. You can define dedicated policies for asset types or subtypes and domains.

censhare comes with a set of predefined policies, that can be adapted. You can also add new policies.

An asset version policy offers three modes to keep asset versions:

• Keep all versions: No version is marked for deletion.

• Delete all versions: All versions, except the very first and very last version, are marked. If marked manually, all versions, including the first and last, are deleted in the deletion subprocess. No asset history is available.

• Delete selected versions: Define, how many of the first and how many of the last asset versions are kept.

Check assets for constraints

While deleting asset versions, Asset Deletion 3 maintains system integrity. There are constraints that are independent of the defined asset version policies. They are always checked when censhare marks asset versions for deletion.

The constraints work on three levels:

• On asset level: For example, if an asset is checked out, no versions are marked for deletion. Constraints on the asset level cannot be changed.

• On asset version level: For example, if an image is placed in a layout, censhare does not delete the asset version that corresponds to the placement relation. Constraint on asset version level cannot be changed.

• On asset version policy: These constraints can be adapted for the specific system.

Configure server actions

Asset Deletion 3 provides two server actions for the deletion process:

• The automatic server action covers all assets of a system.

• The manual server action covers a single asset (only available in the censhare Client).

The configuration is identical for both server actions. The automatic server action requires additional configuration for the automatic execution. You define which parts of the deletion process are executed and how long the various parts are running.

Monitoring

The Report server action shows which versions are not deletable for a given asset. For each of these versions, the report lists the constraints that prevent the deletion. Use the report to check if the asset version policies are working as you expect.

censhare writes all information about the process into the server log. For instance, there is a log entry when it starts or finishes a certain part of the deletion process.

There are some simple checks that you can do on the database itself. You need the appropriate tools and knowledge to do so.    

Known issue: Currently,  the Asset Deletion Report does not list asset versions that cannot be deleted because the online channel "live-tag" marks a version.

Asset Deletion 3 compared to Asset Deletion 1

As of 2019.2, Asset Deletion 2 is no longer available. For an overview of Asset Deletion 3 compared to Asset Deletion 1 and 2, see here.

Here is a list of the main differences:  

Result

You have an overview of the concepts of Asset Deletion 3. You know the basic differences between Asset Deletion 3 and its predecessor Asset Deletion 1.