Configure asset export

The asset export transfers assets or asset structures to other systems. You can define server actions for your use case that export all or part of certain asset structures. This is done by defining which relationships like relations or asset references to follow or exclude. There is a manual and an automatic server action.

Context

• There is a manual and an automatic server action for the asset export.

• The manual asset export and import is available in the censhare Client.

• The manual import is also available in censhare Web.

• The configuration is done in the censhare Admin Client.

• You can configure several server actions for different asset structures.

Introduction

Assets and their relationships form the data world of censhare. Asset structures can form complex objects in censhare. For example, Layout assets can be placed in an Issue asset. The Layout assets can contain Text assets and Image assets. Text assets and Image assets can have a Person asset that stores the author.  

If you want to transfer such an asset structure, you cannot just export the assets and import them into another system. You also must maintain different relationships. Following all different kinds of relationship from the top of an asset structure and including all assets, might result in large exports. These can also contain assets that should not be transferred. To control which assets are exported, you can configure which types of relationships to include and which assets to filter out.  

To transfer such an asset structure to another censhare system, you must export and then import the assets into the other systems. This export can be configured.  

• First, you can filter the assets. For example, filter for certain asset types, domains, or features.

• Second, you can define which types of relationship censhare follows.

There are two ways to filter based on the relationship type:

• White-listing: Include only certain relationships of that relationship type. All others are ignored.

• Black-listing: Exclude certain relationships of that relationship type. All others are included.

The export starts from a root asset that is at the top of the asset structure. This root asset can be selected manually by a user or automatically by the system. From the root asset, censhare follows all configured types of relationships to the neighbor assets.

Censhare continues to follow the relationships to neighbor assets until there are no more relationships to follow. If there is a filter that matches an asset, this asset is ignored and censhare does not follow relationships that start from there.

After the export, censhare compresses all results into a Zip file.  

Note: The Asset Export/Import module includes several server actions for import and export that are not related to this server action.

The different relationships

censhare can follow three different types of relationships:

• Relations (child direction, parent direction, non-directed).

• Asset references with asset IDs.

• Asset references with resource keys.

Relations are directed or non-directed. A directed relation has a parent asset and a child asset. If an asset has a child relation, the relation points to the asset. If an asset has a parent relation, the relation points to another asset. For example, the standard relation type Assignment is directed: an Image asset (child) is assigned to a Group asset (parent). 

A non-directed relation has no child or parent asset. There are just two assets that are connected. For example, the standard relation type Similar is non-directed.

A relation type can have sub-relation types. For example, the relation type Assignment can have, among others, the sub-relation types Author and Main content. The Asset relation type table in the Master data section of the censhare Admin-Client provides a list of all relation types.  

For the user, asset references behave like asset relations. However, the technical concept is different. An asset reference is a feature of an asset that stores a reference to another asset. This reference can be the ID or the resource key of an asset. There are no sub-references. You must configure asset references separately from asset relations.  

You can configure five different types of filters:  

• parent relations (relationship type)

• child relations (relationship type)

• asset reference features: stores an asset ID (relationship type)

• features: stores a resource key (relationship type)

• assets

Note: Non-directed relations are configured in the parts for child and parent relations.

Include or exclude relationship types

For the filtering, you need to know which of relationships and relationship types are used and which ones you want to export. This information helps you determine if you want to use black-listing or white-listing for a certain relationship type. To export mostly all relationship types of the asset structure, exclude the relationship types that you do not need. If you only want to have some specific relationship types, include these relationships.

For example, a simple asset structure with an Image asset that has the following child relations:  

• Marker

• Author

• Message

• Task

For your export, you only want to have the related Marker assets. In this case, you only need one of the four child relations.

You can include the child relation Marker or exclude the child relations Author, Message, and Task.

For this example, the Include option requires less work than the Exclude option.

Directed relations

If an asset is part of an asset relation with the attribute Type = "directed", it can be the child or the parent asset in this relation. The relation can start from this asset (parent) or end at this asset (child). You can configure whether censhare follows (include) or does not follow (exclude) a relation:

• If the asset is the child

• If the asset is the parent

• If the asset is the child or parent

• If the asset is not the child or parent

There are eight different ways to handle relations of an asset:

Non-directed relations

Note: Non-directed relations and directed relations are configured in the same Child relations and Parent relations sections.

But the configuration then behaves differently because there are no child or parent assets. If you configure a non-directed relation both in the Child and the Parent relations section, the Exclude setting supersedes the Include setting. For example, the Relation type Similar is configured in the Child relations section with Include and in the Parent relations section with Exclude. Exclude supersedes Include. In this case, censhare does not follow any relations with the type Similar. Here are the setting combinations and results:

Features filter

Here you can select which features that reference assets via their resource key to include or exclude. The asset with this resource key is also exported. When this asset is imported on another system, censhare checks whether an asset with this resource key already exists. If an asset with this resource key already exists on the system, the existing asset is not updated. censhare does not overwrite values in the existing asset with the asset in the import file.

If an asset with this resource key does not exist on the system, censhare creates an asset. This asset also receives the resource key.

Note: References with resource keys are configured in the Features section in the configuration dialog in the censhare Admin Client.

Asset references features filter

Here you can select which features to follow that references assets via their asset ID. The asset with this asset ID is then also exported. When it is imported on another system, censhare always creates a new asset with a new ID. Asset references features behave like relations.  

Note: References with asset IDs are configured in the Asset references features section in the configuration dialog in the censhare Admin Client.

Server actions

Manual and the automatic server action

censhare allows you to execute the Asset export manually or via asset automation. This means you can define the same filters as server action or asset automation. For the automatic server action, you then must define which kind of events trigger the execution. The automatic asset export stores the result in a defined directory of the assigned file system.  

More than one export server action

If one set of filters does not fit all asset structures you want to export, create different Asset export actions, and give them meaningful names.  

Administration rights

You need one of the following administration permissions to access the Asset Export/Import Module and create server actions and asset automation entries:  

• Admin configuration

• Admin all

Steps

Configure Asset Export

General setup

Set the name for the server action: Enter the name in the Title field. This name is shown as entry in the Server actions drop-down list.  

Activate the server action: Check the Enabled box.  

For more information on the General setup part, see Configuring manual server actions - general parameters.  

Export single asset

If you only want to export the selected asset, do not select Hierarchical.  

Export asset structure

If you want to export an asset structure, select Hierarchical.

When Hierarchical is selected, the following sections are available:

• Parent relations

• Child relations

• Features

• Asset reference features

• Asset filters

Parent relations

In the Selection type field, select if you want to Include or Exclude parent relations. By default, Include is selected.  

If you want to include or exclude all parent relations, check Select all. The  button below the checkbox to select a single parent relation disappears.  

To add a parent relation:  

1. Click the  button to add a certain relation.

2. Select the Relation type.

3. Select a sup-type. If you select "*", all sub-types are included. If you select " ", no sub-type is included.

4. Add sub-types until the full path of the relation is entered.

To delete a parent relation:  

1. Click

   

    basket.

Child relations

In the Selection type field, select if you want to Include or Exclude child relations. By default, Include is selected.  

If you want to include or exclude all parent relations, check Select all. The  button below the checkbox to select a single-child relation disappears.  

By default, all child relations for the following relation types are included:  

• Planning

• Placement

• Variant

• Assignment

You can adapt these entries, delete them, or add other child relations.  

To add a child relation:  

1. Click the  button to add a certain relation.

2. Select the Relation type.

3. Select a sup-type. If you select "*", all sub-types are included. If you select " ", no sub-type is included.

4. Add sub-types until the full path of the relation is entered.

To delete a child relation:  

1. Click

   

    basket.

Features

In the Selection type field, select if you want to Include or Exclude Features (asset references by resource key). By default, Include is selected.  

To add a Feature:  

1. Click the  button.

2. Select the Feature type.

To delete a Feature entry:  

1. Click

   

    basket.

Asset reference features

In the Selection type field, select if you want to Include or Exclude Asset reference features (asset references by asset ID). By default, Include is selected.  

To add an Asset reference feature:  

1. Click the  button.

2. Select the Asset reference feature type.

To delete an Asset reference features entry:  

1. Click

   

    basket.

Asset filters

You can exclude certain assets from the export:  

1. To open a search dialog, click the frame that is located to the right of the Ignore label.

2. A search dialog opens.

3. Enter the search criteria.

4. To apply your filter criteria and close the dialog, click OK.

Special setup

Zip64: censhare can use the Zip64 format for zipping. Zip64 can create files that are larger than 2 GB. We recommend this option.  

Add json files: The content of the assets is always stored as XML in the export file. If this box is checked, censhare also adds the content of the assets in the json format.  

Configure Asset Export (automatic)

General setup

For more information, see the Configure Asset Export.

Asset automation part

In the following, you find some notes on the configuration of the asset automation part of the server action. For more information, see Configure the automatic execution of server actions.

Trigger events

Setup  

The parameters define how work with the asset events that trigger the server action.

Trigger events  

This part defines on which events the asset automation executes the asset export. 

Asset filters  

Add filters that define which assets are processed by the automatic server action.

Batch handling of events  

Instead of handling events immediately, censhare can also store them and process them later. For example, batch handling is useful if many events occur and only the result of all events for an asset is important.

If activated, censhare fetches the events in chunks from the database, groups the events and creates a custom event that is processed later.

Asset structure

The configuration of the asset structure is the same as in the manual server action. 

Special setup

Here you define the folder where censhare stores the ZIP files of exported assets.

For Zip64 and Add JSON files, see Configure Asset Export.

Synchronize the server actions

After you change the configuration of the asset export, you must update the censhare Servers in the censhare Admin Client.

If there is only one censhare Server:  

• Select Update server configuration in the top navigation of the censhare Admin Client.

If there are a Master Server and one or more Remote Servers:  

• Select Synchronize remote server in the top navigation of the censhare Admin Client.

This action updates the Master Server first and then transfers the configuration to the Remote Servers.

Result

You know how to set up manual and automatic asset exports in the censhare Admin-Client. You know the different relationship types and how to configure which relationship types censhare includes in the asset export.