Setting up the Brand portal in Elvis 6

The Brand portal is one of the ways of accessing Elvis through a Web browser.

It provides easy access to content that is stored in Elvis and because of its limited features it is perfect for general use.

Figure: The Brand portal.

This article describes how to set up the Brand portal so that users can start using it. The following topics are described:

• Installation and configuration
• Required licenses
• Setting up user permissions
• Making the URL available
• Setting up the navigation method
• Changing the look and feel
• Controlling the available metadata fields
• Setting up download presets
• Web browser compatibility
• Customizing the list for sorting assets

Installation and configuration

The Brand portal is part of Elvis Server and is therefore installed as part of the Elvis Server installation.

Network products and RFC compliancy

The Brand portal is run in a Web browser and references to assets and queries are therefore expressed in URLs. These URLs can contain ////-sequences and diacritics such as accented characters.

Please note that the URLs that are generated by Elvis are compliant with the URI syntax RFC 3986. Make sure that your network environment such as proxies, gateways and firewalls also support this standard so that the URLs can be successfully routed.

Required licenses

The Brand portal is mainly aimed at users with a Basic user license who only need to search, download and share assets, but is of course available to users with any of the other license types as well.

Making the URL available

Distribute the following URL to users who need to use the Brand portal:

<Elvis Server URL>/app

Example: http://www.elvis.com/app

Note that this is the same URL as the one for accessing the Pro client. When accessing the URL and entering the log-in credentials, one of two things will happen:

1. For users with a Basic user license the Brand portal will immediately appear.
2. For users with a Standard or Pro user license or for Super users, the Pro client appears. The Brand portal can then be accessed clicking the avatar and choosing 'Brand portal' from the menu.

Web browser compatibility

Make sure that users access the Brand portal by using a Web browser with which the Brand portal is compatible. For a full overview, see Compatibility of Elvis 6.

Setting up user permissions

As for any other Elvis client, users need to be given permission to use the Brand portal and its features. This is done by using the tools as described in Controlling user permissions in Elvis 6.

For the Brand portal, take note of the following:

• Use the Capability named 'Web client' to provide users access to the Brand portal.
• Check the list of client features in Controlling user access to clients and client features in Elvis 6 to see which apply to the Brand portal.
• When using folders as a navigation method in the Brand portal (see Setting up the navigation method), these folders appears as 'Categories': links that can be clicked. Because the folder name is used as the name of the Category, make sure that descriptive folder names are used as much as possible. Grant or deny folder access to each user or user group as needed so that only links appear to locations that the user is allowed access to.

Setting up the navigation method

The Brand portal can be set up to let users use one of the following ways of navigating the assets in Elvis:

• By using Categories
• By using taxonomies

Using Categories

Note: Using Categories is the default navigation method of the Brand portal.

In the Brand portal, Categories represent the folders in Elvis. Instead of showing a folder structure, the Categories and any sub Categories are shown as a list. When selecting a Category, the assets that are part of that folder in Elvis are shown.

Figure: Using Categories to navigate the assets in the Brand portal.

Using taxonomies

Using taxonomies is a way of adding metadata to an asset by choosing a value from a predefined list. This makes sure that:

• The value is always correctly spelled when adding it to the asset or when searching for it
• Users are made aware of the existence of the term by viewing the taxonomy list

When Elvis Server is set up to make use of taxonomies, these can be offered in the Brand portal as a way of letting users find assets. It then replaces the method of using Categories.

Note: The 'Tags' field is not supported for use as a taxonomy field in the Brand portal because it conflicts with the current filter options.

Taxonomies are shown as lists that can be expanded or collapsed from which the user can choose one or more values.

Figure: Using taxonomies to find assets in the Brand portal.

Setup

To set up this feature, edit the cluster-config.properties.txt file in the following ways:

Step 1. Add the following option and set it to true:

• Enabling taxonomy navigation

brandPortalTaxonomyNavigation=true

Step 2. Add the following option and add the name of each field (for which taxonomy is enabled) that needs to be shown. Separate multiple fields by a comma:

• Defining which taxonomy fields to show

brandPortalNavigationTaxonomyFields=field1,field2,field3

Step 3. Save the file.

Changing the look and feel

The look and feel of the Brand portal can be changed to match the style of the brand that the Brand portal is used for, for example by matching it with the branding of a company, product or publication.

The following can be adjusted:

• The application name shown in the Web browser tab
• The background image of the Sign In page
• The logo in the header
• The color of the header
• The highlight color (used for buttons, selections and various other small page items)
• The background color for thumbnails and previews of transparent images
• The 'favicon' shown in a Web browser
• The 'Feedback' and 'Help' links

 

Figure: The default background image of the Sign In page.

 

Figure: A custom background image on the Sign In page.

Figure: The default Branding settings.

Figure: The Branding settings adjusted to match the WoodWing brand.

Changing the application name shown in the Web browser tab

The Brand portal is run in a Web browser. By default, 'Elvis' is shown in the tab.

This name can be changed to a custom name.

Note: This also affects the Web browser tab of the Pro client and of Shared links.

Step 1. Follow the steps for creating a custom language file. See 'Customizing languages' in Managing languages in Elvis 6.

Step 2. Add the following key to the file, followed by the custom name:

webClient.general.application.name=My company name

Step 3. Save the file.

The changes are immediately available.

Changing the background of the Sign In page

The background image that is shown on the Sign In page can be replaced by a custom image.

The default image is stored in the following location:

<Elvis config>/plugins/active/internal/elvis_client/logos/background.jpg

Using a custom image

To use a custom image, replace the existing image by another image that is also named 'background.jpg'.

Notes: Images can only be in .jpg format Typically use an image with a dimension of around 1920x1280 pixels, compressed to a size of below 800Kb The same image is used for the Sign In page of the Pro client and the Sign In page of the Brand portal In order for the image to appear for a user it may be necessary to clear the Web browser cache

Tip: To create a background with an even color, create an image containing a single pixel of a certain color.

Changing the logo and colors

Changing the logo and colors is done through the Management console.

Note: Any changes made apply to the Brand portal as well as the Pro client.

Step 1. Access the Management Console by clicking your Avatar and choosing Management Console from the menu.

Step 2. From the menu on the left of the page, chose Branding.

The Management Console appears.

 

Step 3. From the menu on the left, choose Branding.

Step 4. Make your changes and click Apply.

Setting the background color for thumbnails and previews of transparent images

Info: This feature requires Elvis 6.18 or higher.

The default background color for thumbnails and previews of transparent images is white. If the subject of the image is also (mostly) white, this can make it hard to distinguish the subject from the background.

To improve this, a custom background color (such as light gray) can be set for all transparent images. This can be done by setting the following option:

• File: cluster-config.properties.txt
• Option name: defaultBackground
• Value: An RGB hex triplet
• Default value: #ffffff
• Requires Elvis Server restart: yes

Example: defaultBackground=#ececec

Changing the favicon

A favicon is an icon that is shown in various locations in a Web browser such as in tabs and for bookmarks.

Figure: The default favicon for Elvis.

The default icon can be changed to a custom icon by replacing the following image on Elvis Server:

<Elvis config>/plugins/active/internal/elvis_client/logos/favicon.ico

Notes: Images can only be in .ico format. Use one of the many online tools to convert an image to an icon file. In order for the new icon to appear, reload the page. In some cases it may also be necessary to clear the Web browser cache. The same favicon is used by the Pro client as well as by the Brand portal.

Controlling the available metadata fields

When an image is viewed in fullscreen mode, a default list of metadata fields can be viewed by clicking the Info button in the top right corner.

Note: Permissions are required for a user to see metadata fields, see above.

Figure: Viewing metadata for an image in fullscreen mode.

To add or remove fields, do the following:

Step 1. Access a cluster-config.properties.txt file for your Elvis cluster (see Changing the Elvis 6 Server configuration for a running cluster).

Step 2. Locate the brandPortalMetadataPanelFields setting.

Step 3. Add or remove fields as required. Any field that is not listed will not be shown.

Note: When adding fields, reference their field names as listed in Metadata field information for Elvis 6.

Setting up download presets

By default, users can either download a preview of a file, download the original file, or they can create a custom download to download the file in a specific format, size and resolution.

Note: This applies to downloading files in the Brand portal itself as well as downloading files that are shared through the Brand portal.

To improve efficiency, Download Presets containing often used download settings can be made available to user groups and users of shared files. This way the users do not have to go through the process of creating a Custom Download each time themselves.

Each assigned Download Preset appears in the Download menu for that user.

Figure: Download Presets make it easy for users to quickly download files in a specific format, size and resolution.

Setting up Download presets is done in the Management Console. For more information, see Managing Download Presets in Elvis 6.

Customizing the list for sorting assets

Info: This feature requires Elvis 6.6 or higher.

When browsing the assets in the Brand portal, the displayed assets can be sorted by using the Sort list.

Figure: The Sort list in the Brand portal.

This list contains default items to sort the assets on, but can also be customized to show specific items only. For more information, see Customizing the list for sorting assets.

Document history

• 25 July 2019: Added section 'Changing the application name shown in the Web browser tab'.