Changing the look and feel of Assets

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

For example, the background image of the Sign In page can be changed to a custom image:

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

Figure: A custom background image on a customized Sign In page.

Or the logo and the colors of the interface can be changed to match your brand:

Figure: The default Branding settings.

Figure: Custom Branding settings.

The following can be adjusted:

• The application name shown in the Web browser tab
• The icon shown in the Web browser tab
• The background image of the Sign In page
• Adding 'Forgot password' and 'Help' links to the Sign In dialog
• The logo in the header
• The color of the header
• The highlight color (used for buttons, selections and various other small page items)
• The metadata icons
• The background color for thumbnails and previews of transparent images
• The 'Feedback' and 'Help' links
• The 'more info' link in the 'No search results found' message
• Creating custom e-mail notifications for Shared Links

Changing the application name shown in the Web browser tab

Assets is run in a Web browser. By default, 'Assets' is shown in the tab.

This name can be changed to a custom name.

Note: This also affects the Web browser tab of the Brand portal and of Shared links.

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

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

assets.webClient.general.application.name=My company name

Step 3. Save the file.

The changes are immediately available.

Changing the icon shown in the Web browser tab

Info: Performing the described step requires direct server access. Depending upon how your system is hosted and the level of access you have to that system, coordination may be required with your Partner or WoodWing Support team. For a full overview of the steps that need to be done by WoodWing and how to request them, see WoodWing Cloud - Change management.

An Assets icon is shown in various locations in a Web browser such as in tabs and for bookmarks. Such an icon is known as the 'favicon' of a Web browser.

Figure: The default favicon for Assets.

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

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

Changing the Sign In page

The following can be changed for the Sign In page:

• The background image
• Adding 'Forgot password' and 'Help' links

Changing the background image

Info: Performing the described step requires direct server access. Depending upon how your system is hosted and the level of access you have to that system, coordination may be required with your Partner or WoodWing Support team.

A background image is shown on the Sign In page and can be replaced by a custom image if needed.

The default image is stored in the following location:

<Assets Server 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'.

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

Adding 'Forgot password' and 'Help' links

If for some reason users are not able to sign in to Assets, the following links can be added to the Sign In dialog to help them further:

• Forgot your password? Can be used for linking to a page where users can reset their password.
• Help. Can be used to link to a knowledge base or knowledge base article for troubleshooting steps.

By default, the links are not shown. To display either or both links, do the following in the Management Console:

In the Server configuration > Files > the cluster-config.properties.txt file, add a URL to one or both of the following options:In the Server configuration > Files > the cluster-config.properties.txt file, add a URL to one or both of the following options:

• loginForgotPasswordUrl=
• loginHelpUrl=

Changing the logo and colors

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

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

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, choose Branding.

Step 3. Make your changes and click Apply.

Changing the metadata icons

When the user's attention needs to be drawn to specific metadata, an icon (also referred to as a 'flag') can be added as a visual indicator (a process also known as 'flagging').

Example: You may want to visually display a status or indicate that a field contains specific information such as copyright info.

Such icons appear for thumbnails in the search results and can be set for any standard metadata field or custom metadata field.

Figure: Files in Assets showing icons for the Status, Approval and Copyright fields.

A default set of icons is shipped with Assets Server and can be replaced or expanded.

For more information, see Highlighting metadata in Assets Server by using icons.

Changing the fields in the Essentials group of the Metadata panel

Info: This feature requires Assets Server 6.62 or higher.

Assets Server comes with over 400 metadata fields which can be extended even further by creating custom metadata fields. Although metadata fields are organized in groups and are displayed as such in the Metadata panel of Assets, it can be quite time consuming for users to find the field they want to edit.

Users typically make use of only a small number of specific fields during their daily work. To make these often used fields more easily available to users, metadata fields can be made part of the 'Essentials' group. By default this group is empty and thereby hidden, but when one or more fields are made part of this group it is displayed at the top of the Metadata panel for easy access.

To make metadata fields appear in the Essentials group, they need to be made part of the field group named Essentials.

This is done in the same way as adding fields to any other group (see The metadata structure of Assets Server):

Step 1. In the Management Console, access the Server Configuration > Files page and search for the following file:

custom-assetinfo.xml

Tip: Copy and paste the content of this file into an XML editor so that you have the benefit of line numbers and syntax highlighting. When done editing, copy and paste the changes back into the page.

Step 2. For any field that needs to be part of the Essentials group, make sure that it is part of the fields list and that the Essentials group is assigned to it.

<fieldExt name="credit" group="Essentials"/>

<field name="cf_customEssentialField" group="Essentials" embed="true">
	<storage storeInMetadata="true" />
	<compass index="tokenized" store="yes" excludeFromAll="false" />
	<data editable="true" datatype="text" />
	<description>
	</description>
</field>

Step 3. Click Save to save the changes.

Setting the background color for thumbnails and previews of transparent images

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 Assets Server restart: yes

Example: defaultBackground=#ececec

Customizing the 'Feedback' and 'Help' links

The 'Feedback' and 'Help' commands in the Avatar menu allow users to access the WoodWing Help Center to look up product documentation or to provide feedback about Assets to WoodWing.

Figure: The Feedback and Help commands in the Avatar menu.

By default, the following links are used:

• Feedback is linked to the users community using URL https://helpcenter.woodwing.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200046016.

• Help is linked to one of the following articles, depending on which area of Assets is accessed:

• When the Checked-out files page is accessed, it links to Opening files for editing (file check-out and check-in) in Assets using URL https://helpcenter.woodwing.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040640072.

• When the Shared Links page is accessed, it links to Sharing files with others using Assets using URL https://helpcenter.woodwing.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040640132.

• When any other area is accessed, it links to the main Assets documentation page using URL
  https://helpcenter.woodwing.com/hc/en-us/categories/360002597051.

The Feedback and Help options can be customized in the following ways:

Note: This only applies to Assets, not the Management console.

• The URL can be changed to a custom URL
• The option can be removed from the menu

Step 1. Access the cluster-config.properties.txt file on one of the Assets Server nodes. See Changing the Assets Server configuration for a running cluster.

Step 2. Locate or add any of the following options and add a custom URL or leave it blank to remove the option from Assets:

feedbackUrl=
generalDocumentationUrl=https://www.mydocumentation.com
sharelinkDocumentationUrl=https://www.mydocumentation.com
editingDocumentationUrl=https://www.mydocumentation.com

elvisFeedbackUrl=
elvisGeneralDocumentationUrl=https://www.mydocumentation.com
elvisSharelinkDocumentationUrl=https://www.mydocumentation.com
elvisEditingDocumentationUrl=https://www.mydocumentation.com

Step 3. Save the file.

Customizing the 'more info' link in the 'No search results found' message

When a user searches for files, it can happen that no search results can be shown. This can have several reasons, as shown in the message to the user:

One of the reasons could be that an incorrect syntax was used. The message then provides a link to an article with information about setting up a correct syntax. This link can be accessed by clicking the text 'more info'.

This link can be pointed to a different article, or the link can be hidden altogether.

Step 1. Access the cluster-config.properties.txt file on one of the Assets Server nodes. See Changing the Assets Server configuration for a running cluster.

Step 2. Locate or add the following option and add a custom URL or leave it blank to remove the option from Assets:

Step 3. Save the file.

Creating custom e-mail notifications for Shared Links

Info: Performing the described step requires direct server access. Depending upon how your system is hosted and the level of access you have to that system, coordination may be required with your Partner or WoodWing Support team.

When files are shared by creating a Shared link, an option can be enabled to notify one or more users by e-mail when a change is made:

• A user approves or rejects a file
• A user uploads a file

Default text in English is used for the subject and the body text of the e-mail.

For the review process:

For uploading files:

Changing the wording of this text or translating it to your language can be done by changing the language file. The text is then used for overruling the default text.

For more information about language files, see Managing languages in Assets Server.