Installing Assets Agent

Using Assets, files can be automatically opened in their native application, edited in some way and saved back to Assets Server.

Communication between Assets and the application in which the file is opened is handled by a separate application named Assets Agent. It needs to be installed on the system on which Assets is used.

This article describes how to install Assets Agent.

Before you start

Before you start, be aware of the following:

• Compatibility of Assets Agent with operating systems. For more information, see the Compatibility Matrix.

• Load balancers. Using Assets Agent with a load balancer requires WebSocket support, the technology that is used by Assets Agent.

Note: WebSocket support is available in Application Load Balancers (ALB), not in Elastic Load Balancers (ELB).

• SSL. Assets Agent needs a full chain SSL certificate; a Self signed SSL certificate will not work with Assets Agent. For details about how to set up a HTTPS connection with Assets Server, see Setting up HTTPS in Assets Server. You might also need to add your domain to the security.accessControlAllowOrigin in the cluster-config.properties.txt file and then restart the cluster.

Installation

The installation process involves the following steps:

Step 1. Configuring Assets Server

Step 2. Downloading Assets Agent

Step 3. Installing Assets Agent

Step 4. Making sure that Assets Agent is running

Step 5. Configuring trusted Assets Server URLs

Step 6. (Optional) Changing preferences

1. Configuring Assets Server

Step 1. Add the following option:

• File: cluster-config.properties.txt file
• Name of option: webSocketEnabled
• Default value: false
• Example:

webSocketEnabled=true

Step 2. Save the changes and restart Assets Server.

2. Downloading Assets Agent

Assets Agent can be downloaded from within Assets.

Step 1. Access the Installation clients page of Assets by accessing the Avatar menu and choosing Install clients.

Step 2. Download the required installer.

3. Installing Assets Agent

Extract the downloaded file, double-click it to start the installation and follow the instructions on screen.

4. Making sure that Assets Agent is running

After installation, Assets Agent is automatically started on Windows, but needs to be started manually on macOS.

When Assets Agent is running, an icon is shown in the notification area (Windows system tray) or in the menu bar (macOS).

Figure: Assets Agent in the notification area of Windows (left) and in the menu on macOS (right).

Tip: Configure your system in such a way that Assets Agent is automatically started when the system itself is started.

5. (Optional) Configuring trusted Assets Server URLs

To prevent connections to rogue servers, a trusted instance of Assets Server needs to be specified when Assets Agent connects to Assets Server.

This can be done by configuring one or more trusted servers that users regularly log in to.

Note: When no servers are configured or the instance of Assets Server that Assets tries to connect to is not part of the configuration, the user is asked to enter a URL manually when Assets Agent attempts to connect (see Opening files for editing (file check-out and check-in) in Assets).

In this step, the process of configuring one or more trusted servers is described.

How it works

Connections to trusted instances of Assets Server are stored in the following configuration file on the system of the user:

woodwingAssetsServerURLConfig.json

This file is stored in the following location:

Windows: ~/AppData/Local/WoodWing/Elvis/

macOS: /Library/Application Support/WoodWing/Elvis/

A trusted instance of Assets Server consists of the name of the server and its URL.

Configuration

Two configuration methods exist:

1. Configuring the configuration file directly. With this method, one or more server instances can be configured. This step is typically performed by the system administrator.
2. Using the configuration option in Assets Agent. (Only available in Assets Agent that is shipped with Assets versions 6.86 and 6.87) With this method, only one server instance can be configured. This step can also be performed by the user.

{
  "assetsServers": [
    {
      "serverName": "Your server name",
      "serverURL": "https://your-server-address.net"
    },
    {
      "serverName": "Your server name",
      "serverURL": "https://your-other-server-address.net"
    },
    {
      "serverName": "Your server name",
      "serverURL": "https://third-server-address.net"
    },
    {
      "serverName": "Your server name",
      "serverURL": "https://your-server-address.net"
    },
  ]
}

6. (Optional) Changing preferences

By default, files that are checked-out are stored in the following location:

• macOS: users/<user folder>/Documents/Elvis Checkouts/<user folder>
• Windows: users\<user folder>\My Documents\Elvis Checkouts\<user folder>

To change this location, do the following;

Step 1. Make sure that Assets Agent is running.

Step 2. Access the Assets Agent menu:

• macOS: Click the icon in the menu bar
• Windows: Right-click the icon in the notification area (system tray).

Step 3. From the menu, choose Change Checkouts folder.

Step 4. Select the folder in which the checked-out files should be stored.

Troubleshooting

'Lost connection' error when checking-in or checking-out a file in Assets Server

This can occur when using an ELB load balancer. These are not supported; please use an ALB load balancer instead.

Revisions

• 1 November 2022: Updated step 5 '(Optional) Configuring trusted Assets Server URLs' by stating that the configuration option in Assets Agent is only available in Assets Agent that is shipped with Assets versions 6.86 and 6.87.
• 20 September 2022: Added step 5 'Configuring trusted Assets Server URLs'.