Highlighting metadata in Assets Server by using 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 below thumbnails in the search results in Assets 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.

Note: The total number of icons that appear depends on the thumbnail width; when more icons exist than can be displayed, you will only see the first ones that fit.

Instances when icons can be shown

An icon can be shown when:

1. The field contains a particular value. This method is typically used when the user can choose from a list of options such as a Status list.
2. The field contains any value. This method can be used to indicate that specific information is available for an asset (such as copyright info).

Using custom icons

A default set of icons is shipped with Assets Server and can be found in the following location:

<Assets Server location>/Config/plugins/active/internal/elvis_client/flags

Feel free to add any custom images in PNG format when needed and assign them to the metadata field of your choice.

Configuration

The configuration is done in the <fieldExtensions> section of the custom-assetinfo.xml file of Assets Server by adding the following value:

flagIcon="name of image file"

Example:flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_blue.png"

For information about modifying the custom-assetinfo.xml file, see Changing the Assets Server configuration for a running cluster.

See the full examples below.

Maximum number of icons

The maximum number of icons that can be shown is 18.

Setting an icon for a particular field value

Use this method when an icon needs to be shown when a particular value is added to a metadata field.

The default configuration in Assets Server shows how this works for the Status field where each status is visualized by an icon with a different color:

<fieldExtensions>
    <fieldExt name="status" group="General">
        <data>
            <predefinedValues onlyFromList="false">
                <value flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_blue.png">New</value>
                <value flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_blue.png">Draft</value>
                <value flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_yellow.png">Production</value>
                <value flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_grey.png">Review</value>
                <value flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_red.png">Correction</value>
                <value flagIcon="bullet_ball_glass_green.png">Final</value>
            </predefinedValues>
        </data>
        <userInterface flagPosition="30" />
    </fieldExt>
 </fieldExtensions>

In the example above we can see that when the 'New' or 'Draft' status is chosen, the icon with the blue bullet ball is displayed; when 'Production' is chosen, the icon with the yellow bullet ball is shown, and so on.

Setting an icon when a field contains any value

Use this method when you want to show an icon when a field contains any value (in other words: when the field is not empty).

The default configuration in Assets Server shows how this works for the copyright field: when it contains a value, the copyright icon is shown.

<fieldExtensions>
    <fieldExt name="copyright" group="Rights">
        <userInterface flagPosition="50" flagIconWhenNotEmpty="copyright.png" />
    </fieldExt>
</fieldExtensions>

Controlling the order in which the icons appear

The order in which the icons appear above the thumbnail (from left to right) is controlled through the flagPosition option.

The icon for the field that has the lowest number appears first. These values can have any number range and don't necessarily have to directly follow each other.

Example: If you have fields with position '1', '10' and '3000', then that is the order in which they will appear from low to high.

Design considerations

When adding icons, keep the following in mind:

• The number of icons that can be shown for each asset is restricted by the width of the thumbnail (which users can manipulate). If the thumbnail is not wide enough for all icons to be displayed, the user will not see all icons.
• Icons are used to draw attention. When too many icons are shown, the effect of having them may be reduced or lost completely.