Asset Push

Asset push allows users to export assets from STEP to a local file system, where they can be accessed by external users and systems. These assets are automatically exported whenever an object is modified or approved (depending on the asset push configuration), ensuring that the assets stored in the local file system are always updated with the latest versions of the assets from the central STEP database. Considering the potentially large size of the assets being exported, this method is favorable over manually exporting assets in bulk.

With asset push, users can maintain a single high resolution image in STEP, and convert it to all the various formats required for use in external systems. The external files will always reflect the most up-to-date images that are in the STEP system. Conversion templates can be applied to transform these images from high resolution to low resolution, resize images, apply color scales to images, and more. Images can also be pushed as-is from STEP to make them available to other applications.

Low resolution images, such as those used in web applications, are not held inside the STEP system. Typically, the STEP system holds only the high resolution version of an image. Thus, dragging images or documents out of the STEP system in an ad hoc manner would require considerable resources, and in addition, they would have to be extracted every time they were requested. That is not only true for web-type images (where conceivably there would have to be multiple on-the-fly conversions to all the required low resolution versions of the image) but also for high resolution images (where, although there is usually no conversion, images of 10-20MB or more are commonly held in STEP).

Important: Asset push does not send asset files directly to downstream systems. Instead, it makes files available for retrieval by these systems, so that on-demand extractions from the intermediate file system can occur without putting any strain on the STEP system.

Asset Push Terminology

Term	Definition
Asset	Any collateral or document in electronic format, such as an image, Word document, Excel file, PDF, PowerPoint file, text file, etc.
Asset Push	A process that exports assets from STEP to a file system for different purposes. Conversion templates can be applied to transform images, for example from high resolution to low resolution, resizing, applying color scales, etc, though assets can also be sent as-is.
assetpush.properties file	Properties file that specifies parameters specific to an individual asset push, including login credentials for the local file system. One file of this type exists for each asset push event queue. Note that the ImagesFolder property is included in this file, which indicates the root directory to which the Relative Path Template is applied (e.g., [ImagesFolder][RelativePathTemplate]).
Asset Push Event Queue	Queue to listen for events on assets. Multiple asset push configurations can exist on a single event queue. A single event queue is required per Asset Push Sidecar. In other words, assets being pushed to the same destination system may share a single event queue with one or more configurations assigned to it.
Asset Push Sidecar	External files installed on various machines, oftentimes on the application server or a remotely located machine. STEP can communicate with sidecars so that when a relevant activity is triggered in STEP, the sidecar is informed of the associated task and carries it out. One sidecar is required for each location to which assets must be pushed. Multiple configurations may share a sidecar if they are also sharing a root destination (as specified in the assetpush.properties file). For more information, refer to the Asset Push Sidecar topic in this documentation here.
Configurations (as related to asset push)	Definition of how an individual asset push will function, including the conversion, relative path template, and acceptable MIME types. Any number of configurations can exist under a single Asset Push Queue in STEP.
Conversions (as related to asset push)	A series of parameters defining the way in which an image is transformed from the standard high resolution asset that exists in STEP to the required downstream format. Several conversion options are available by default. Note that conversions change assets as they are pushed, leaving the originating file in STEP unchanged. One asset push configuration is required for each required conversion, as a conversion is a parameter within the overall asset push configuration. Note that a Conversion is an optional parameter for each Configuration.
MIME Type	Standard identifier used to indicate the type of data that a file contains. In STEP, each asset push configuration includes an option to specify MIME Types to be used in the configuration. Leaving this entry blank means that all asset types meeting the other configuration parameters will be attempted to be converted and/or pushed as specified. Populating this entry means that conversion and/or push will only be attempted for assets meeting the specified types. Note that the configuration property (AssetPush.SkipMimeTypeCheck=false) should be added to the sharedconfig.properties file to keep undefined MIME types from being imported. Otherwise, no check is made when importing assets. For more information about MIME types, refer to the MIME Types section of the System Setup documentation here.
Relative Path Template	Used in conjunction with the asset path specified in the assetpush.properties file to tell the system where to place the pushed assets. Can be used to create a flat structure or a hierarchy structure, and will typically utilize several pre-defined STEP macros to dynamically create directories. The value entered is used following the root directory specified in the assetpush.properties file (e.g., [ImagesFolder]/[RelativePathTemplate]). For more information about Relative Path Templates, refer to the Relative Path Template Overview section of the Asset Push documentation here.
Sharedconfig.properties file	Properties file that specifies many system parameters, including some that define general asset push functionality across all asset push event queues on the system.

Enabling Asset Push

To enable asset push, the user must perform the following actions:

Create an image conversion configuration if one is required and none of the standard conversion configurations can be applied. Refer to the Image Conversion Configuration section of the Export Manager documentation for more information here.
Ensure that the java sidecar application is installed on the client / server where the external file structure is located. For more information on installing an Asset Push Sidecar, refer to the Installing an Asset Push Sidecar topic in this topic here. If any problems arise, contact Stibo Systems and/or submit a help desk ticket to complete this step.
Create an asset push event queue if one linked to the correct sidecar does not already exist. Refer to the Creating Asset Push Event Queues section of the Asset Push documentation for more information here.
Create one or more asset push configurations. Refer to the Creating and Maintaining Asset Push Configurations section of the Asset Push documentation for more information here.
Initiate the first asset push manually. Refer to the Starting the Asset Push Process section of the Asset Push documentation for more information here.

Additional Information

Assets that have not been pushed or have failed to push can be found by using the 'Unpushed or Failed Assets' search criterion. Refer to the Search: Unpushed or Failed Assets topic within the Navigation and Searches section of the Getting Started documentation for more information here.
It may be necessary to monitor the activity of asset pushes, which can be especially important in the event that an asset conversion or extraction fails. Refer to the Monitoring Asset Push section of the Asset Push documentation for more information here.
Asset Push is utilized to make assets continuously available to downstream systems with the latest content and in any required formats, while also minimizing any performance impacts this could have on the system.
rsync allows images to be synchronized between multiple file system locations, which can, for example, be used for on-premises installations of STEP to synchronize the assets from one of the STEP application servers to one or more remote servers. For more information, refer to the rsync Use Case topic in this documentation here.
The Asset Push solution is not viable when trying to publish asset content to cloud storage, i.e., Amazon Web Service (AWS) S3 / Google Cloud Storage / Azure Microsoft Blob Storage. Refer to the Asset Publisher topic for more details regarding this particular functionality here.