Hello

Today this post will outline the steps to link items and multimedia files. It explains the use of Multimedia attachments perspective in informatica PIM.

The Multimedia attachments perspective is used to link items and multimedia files. It can be opened by navigating to Perspectives > Open.

A variety of functions can be carried out using the perspective:

• Create a new multimedia attachment for an item.
• Add a document to an existing multimedia attachment.
• Modify existing multimedia attachments and multimedia documents.

Creating a new multimedia attachment

The procedure for creating a new multimedia attachment is as follows:

• Drag the document from the Documents view into the Multimedia attachments view. It shows the list of multimedia attachments for the relevant item. The item should be dragged to the empty area.
• The New Media Asset dialog box opens and the document appears by default in the Source path field.
• Enter a name and description.
• Select the type, the quality and the language.
• Click on OK. The multimedia attachment is created using the corresponding multimedia document.

If a multimedia attachment is assigned to an item that already has an attachment, then a message is displayed. The user can then decide whether to overwrite the existing attachment or not.

Assigning documents

The procedure for assigning a document to an existing multimedia attachment is as follows:

• Drag the document from the Documents view to the desired multimedia attachment for an item in the Multimedia attachments view.
• The New multimedia document dialog box opens and the document appears by default in the Source path field.
• Select the quality and the language.
• Click on OK. The document is created as a new multimedia document.

Changing a multimedia document

• Drag the document from the Documents view to the multimedia document to be changed in the Multimedia documents view.
• The New multimedia document dialog box opens and the document appears by default in the Source path field.
• Check the data in the fields of the dialog box.
• Click on OK. The multimedia document is changed.       

Assigning external documents

To assign a document that is not in the system to an item, it is not required to add it to PIM Desktop in advance. Simply assign the document to the item directly using drag & drop .

The file is automatically transferred into the system and other data required is created automatically, such as the multimedia attachment and multimedia document. The procedure is the same as that for creating a new multimedia attachment.

Copying a multimedia assignment

• User can copy an item's multimedia attachment to use for other items.
• Drag and drop to move the multimedia document from the Multimedia documents view to a different item in the Item #1 view.
• The multimedia document is assigned to the item. If the item already has a multimedia document with the same name and type, it will be overwritten.

Linking multimedia files automatically

Media Manager installation is a mandate to use this functionality. A  combination of a defined naming convention and Media Portal makes it is possible to identify files planned for automatic assignment. Based on the convention, the file name of the media document is broken down into individual components, thus ensuring instantly recognizable assignment.

The following information can be used as naming parameters:

Object type (product or item), identifier (unique product or item number depending on the object type), multimedia type, data quality, language. Some of these parameters can also be assigned a fixed default value, i.e., in this case the parameter does not have to be part of the file name. The default configuration is stored on the server in a Properties file. 

A workflow created in the Media Portal is a prerequisite for linking media files. An event-monitored watch point registers changes in a defined archive folder. This folder is used to store the multimedia files to be imported. An action point creates corresponding entries (specifying the ID of the relevant object) in the message queue. This is extracted at the appropriate time by PIM Desktop and immediately listed as an assignment in the defined catalog (master catalog or supplier catalog.)

Navigate to Overview view, select the process category Assignment of HMM document to know the current status. The assignment operations are listed in a table For each scheduled operation, a log is created showing more detailed information, along with any warnings or errors.

Deleting documents

• Select the document to be deleted in the Documents view.
• Call up Delete from the pop-up menu or press the DELETE key.
• Click on Yes to delete the document.
• If the document is used in a multimedia attachment, user will see a dialog box in which the affected areas are listed.
• Use Show details to display all existing links. The operation is cancelled and the Dependencies view is opened. If the deletion is confirmed, all existing references will also be deleted.

Linking multimedia data and structure nodes

The link between multimedia data and a structure group is created using drag and drop. A structure system can also be displayed as a list in the table-based Class list view. 

• In the Documents view, open the images to be assigned to structure groups.
• Expand the relevant structure group in the Primary structure tree view.
• Drag a multimedia document to the structure group and drop it there. The New Media Asset dialog box opens.
• Enter the data for the multimedia attachment.
• Click on OK. The multimedia document is assigned to the structure group.