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Getting started with External Content Providers

Overview

A grid lists all existing external content providers, which are presented in alphabetical order. Within the grid, the following read-only columns are displayed:

  • Name

  • Description

  • Type

  • Default location: a tick is displayed if the Default export location property is checked at a provider.

  • Smart Asset Location: a tick is displayed if the Default smart asset location property is checked at a provider.

  • State

Selected Content Provider Details – Shared Properties

The following properties are common to all external content providers:

  • Name: a mandatory, textual field that may be a maximum of 100 characters in length.  Name must be unique across all external content providers.

  • Description: an optional text field that can be a maximum of 1000 characters in length.

  • Type: read-only.

  • Connectivity test: a button (‘Test connectivity’) allows you to check that the connection to the provider has been configured correctly. The button is disabled when unsaved changes are present (in which case the button’s text is changed to ‘Save this provider to test connectivity’. Clicking the button creates a Connectivity test job and displays it in the My Jobs Dialog. Full details of the job and Dialog can be found in the My Jobs documentation.

  • Manually set root folder: this checkbox, unchecked by default, allows you to manually specify the external content provider’s root folder in the accompanying Root folder property. Checking it displays Root folder.

  • Root folder: this property is shown (and mandatory) when Manually set root folder is checked. It allows you to manually specify the provider’s root folder name.

  • Select folders to show: this property allows you select the root folders that are to be exposed by the external content provider. Once a provider has been saved, a Load latest root folders button is displayed at the toolbar above. Clicking the button displays a list of the folders to which the supplied credentials have access. Each is represented by a folder icon and is accompanied by a checkbox. A context menu, exposing Select All and Select No options, is displayed when you right click the folders list. You can choose the folders to be exposed by the provider by checking the required list entries.

  • Default export location: this checkbox is unchecked by default. It allows you to define a single external content provider to serve as the default file export location. On save, a validation error is raised if the property is checked at more than one provider. Checking the checkbox enables the File export root folder.

  • File export root folder: this property represents a root folder which will be used to store any generated file exports (if RPI is configured to export files to an external content provider). The property is enabled when Default export location is checked and is mandatory when enabled. The maximum supported value length is 100 characters. Note that no other validation is performed in respect of the value supplied.

  • Default smart asset location: this checkbox is unchecked by default. It allows you to specify the default external content provider to be used when publishing local images used in smart assets for use in a realtime in outbound context. For information, please see the Smart Asset Designer documentation. When checked, the Smart asset image root folder property is displayed.

  • Smart asset image root folder: this text property, which is mandatory when displayed, allows you to specify a default external folder to be used to host realtime in outbound smart asset content. The value provided can be a maximum of 100 characters in length.

Selected Content Provider Details – Amazon Web Services S3

This section allows you to configure details of the AWS S3 external content provider selected currently in the grid.

It contains the following specific properties :

  • Access key: provision of this property is mandatory.

  • Secret key: provision of this property is also mandatory.

  • Region endpoint: select the endpoint appropriate to your region using this dropdown property.

  • CloudFront enabled: this checkbox is unchecked by default. If a bucket is configured appropriately at the AWS S3 repository, by checking this property you can ensure that content persisted therein is made available across the Amazon CloudFront content delivery network.

  • Use KMS encryption: this checkbox is unchecked by default. It allows you to enable KMS encryption for files stored at the provider. Note that the storage of image files using KMS encryption will result in the images not being rendered properly.

  • KMS encryption key: this mandatory password-masked field is only displayed when Use KMS encryption is checked. It accepts a maximum of 100 characters and allows you to specify the KMS encryption key used to encrypt and decrypt S3 files.

Selected Content Provider Details – Azure Storage

This section allows you to configure details of the Azure Storage external content provider selected currently in the grid.

It contains the following updateable fields:

  • Access key: this mandatory property can be a maximum length of 4096 characters and represents a unique access key that is used to connect to the provider. It is enabled when Use Azure identity is unchecked.

  • Storage account: this mandatory property can be a maximum length of 50 characters and represents the account name used to connect to the provider.

  • Enable CDN: this checkbox is unchecked by default. When checked, the Blob service endpoint and CDN endpoint fields are enabled. It allows you to specify that the provider should make use of the Azure CDN (content delivery network). Note that any previously-embedded content is unaffected by the setting of this property.

  • Blob service endpoint: this text property is enabled when Enable CDN is checked. It is mandatory when enabled. It accepts a maximum of 1000 characters. It represents the storage account's primary blob service endpoint, from which the CDN will pull content.

  • CDN endpoint: this text property is enabled when Enable CDN is checked. It is mandatory when enabled. It accepts a maximum of 1000 characters. It represents the hostname of the CDN profile endpoint to be used by the provider.

  • Use Azure identity: this checkbox is unchecked by default. If checked, Access key is disabled, and the server's Azure Identity configuration will be used for authentication, with credentials being sourced from the following environment variables:

    • AZURE_CLIENT_ID

    • AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET

    • AZURE_TENANT_ID

Should you wish to switch on CDN support at an existing Azure storage provider, you should make sure to refresh its root folder at the File System Dialog before using any external content persisted at the provider to build RPI content.

Selected Content Provider Details – FTP

This section allows you to configure details of the FTP external content provider selected currently in the grid.

It contains the following specific properties:

  • Hostname: the name of the FTP server. A mandatory text field, Hostname can be a maximum of 256 characters in length.

  • Port: a mandatory integer field that defaults to the value ‘21’.

  • Username: this field is mandatory if the Log on anonymously field is unchecked and is disabled when it is checked (when it is set to the value ‘Anonymous’). Username can be a maximum of 100 characters in length.

  • Password: this field is mandatory if the Log on anonymously field is unchecked and is empty and disabled when it is checked. Password can be a maximum of 50 characters in length.

  • Protocol: this dropdown exposes the following values:

    • SFTP (the default)

    • FTP

    • FTPS

  • Encryption type: this dropdown property exposes the following values:

    • None (the default)

    • Explicit

    • Implicit

It is enabled when Protocol is set to one of 'FTP' or 'FTPS', and allows you to specify the encryption type to be used when connecting to the FTP/FTPS server.

  • Log on anonymously: a checkbox, unchecked by default. The checkbox is enabled when the Use basic FTP checkbox is checked. When Log on anonymously is checked, Username and Password are disabled, with the former property being set to the value ‘Anonymous’.

  • Root folder path: a mandatory field that can be a maximum of 4096 characters in length.

  • Public URL: a mandatory field that can be a maximum of 4096 characters in length. You may need to specify the URL’s protocol (e.g. ‘http’) in this context.

Selected Content Provider Details – Google Cloud Storage

This section allows you to configure details of the Google Cloud Storage external content provider selected currently in the grid.

It contains the following:

  • Project ID: this mandatory text field accepts a maximum of 100 characters. It represents the unique ID of the Google Cloud Storage project.

  • Client ID: this mandatory text field accepts a maximum of 200 characters. It represents the client ID that will be used when making OAuth 2.0 access token requests.

  • Client secret: this mandatory, password-masked field accepts a maximum of 100 characters, and is used in conjunction with Client ID.

  • API key: this mandatory text field accepts a maximum of 100 characters. The property identifies the application trying to access public data from Cloud Storage. It also enforces additional application and API security not provided by Client ID & Secret.

  • Redirect URI: this mandatory text field accepts a maximum of 200 characters. It represents the authorized redirect URI associated with the Client ID.

  • Authorization: the external content provider must be authorized by Google before it can be used.

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