LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES):

Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads

Cumulus-Direct URLs serve cataloged assets, previews and thumbnails direct from within Web pages.

Cumulus-Direct URLs enable you to easily link Cumulus to your website for:
• Asset downloads, previews and thumbnails served on demand by Cumulus.
• Always-current website assets you never need to manually upload.
• Control over an unlimited number of website downloads from a single location—your Cumulus Server.

Your website’s new best friend.

Right now, your website probably contain hun-
dreds (if not hundreds of thousands) of assets
available for public viewing and download—
images, presentations, PDFs and more. They’re
stored into website directories, ready for the next
click of a mouse.
But are they all current versions?
You certainly want your assets distributed as far
and wide as possible, but keeping your website
up to date with new file versions can be tough:
• Website updates take too long or never get
done because those who update edit files
don’t usually update websites.
• Website security can be compromised if you
have to give too many people upload access.
• Providing thumbnails and previews means you
must create variants of your master assets
and then keep track of which file is which.
Cumulus-Direct URLs aim to eliminate these and
other hassles associated with website file man-
agement. Even better, Cumulus-Direct URLs are
so simple to use, don’t be surprised if you find
them to be one of the most useful and powerful
features Cumulus has ever provided.
Anatomy of a Cumulus-Direct URL
If you’re familar with basic HTML, you’ll feel right at home with Cumulus-Direct URLs:
http://CumulusServer/WebApp/Type/CatalogName/RecordID/Encoding/Size
• CumulusServer — This is the network location of the Cumulus Server that will resolve the URL.
An example value would be: /cumulus-direct.canto.com:8080/
• WebApp — This is the name of the folder that contains the Canto Web application that will
resolve the URL. Example values would be: /Sites/ for Cumulus Sites or /CumulusE/ for the
Cumulus Web Client.
• Type — This is the type of URL: /T/ for thumbnail, /P/ for preview, /A/ for asset download.
• CatalogName — This is the name of the Cumulus catalog that references the asset. An example
would be: /WebDownloads/
• RecordID — This is the record ID of the asset, which Cumulus provides automatically.
• Encoding — Defines encoding for Web browser.
• Size — This is size of the bounding box the resulting image should be displayed within.
Show a preview 600 pixels wide
<img src="http://myCumulus.com/Sites/P/WebCat/1?encoding=UTF-8&b=600"/>
Download a file
<a href="http://myCumulus.com/Sites/A/WebCat/1?encoding=UTF-8">Download Me!</a>
Use an 80-pixel thumbnail as a download link
<a href="http://myCumulus.com/Sites/A/WebCat/1?encoding=UTF-8">
<img src="http://myCumulus.com/Sites/T/WebCat/1?encoding=UTF-8&b=80"/></a>

How Cumulus-Direct URLs work.

A Cumulus-Direct URL is a standard HTML link CLIENT-FREE
that calls your Cumulus Server with an asset ref- CUMULUS ACCESS
Canto serves all of its
erence and asks for one of three things in return: website documentation,
datasheets and tutorial
• Thumbnail — The current thumbnail stored files via Cumulus-Direct
for the asset. URLs. As files are
updated internally and
• Preview — A Cumulus-generated preview of checked back into
file formats Cumulus can preview. (Larger Cumulus, Canto’s web-
thumbnails are a great alternative for pre- site downloads are
instantly up to date. Plus,
views, because they display much more all downloads are tracked
quickly.) by Cumulus usage statis-
tics, which makes it easy
• Download — A link to the asset that’s deliv- to determine which files
ered to the browser for downloading. are most popular with
users.
Creating Cumulus-Direct URLs
Creating and using Cumulus-Direct URLs is easy:

Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03 Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 1 of 7
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads
1. Select one or more asset records.
2. Choose a menu option in the Cumulus Native
Client.
3. Choose options and restrictions you want for
the URLs.
4. Copy the URLs Cumulus generates into the
Web page of your choice.
FIGURE 1: Cumulus-Direct URLs are configured by
Cumulus inside the Native Client. Each URL includes
an explicit permission for thumbnail, preview and
download (asset). The kind of URL Cumulus generates
is chosen at the bottom of this window, but it can be
changed outside of Cumulus, as you’ll see later. For
this reason, thumbnails, previews and/or downloads
must be specifically enabled using the options shown.
This prevents, for example, a URL intended to show a
thumbnail from being modified by a savvy website user
to download the original asset.
Depending on the kind of URL you create, and
how you use it in your Web page, visitors will see
images or links. You can even combine Cumulus-
Direct URLs in a single link so that a thumbnail
becomes a link to download or preview a file.
Prepping for Cumulus-Direct URLs.
Any Cumulus 8.1.1 (or later) system that includes
Cumulus Sites or the Cumulus Web Client is
capable of serving files via Cumulus-Direct URLs.
(In this document, we’ll configure Cumulus Sites,
but configuration for the Web Client is virtually
identical.)
There are five required steps to initially getting
Cumulus-Direct URLs working:
Convenient tweaking
The default installation folder for Canto
products in Windows 7 is C:\Program Files
(x86). For safety, Microsoft protects files
under this folder hierarchy. Unless you have
a text editor that enables you to override
these protections when saving system files,
you might want to consider installing Sites or
the Web Client in a location that enables you
to more easily edit the installation’s configu-
ration files. Alternatively, you can edit and
save the files outside this folder hierarchy
and then manually drag them into place
using an administrator account.
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03
1. Add a few new fields to your catalog(s) that
Cumulus requires to manage the URLs.
2. Install a Canto Web application. (Cumulus
Sites or Cumulus Web Client)
3. Use the Cumulus Server Console to set up a
base URL for the Web links your Cumulus
Server will resolve.
4. Use a text editor to make some minor tweaks
to the Web application’s configuration file.
5. Create a user account that will interact with
Cumulus as the Cumulus-Direct URL “user.”
An explanation of each step follows.
Add required fields to your catalogs
Three fields must to be added to any catalog you
plan to use with Cumulus-Direct URLs. (Figure 2)
Cumulus uses these fields to determine which
assets have been enabled for URL access. If a
Cumulus-Direct URL tries to access an asset that
has not been enabled for access, the request is
denied. This ensures that only the assets you
want accessible via URL are accessible.
NOTE: Refer back to “Anatomy of a Cumulus-
Direct URL” on page 1. The RecordID portion
of the URL tells Cumulus the asset being
requested. If this asset has not been “URL
enabled,” the request is denied. You can see
how manually editing this RecordID number
could result in a security breach if a RecordID
not intended for access was used in the URL.
Per-asset permissions resolve this issue.
As with any new field, you’ll add these new fields
from the Catalog Settings > Record Fields section
of the Cumulus Native Client’s Preferences win-
dow.
The fields to add are:
• Asset URL Enabled — When enabled, the
asset may be downloaded via URL.
• Preview URL Enabled — When enabled, the
asset may be previewed via URL.
FIGURE 2: Cumulus uses
three fields to determine
which assets have been
enabled for Cumulus-
Direct URL access. With-
out these fields added to
a catalog, Cumulus-
Direct URLs will not
work.
Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com
• Thumbnail URL Enabled — When enabled, the
asset record’s thumbnail may be displayed via
URL.
You only need to add these fields to the catalog,
meaning there’s no need to enable them for user
editing, enable them for indexing, or add them to
any view set. Cumulus uses these fields directly;
they’re not intended for user interaction.
Once the fields are added, the catalog needs no
further configuration. (Remember to add the
fields to each catalog you plan to make available
via URL!)
The next step is to make sure your preferred
Canto Web application is ready.
Install your preferred Canto Web application
Cumulus-Direct URLs can be resolved (served)
by Cumulus Sites or the Cumulus Web Client.
Both apps handle Cumulus-Direct URLs exactly
the same way, and neither offers performance or
other advantages when serving files via
Cumulus-Direct URLs.
Each Web application’s administrator guide cov-
ers the setup information you need, so that won’t
be covered here. (Download the guides you need
via Cumulus Sites now, if needed.)
NOTE: Before configuring your Canto Web
application to work with Cumulus-Direct
URLs, test it to make sure it’s working prop-
erly.
Create your Cumulus-Direct URL user account
and base URL
Next, launch the Cumulus Server Console. From
here, we’ll create a new user account to act as
the Cumulus-Direct URL “user,” and we’ll config-
ure the base URL for your site.
Start out in the User Manager section of the
Server Console. Create a new user account and
give it a name that makes sense to you. (The
Page 2 of 7
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads
account created for this tutorial will be called
“Cumulus-Direct-User.”)
The permissions required for the Cumulus-Direct
URL are shown in figure 3. They are:
• Open Catalog with any Cumulus Client —
Required for general catalog access.
• View Record — Required for general URL
access, which includes thumbnails, previews
and downloads.
• Transfer Asset — Required only for assets are
hosted by the Cumulus Vault.
Make sure to enable these permissions for “all
allowed catalogs,” which enables you to use this
same “user” account for resolving the Cumulus-
Direct URLs from all your catalogs. (Figure 3)
Other things to check before closing the proper-
ties window for the new account:
• Make sure the account is “Login Active,”
which you can set from the General tab.
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03
FIGURE 3: The permis-
sions shown are those
required for the
Cumulus-Direct URL user
account. Any user
account with these per-
missions can be used,
but it’s a good idea to
create a separate
account specifically for
the purpose of resolving
URLs.
• Choose a password for the user account from
the General tab. (You’ll need this password
when tweaking the configuration file.)
• Make sure to remove the catalog access
restriction from the Catalog Access tab. This
will ensure that this user account has access
to all your catalogs. (Alternatively, you can
choose specific catalogs, but keep this restric-
tion in mind if you decide to serve URLs from
other catalogs.)
While still inside the Server Console, move to the
Remote Admin > Settings section. This is where
we’ll configure the base portion of URLs associ-
ated with your site. (Figure 4)
Before you can add your base URL, you need to
know what it is. The easiest, most reliable means
for finding out is to load the default page for your
Canto Web application. In the address window of
your Web browser you can see the portion of the
URL we need, as shown in figure 4. Once you
have that (copy it, if you like):
FIGURE 4: When configur-
ing your base URL, it’s
handy to just copy the URL
from a Web browser
address area. Just load up
the main page of your
Web application (Sites/
Web Client) and you’ll see
the base portion of the
URL that you need.
HINT: Double-click in the
Base URL section of the
Server Console window to
enable the field for past-
ing or editing.
Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com
About the Cumulus-Direct
URL user account
Cumulus processes all Cumulus-Direct URLs
using the user account specified in the con-
figuration file. The permissions of this
account are used to verify access before files
are served via URL. It’s a good idea to create
a new user account specifically for this pur-
pose for a number of reasons:
• It enables you to keep things secure,
because you won’t inadvertently enable a
permission for another user that you
intended only your “direct URL” user to
have, or vice versa.
• The permissions of the user account used
as the Cumulus-Direct URL are cached for
performance reasons. This means that
permissions changes made to this
account will not take effect until your Web
application server (presumably Tomcat)
is restarted. Conversely, permissions for
user accounts used by “human” users are
gathered at each login to Cumulus.
• A separate user accounts provides you
with a way to disable all URL access with-
out affecting normal user operations.
(Disconnect the user via the Server Con-
sole’s Activity Monitor.)
• User accounts are free! It costs you noth-
ing to create new user accounts with
Cumulus, because licenses are based on
concurrent use.
About Base URLs
A base URL is nothing more than the first
part of any URL used to access a given Canto
Web application. Using a base URL prevents
URLs inside your catalogs from having to be
“hard wired” to a certain locations. This
enables you to make server changes without
having to redo all URLs.
Base URLs are named to enable users to
identify each when creating URLs, as seen
below.
Most of the time, you’ll need only a single
base URL. But if you ever want to serve some
assets from Sites and others from, say, the
Web Client, you’d need one base URL for
each Web application.
Page 3 of 7
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads
1. Click the Add button. In the window that
appears, give the base URL a name. We’ll use
the name “URLs via Sites” to make the base
URL’s purpose clear, but you can choose
another name. (See “About Base URLs” on
page 3 for overview information on base
URLs.) Click OK to save the new URL.
2. Still referring to figure 4, double-click in the
“Base URL” area of the window, which acti-
vates it for editing. Either paste in the base
URL you copied to your computer’s clipboard,
or type it in as it appeared in your Web
browser.
NOTE: Don’t put a trailing / after the base
URL. Cumulus adds this automatically.
3. When your base URL is configured, scroll all
the way down to the bottom of the Server
Console window and click Save Changes.
At this point, your Cumulus-Direct URL user
account and base URLs are configured. Next,
we’ll make a minor modification to your Web
The most important thing you
can remember!
Your Web application server (Tomcat) must
be restarted each time you:
• Make configuration file changes
• Make permissions changes for the
Cumulus accounts designated as
"guestUser," "adminUser" or
"directURLUser"
• Swap icon or image files
• Add or edit any content in the "customi-
zations" of "themes" folders
• Make changes to your Web application’s
cascading style sheet (CSS)
Though many of these items are not relevant
to this document, keep this all in mind! With-
out a Web application restart, your changes
will not take effect.
RESTARTING IS A GOOD THING! Become familar
with how to restart Canto Web applications on
your operating system and save yourself lots of
time and frustration!
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03
Configuration file set up
Inside your configuration file, enter the name and password of the user account you’ll be using for
Cumulus-Direct URL access into the section shown below.
<server>
<serverAddress>localhost</serverAddress>
<requireLogin>false</requireLogin>
<guestUser>guest</guestUser>
<guestPassword></guestPassword>
<directURLUser>Cumulus-Direct-User</directURLUser>
<directURLPassword>cd-url</directURLPassword>
<adminUser>adminUser</adminUser>
<adminPassword>adminUserPassword</adminPassword>
<catalogs>
<catalog>
<catalogName>Sample Catalog</catalogName>
<rootCategory>$Categories</rootCategory>
</catalog>
</catalogs>
</server>
mission, or else use your Cumulus admin
application’s configuration file, and then you’ll be
account.
ready for testing.
Tweak the configuration file
Starting in the installation folder of your Canto
Web application, find your configuration file at:
/apache-tomcat-6.0.20/
webapps/Sites/WEB-INF/conf/
sites-config.xml
NOTE: If you’re using the Cumulus Web Client,
your path will include “CumulusE” instead of
“Sites,” and the file will be called web.xml.)
This is the same configuration file you edited in
order to get your Sites or Web Client installation
working initially, so it should look familar. FIGURE 5: Any user who will create Cumulus-Direct
URLs needs “view” and “modify” record permissions.
The “Configuration file set up” sidebar shows the
section of the file that needs to be edited. Once
you’ve made your edits, save the file. To get started, open a catalog you’ve configured
to work with your Web application. For this tuto-
NOTE: Now would be a good time to restart rial, we’ll use the Sample Catalog that ships with
your Web application server! Cumulus.
For this exercise, we’ve selected four assets of
Making use of Cumulus-Direct URLs.
Now, with your system properly configured, it’s different types in order to see how the Web
time to test some Cumulus-Direct URLs. browser deals with each. (Figure 6)
Getting the URLs you need It’s important to keep in mind that a Cumulus-
Direct URL just “hands” the Web browser a file.
Cumulus-Direct URLs are created from within
What the Web browser does with that file is up
the Cumulus Native Client. You can test the URLs
to the configuration and plug-ins of the browser.
from within Cumulus before you embed them
For example, a PDF download will display inside a
into Web pages, which is what we’ll do now.
Web browser that includes a PDF plug-in,
NOTE: Creating Cumulus-Direct URLs requires whereas it will come through as a file download
in a browser that doesn’t support PDF display.
the record permission called “modify item.”
(Figure 5) Make sure to connect with a Additionally, a JPEG will display inside virtually
Cumulus user account that includes this per-
Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 4 of 7
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads
FIGURE 6: Any type of asset can be served via
Cumulus-Direct URL, but Web browser configuration
determines how each type is delivered to the user.
all popular Web browsers, whether its sent by
Cumulus as a preview or download.
With one or more asset records selected:
1. Choose Asset > Configure Web Link URL. A
window appears from which you can configure
the kind of URLs you want. (Figure 7) For an
overview of this window, see the “Configure
Web Link Overview” sidebar.
FIGURE 7: Cumulus generates URLs for you, so creat-
ing them is easy.
2. For this tutorial, enable all permissions for all
asset records. (See “About URL Permissions”
in sidebar for info.)
3. Click the Apply button to activate the chosen
permissions. (Do this each time you make per-
missions changes before you use Open URL.)
4. Choose a base URL (necessary only if you
have more than one), and then choose
Thumbnail from the URL Kind menu.
5. Select an asset from the list and click Open
URL. A Web browser appears with a thumb-
nail for the asset. (Figure 8)
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03
Configure Web Link Overview
Cumulus-Direct URLs are configured from a window inside the Cumulus Native Client. When the
window appears, a list of all selected asset records is shown.
For each asset record
listed, you’ll find:
1. The selected asset
record’s name.
2. A checkbox that per-
mits access to the
asset record’s
thumbnail via URL.
3. A checkbox that permits access to the asset’s (Cumulus generated) preview via URL.
4. A checkbox that permits users to download the asset via URL.
5. The resulting URL, as generated by Cumulus.
6. The base URL used for the selected asset records.
7. The type of URL Cumulus generates for all asset records listed. In addition to thumbnail, preview
and download (asset) URLs, a record URL type is available. This URL type opens the asset record
in the Canto Web Client, which is required for use with this URL type. (If you select a Base URL
that calls Sites, for example, you will get an error in the Web browser.) By contrast, the three
Cumulus-Direct URL types deliver their payloads directly to the Web browser and can be
resolved by either Sites or the Web Client.
8. Opens the selected URL in a Web browser. Use this option to see what will be delivered to users
once the URL is embedded into a Web page.
9. Copies the selected URLs to the computer clipboard for use in other applications.
10. Enables or disables the selected URL.
11. Commits the permissions set for newly created URLs so that Open URL can be used. As a rule,
click Apply before you want to use Open URL for testing.
About URL Permissions
Cumulus requires you to specifically choose what each URL can serve (thumbnail, preview, down-
load) because URLs are easily modified outside Cumulus. Consider the following “thumbnail” URL:
http://localhost:8080/Sites/T/Sample+Catalog/135?encoding=UTF-8&b=128
The /T/ portion of the URL tells Cumulus that a thumbnail is requested. Change that section to /P/
and a preview is requested. Likewise, /A/ requests the original asset. So, these explicit permissions
help ensure you don’t make available over the Web what you don’t intend to make available. That
said, now you know how easy it is to create the other URL types from the one you choose!
6. Do the same for other assets to see how
they’re handled inside the browser. Change
URL types and permissions and experiment.
FIGURE 8: With your Web browser open, take note of
the two sections of the URL that are easily tweaked out-
side Cumulus. Change the /T/ to /P/ and then to /A/
to see the asset’s preview and download, respectively.
Then change the 128 at the end of the URL to a smaller
value to see the image reduced in size. Larger sizes can
be used too, but you must make sure your configura-
tion file permits larger sizes. (Search for occurrences of
<directURL maximumSize="128" /> in your config file
and edit the “128” values as needed to permit larger
thumbnails and previews.) Note: This portion of the URL
has no effect on download assets. If omitted, the “max-
imumSize” values defined in the config file are used.
Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 5 of 7
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads
FIGURE 9: A new empty record is created as a
placeholder for assets to come later (top). Once
created, it’s easy to “attach” an asset to the empty
record. (Second down) Then, update the asset
record (third down), and that’s it! You can change
an asset record’s asset like this any time.
Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03
What do users see? Though it might appear as though nothing has
For the types of assets shown in figure 6, the fol- happened, Cumulus has actually created a new
lowing behaviors were seen in Firefox 3.6 on asset record that contains no asset reference.
Windows 7: (Scroll down to the bottom of your collection to
see it, or use Find > Find Records: Record Name
/T/ /P/ /A/ “Has No Value”)
Catalog Cumulus 2. Select the empty record and choose Asset >
“Save As”
.indd thumbnail preview
displayed displayed
window Change Asset Reference > Select Single. From
the window that appears, choose a file to con-
Catalog Cumulus In-browser nect to the asset record.
.pdf thumbnail preview display via
displayed displayed PDF plug-in 3. Finally, with the same asset record selected,
choose Metadata > Update Record > Update
Catalog Catalog
“Save As” Now. Choose an asset handling set and click
.aif thumbnail thumbnail
window
displayed displayed OK.
Catalog Cumulus At this point, create the URLs you need for the
In-browser
.jpg thumbnail preview
display record, just like you would any others. When the
displayed displayed time comes to update your “featured” asset,
repeat the previous two steps and your Cumulus-
NOTE: This browser had a PDF plug-in, but no Direct URLs will immediately reflect the newly
others. Had QuickTime be installed, the .aif chosen asset.
file would have played in-browser when
You can update asset references any time you
downloaded.
want, so asset record placeholders offer a perfect
What’s important to consider is that when using way to add a “live” aspect to your Cumulus-
Cumulus-Direct URLs, you are handing users Direct URLs.
files via their Web browsers. How those files are
Embedded download links anywhere
presented to the user is entirely a factor of how
Because Cumulus-Direct URLs are standard
the browser is configured, and the HTML code
HTML hyperlinks, they can be used in virtually
that surrounds the URL.
any situation in which you can embed a URL,
In other words, when using Cumulus-Direct including:
URLs, Cumulus provides thumbnails, previews
• PDF, Word documents — Add download links
and downloads on demand, but what happens to
into PDF or Word files, so that when you refer-
them after that is up to you.
ence another document, you can provide read-
ers with a handy download option.
Taking Cumulus-Direct URLs further.
• Twitter/Facebook — Add Cumulus-Direct URL
With some basic HTML skills already mastered,
you should now have all the information you links to your tweets and Facebook updates.
Not only do you make it easy for others to get
need to start building Cumulus into your Web
files, but you can actually track the down-
infrastructure via Cumulus-Direct URLs. The sec-
tions below are intended to offer some ideas of loads! (See “Don’t forget the stats!” on
page 7.)
how you might take advantage of Cumulus-
Direct URLs. • Email campaigns — Whether you need to
offer download links, or you just want to use
Asset record placeholders Cumulus to control the images displayed to
Though Cumulus-Direct URLs are “hard-wired” users, keep Cumulus-Direct URLs in mind
to a given asset record and its asset, there’s no when composing your email campaign tem-
reason why you can’t periodically change the plates. (Don’t forget: asset record placehold-
URL’s asset record to “point” to another asset. ers offer a great way to reuse campaign
This enables you to embed a single link into templates without reusing the same imagery.)
many places and, each time you update the URL’s
asset record, what Web users see and download NOTE: Keep in mind, the payload of a
changes. Think: “featured file of the day!” Cumulus-Direct URLs is always served
through a Web browser. So, when a URL is
To create an asset record placeholder inside the embedded somewhere other than a Web
Cumulus Native Client:
page, a Web browser will open to deliver the
1. Select File > Add Assets to Catalog > New payload to the user.
Empty Record. Choose a catalog and asset
handling set from the window that appears.
(Figure 9)
Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 6 of 7
LEARNING CUMULUS (EXPLORING SERIES): Using Cumulus-Direct URLs for "Always Fresh" Web Downloads

Mass-enabling assets for Cumulus-Direct URLs
Another way to enable assets for use with
Cumulus-Direct URLs is via metadata templates.
In fact, add a field formula into the mix, and
you’ve created a virtually automatic means for
generating the URLs you and your users need.
Here’s an overview of how this approach works:
1. A metadata template sets the permissions for
the asset records and adds the name of the
base URL to a metadata field.
2. Field formulas then use that base URL field
and the record’s ID number to assemble final
URLs into metadata fields, one for each URL
type. (Figure 10)
Any time the metadata template is applied,
either by a user or by the Cumulus Scheduler, the
URLs are updated. You can also use templates to
remove the URL permissions, which enables you
to use the Scheduler, for example, to disable URL
access based on status or other field changes.
Extra functionality! One you have your
Cumulus-Direct URLs saved into catalog fields,
you can perform XML metadata exports and
save URLs for all your files into a text file. Even
better, any other per-asset metadata you need,
such as caption, notes, etc. can be saved inside
the file too.
Don’t forget the stats!
Cumulus-Direct URLs that serve previews
and downloads also provide statistics about
those actions to Cumulus. This means you
can track how many times each asset is pre-
viewed or downloaded. (Thumbnail views
are not trackable.)
Users familar with statistics tracking through
services like Google Analytics will be happy
to learn that tracking via Cumulus-Direct
URL requires absolutely no extra code in
your Web pages! So it’s easy to get a total of
all previews or downloads, whether the
requests came from your website, your part-
ners’ sites, or anywhere else.
For information on how to configure statis-
tics in a Cumulus catalog, see the Cumulus
Admin guide.

FIGURE 10: (Left top) A

metadata template sets
permissions and a base
URL. (Left bottom) A
view set provides easy
access to all fields asso-
ciated with Cumulus-
Direct URLs. The fields
below “URL Size
Requests” and “URLs
(Copy to clipboard)”
were added to the cata-
log for this purpose.
(Right) The field for-
mula for the “URL - Preview” field. The formulas for
the other two fields (shown below) are similar, but
take into account the different URL type and size
request fields.

“URL - Preview” Field Formula

Note: fieldValue(“Cat-
fieldValue("Base URL") + "/P/Sample+Catalog/" + fieldValue("ID")
+ "?encoding=UTF-8" + "&b=" + fieldValue("Preview Size") alog Name”) does not
encode spaces, so it’s
“URL - Thumbnail” Field Formula best to “hard wire”
fieldValue("Base URL") + "/T/Sample+Catalog/" + fieldValue("ID") into your formulas any
+ "?encoding=UTF-8" + "&b=" + fieldValue("Thumbnail Size") catalog names that
contain spaces.
“URL - Download” Field Formula
fieldValue("Base URL") + "/A/Sample+Catalog/" + fieldValue("ID") + "?encoding=UTF-8"

About Canto, Cumulus and Canto Professional Services For more information, contact your
Canto has been dedicated to helping customers fully utilize their digital assets since 1990. Canto Cumu- local Canto partner, or Canto:
lus is a cross-platform solution that enables companies to easily organize, find, share and track their
ever-increasing numbers of digital files, in any format. Canto’s worldwide network of certified developers
In the U.S.
offers an impressive assortment of plug-ins that enhance the Cumulus product line further.
+1 (415) 495-6545
In the E.U.
Canto Professional Services offers Cumulus consulting, training, installation, configuration and customi- +49 (0) 30 390 485 0
zation services. Take what you learn in Exploring Documents further with Canto Professional Services.
Everywhere
Learn more: www.canto.com info@canto.com

Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners. Some product
claims and features are not included in all versions of the software and/or might require additional Cumulus Add-ons or Plug-ins.
EDU/mkEX-CD-URLs/2010.03 Copyright ©2010 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 7 of 7