Introducing Web Catalogs
Connecter Suite’s first major exclusive feature that shows your asset library in a different light
We are introducing a brand new feature to Connecter’s ecosystem, which will allow you to showcase your assets to people that don’t have access to your library. Scroll down a bit to learn all details about it.
For the eager to start testing —scroll a bit more.
All others — we have a real-ish story for you. Meet:
Often they all participate in a story like this one:
March 14th, 2020 BWC (Before Web Catalogs)
[10:15 AM] Jeff: Hi Magda! The last scenes look great, but we would like to add some industrial feel. Can you offer some furnishings?
[10:16 AM] Magda: Hey Jeff! Yes, I will just need some time to prepare a catalog for you. Be right back!
[10:18 AM] Magda: George, I’m in a bit of a hurry and on my laptop, I don’t have the full asset library with me. Can you prepare a PDF catalog of all industrial style assets that we have?
[10:19 AM] George: 👋Magda. Yes, sure. Luckily, we’ve created a tag in Connecter for them. I will email it in a few minutes.
[2:25 PM] Jeff: Magda, thank you for the catalog. We would like to see more images for the 12 we selected. They are marked with red on the screenshots I’m sending.
(10 jpg files incoming)
[2:30 PM] Magda: Hi Jeff! OK, I will share them with you. Keep in mind that it may take some time…
[2:32 PM] Magda: Hey George, me again… Here’s a list of 12 assets that the client would like to see with more details. Can you upload all renders that we have for them on Dropbox?
[2:34 PM] George: Magda, I’m in the middle of a task and what you are asking is a bit time-consuming. You will have them in Dropbox in about 2 hours.
[2:35 PM] Magda: Well, OK. Can you create a separate folder for each asset?[2:41 PM] George: OK.
[9:37 PM] Jeff: Magda, we decided that industrial isn’t really our style. How about all Boho furnishings?
[9:55 PM] Magda: 😱 I’m on it.
April 28th, 2020 AWC (After Web Catalogs)
[10:15 AM] Jeff: Hi Magda. A massive project incoming. Can we check all sofas that you have?
[10:16 AM] Magda: Sure! I’ve just shared them with your partner account in Web Catalogs.
Sounds familiar? Read on and learn how we are beginning to tackle these conversations.
Two years ago we introduced Connecte Suite — a service that enables teams of creatives to use the same asset library outside of the borders of their offices. In the current dire WFH situation, that looks like a prophetic idea, but the truth is that we scratched an itch that we and many others had. This was our first bigger step towards better teamwork.
But the teams are dynamic and colorful structures. Often they involve people with completely different skills and duties. Sometimes they go beyond the frames of a company and involve partners, contractors, even clients. People that are involved in the creative process, but are more concerned by the output and less about the technical details.
Our first step in satisfying these wider needs is called…
Web Catalogs
In short, this is the first major Connecter Suite exclusive feature that allows you to showcase the assets cataloged in a Workspace into a sleek web environment. What you will see in a Web Catalog is the visual representation of the assets — all kinds of previews that you may have assigned or created automatically, excluding, for now, the interactive ones.
What else will you find in Web Catalogs?
- Tags — the whole structure that you’ve created in Connecter is synchronized and available.
- Assets Sets — created from a hand-picked selection. Useful for showcasing a specific range of assets.
- Smart Catalogs — dynamic lists of assets based on a search or tag. They will be updated based on the changes made in Connecter.
You can also see labels for the file formats, although, right now, you can’t filter the catalog based on them.
Who can access the Web Catalogs?
- Team members — all people who are part of the Workspace for which a Web Catalog is activated. They can create Assets Sets and Smart Catalogs and share them with Partners.
- Partners — for now, they can only browse the Assets Sets and Smart Catalogs that are shared with them.
Although it can be useful for everyone, the Web Catalogs is geared mostly towards people, whose job doesn’t include using Connecter’s desktop app.
For example, a designer or stylist needs to curate a list of assets for a project. Web Catalogs will allow them to work on pretty much any device, without the need to install Connecter and get access to the actual assets. They can work comfortably with the images online and create an Assets Sets or Smart Catalog depending on their needs.
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Then with a few clicks, it can be shared with a Partner — let’s say, a client that will have to approve them. The great thing is that catalogs can be dynamic. For example, if you create a tag for a certain project and share it in a Smart Catalog, each time a new asset is added it will appear online and the client will be able to see it. No need to send PDFs back and forth.
Or if we get back to the story in the beginning — Magda and George should probably be Team members and Jeff will be the Partner. Check out the short video showcasing all these features.
What’s missing?
You will notice that there are some features that would be very useful in Web Catalogs which aren’t currently available. We are launching this initial version with the clear understanding that it will be a massive ongoing project and one of the directions that we develop Connecter.
Here’s a shortlist of features that we have in mind for the future:
- Approve or Reject — a way for the Partners to confirm the use of certain assets without leaving the Web Catalog.
- Feedback — comments or even sketches giving direction to the creative team.
- Asset sharing — allow the transfer of actual assets through the online platform.
- Link with the desktop app — a way to see the Asset Sets and Smart Catalogs along with all comments and actions inside Connecter.
Our goal right now is to get as much feedback as possible. Please, give Web Catalogs a run and contact us with your ideas, opinions, and criticism. In order to start using it, you will have to read the next chapter as well.
Technical stuff
Although Web Catalogs only show image previews of your assets and not the actual files, that’s still quite a lot of sensitive information that should be shared. We decided against hosting it for pretty much the same reasons, which prevents us from uploading something more than meta-data in our cloud as part of Connecter Suite Workspace:
- Copyrights and licensing — every creative company is (and should be) cautious about the sharing of valuable assets. This leads to a lot of legal work, which will divert our focus from software development;
- Freedom and flexibility — all people already have a storage service of choice and tying them to yet another one for the purpose of one specific application seems unfair;
- Price and security — a massive cloud-storage provider will always be able to beat the pricing and stability that we can offer with our current resources and priorities.
That’s why we choose to use a cloud-storage integration for hosting the files. UPDATE: Web Catalogs work with Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Object, Azure Blob, OneDrive, and Amazon S3.
Keep in mind that you are going to upload only previews, so even a free Dropbox account, which offers 2 GB of storage, can suit your needs.
Now let’s go through the setup steps:
- Connecter Suite account and Workspace — if you don’t have one at the moment follow this guide to start.
- Activate — in the Teamwork Portal use the Activate Web Catalog option. Each Workspace can have only one active Web Catalog.
- Authenticate — link your Dropbox account to a Web Catalog with a token.
- Log in — in Connecter desktop app enter the Workspace for which you’ve enabled the Web Catalog.
- Synchronization — from Tools -> Web Catalogs start the uploading of the assets.
The final step may take a lot of time, but you will be able to use the Web Catalog in the meantime — it will be actively updated each time a preview is uploaded. You will probably want more details about that process and the data that will be stored in Dropbox.
- Uploading process — the synchronization is active as long as the Connecter that initiates it is on. If you have to stop it, another Connecter with access to the same Workspace can continue the upload, by obtaining access from the Web Catalog menu in the desktop app.
- Cataloged assets — the previews of all assets that have received a tag, preview, or description (any kind of metadata) since the creation of the Workspace will be part of the Web Catalog. This means that assets that currently don’t have meta-data will still be uploaded.
- Previews types — all custom, native and embedded previews will be visible in Web Catalogs. The maximum resolution of previews is 1200 px width — all bigger will be downscaled in order to preserve resources and ensure a smooth performance. cataloged assets without (or with missing) previews will be showcased with a default thumbnail.
- Priority — the uploading is done in historical order. Basically, the assets that were first cataloged will be uploaded first.
Again, keep in mind that it’s an initial version of Web Catalogs and all these details may (and probably, will) be changed in the future.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please, get in touch.
