iKnowBase Content Studio

iKnowBase contains iKnowBase Content Studio, a suite of web-based tools for publishers. For end user documentation of the iKnowBase Content Studio, see iKnowBase Publishing Guide.

Image Variants

An image variant is a scaling variant of an image. Image variants are created when inserting and updating image documents in iKnowBase, and are used when publishing content. You can configure an image variant to be required or optional. A required image variant will be created for an image upon each save of the image. An optional image variant will be created if requested by the end user.

The event “Image Scaling” triggers creation of image variants.

You may add new, change and remove existing image variant definitions. Image variant definitions are maintained in the iKnowBase Development Studio (development tools). For reference documentation see the Image Variant chapter of iKnowBase Development Reference.

Note: There must exist one required image variant with the property “Use this variant as thumbnail?” checked.

The image archive, which is part of the iKnowBase Content Studio, is by default configured with a set of image variant definitions.

This chapter describes the process of maintaining image variant definitions.

Add Image Variant Definition

To create a new image variant definition, perform the following steps:

1. Create an attribute with data type = FILE, and specify an external key. This attribute will be used to store the actual image variant for an image. It is referred to as the storage attribute. Note: You must define an external key for this attribute.
2. If the image variant is optional, create an attribute with data type = VALUELIST and value list = iKnowBase YesNo. This attribute will be used in the image form and allows the end user to decide if the image variant should be created. It is referred to as the request attribute. Note: You must use the iKnowBase YesNo valuelist for the request attribute in order to make it work.
3. Add the newly created attribute(s) to the image form “CS Image”:
   1. Add the storage attribute to the form. Change the attribute rule so that the attribute is not insertable, updateable, or savable.
   2. If the image variant is optional, add the request attribute to the form.
4. Finally, create the new image variant definition. Choose the newly created storage attribute, and the request attribute if the variant is optional. Specify the scaling properties.

Now the new image variant definition is ready for use!

Note: If an image variant’s only purpose is to define a crop area to be used in image edit, no attributes are required.

Change Image Variant Definition

You can change the scaling properties of an image variant definition. This will not automatically affect existing images/image variants. But, will affect all images created or modified after the image variant definition is changed. To recreate image variants for existing images, see the chapter Create Image Variants.

You can also make a required image variant optional, and vice versa, by adding or removing the request attribute from the image variant definition. Note: You must update the image form accordingly. See the chapter Add Image Variant for further information.

Remove Image Variant Definition

You can remove an image variant definition. Note: You must update the image form accordingly. See the chapter Add Image Variant for further information.

After removal of an image variant, the corresponding attributes will behave as regular attributes and already created image variants will remain.

Create Image Variants

The event “Image Scaling” triggers creation of image variants. By default this event is configured to trigger on insert and update of an image document. In special circumstances, like after an upgrade or after a change in the image variant definitions, you can manually recreate all image variants in the system. This functionality is available in the edit pane for the event “Image Scaling” in the iKnowBase Development Studio. Click the Run batch button in on the run batch tab of the event “Image Scaling”. See the Event chapter of the iKnowBase Development Reference for further information.

Quicklinks

The quicklinks in the document archive (add menu) are configured in the viewer “EXT CS Document Archive Publish Links JSON”. You should change this configuration to match your needs.

Note: Changes to this component must be reapplied after an iKnowBase upgrade.

Searchfields

The search filter used in the image and document archive are configured in the search sources tagged with the subsystem “iKB Content Studio”:

• EXT CS List images
• EXT CS List documents
• EXT CS Document Picklist
• EXT CS Document Picklist Editor

You should change this configuration to match your needs, both regarding search fields and valid values. Note: Only text fields and select lists (comboboxes) are supported.

Note: Changes to this component must be reapplied after an iKnowBase upgrade.