In order to make images or other material quickly available to an agency or an author, users of censhare 4.8 simply send a time-limited download link. This contains a reference to a ZIP file. An XSL style sheet may be used to configure its folder, the name of the file and the email.
No censhare account necessary
With the new temporary download link, censhare 4.8 offers more flexibility in the transfer of files such as images or layouts. The censhare user simply marks the assets of the files for transfer and invokes the corresponding server action.
In the simplest case, censhare collects the master files of the marked assets and produces a ZIP file from them. An XSL style sheet controls the entire process with XSLT commands, allowing very flexible configuration. This makes it possible for a customer project to, for instance, customize the structure of the ZIP file. In this way separate folders for images, InCopy texts and InDesign layout templates can be created. censhare then distributes the files appropriately across the folders.
After this, the system creates an asset and links the ZIP file with it. censhare also stores in the asset the latest time when, for instance, a service provider can download the ZIP file. Moreover, the system creates the download link and stores it in the asset.
Finally, the email with the download link is created. The user enters the recipient and completes the text of the email with the download link. Here, it is possible to customize the creation of the email using the XSL style sheet. For example, particular text elements may be specified or the user can add recipients to receive the email as copy (BC) or not to appear as recipients (BCC).
censhare, however, can also take information stored in assets and write it into the text of the email. If a person asset is available for the sender, censhare may create, for example, an email signature with company logo. Or censhare lists the files contained in the ZIP file, including the folder structure. Moreover, censhare can also mail the sender a copy of the email with BCC.
Customer Benefits
Simple tool for sending occasional files to partners, customers or service providers
Recipients only need an email account and Internet access
Size of the file unimportant since only the link is sent by email
Time-limited validity of the download link for security reasons
Very flexible configuration via XSL style sheet and XSLT
Application Case
Dispatch of images
Dispatch of files to partners, customers or service providers
Exchange of data with the XSL style sheet
With censhare 4.8, automatic procedures with dialogs may be created, such as the dispatch of a temporary download link. If desired, this can also be undertaken by partners or censhare AG itself.
The basis is the XSLT toolbox which uses the censhare API (Application Programming Interface) to access censhare's functionality. An XSL style sheet executes, for example, the commands required to read files, to generate a ZIP file and to create an asset with this. If the style sheet needs input from the user, it can initiate a dialog and pass the responses to the next XSLT command. Such a dialog could, for instance, query the recipient and the subject of the email.
A small framework in censhare 4.8 supports data interchange between the XSLT commands, the XSL style sheet and the dialogs. This allows it to be decided quite individually which information for the temporary download link is hard coded, which is input by the user and which is supplied by a query in censhare.
Via XSLT and XPATH, censhare can, for example, search for particular assets such as persons, or access the assets of the files which are to be exported. The information stored in the assets may then be used for the generation of the email.
In the “Temporary Download” module, the administrator configures the creation of the temporary download link. If there is more than one template for the creation, the XSLT style sheet may be selected here. In addition, the administrator can restrict the download to particular file types such as master file or PDF file.
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