We have received several requests from users who are interested in using EnterMedia through other applications. Below is one client's question and our response how the integration might be done.


Question: We want to use EnterMedia for the following tasks through our application:

·Retrieve a list of Categories and Create Categories in EnterMedia

·Retrieve a list of values for a Field

·Create Fields In a Category

·Search for Assets to return a list of Assets (including Metadata specified dynamically) based on Catalog, Category, Field

·Upload Asset to a Catalog and also apply categories and other metadata to the Asset

A java based Web service might work for us but we are open to suggestions. The input and output parameters for the calls are an xml (the schema for the xml is not developed yet so we are open to suggestions on this).


EnterMedia Response: While we don't have a full webservice we do have a REST API.  I think you'll be able to use our new REST API to accomplish all of your goals.  As I said the API is new, so as of right now you can only get a list of catalogs and a list of all of the assets in a catalog.  We will be adding a lot more to the API in the near future, and I think we'll be able to meet all of your requests.

There is some sparse documentation at http://entermediasoftware.com/docs/rest/index.html.  In our examples, we use jQuery to send HTML requests to the server and to parse responses from the server.  This could be done in Java, but we used jQuery because it's quick and easy.  If you would like an example of a Java client, let us know and we'll see what we can do.  If you would like to add to the API yourselves, I encourage you look at the source code and ask us any questions that you have.
 

Using Episode by Telestream, EnterMedia has created a custom video transcoding and publishing solution to support large amounts of video data that needed to be in the correct formats and in the correct places.  EnterMedia handles the ingestion of the original assets and then delegates to Episode to prepare various video files in several different formats.  When those transcodes are complete, EnterMedia will pull down the resulting video files and push them out to various streaming servers for use on the corporate network.  Embedding code can then be provided so employees can add the videos to various web pages across the enterprise.

The basic flow is something like this:

 New Video -> Uploaded to EnterMedia -> Transfered to Episode for metadata extraction and transcoding to various formats -> Output captured by EnterMedia and published to streaming servers.

We can also push videos on demand into Episode for transcoding.

EnterMedia is an online digital asset management application that connects to your website to display and organize your video content.

EnterMedia now has the beginnings of a REST API using JQuery. Here is the start to the API we will have: http://entermediasoftware.com/docs/rest/index.html This XML based API is modeled after the Flickr API. We use jQuery since it easy to manipulate the resulting HTML with it. In the next steps we will show some search and edit examples.

As of right now, we have only implemented retrieving the list of catalogs in EnterMedia, but it should be easy to extend and we plan on adding much more to the API in the near future. The following is an example where we load the generated catalog list into the selected DIV:

Client Side

<script type="text/javascript" src="$home/openedit/javascript/jquery-1.3.2.js">  jQuery.noConflict(); </script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="$home/media/tools/jquery.entermedia.js">   </script>

<div id="showcatalogs">
</div>

<script>
jQuery(document).ready(function()
{
    var appid = "media";
    jQuery("#showcatalogs").entermedia({ action: 'listcatalogs',appid: appid });
});
</script>

Server Side

The server side is located in the entermedia/services/rest folder. Each client action has to match an xml file of the same name. For example in our above code we use 'listcatalogs' which corresponds to entermedia/services/rest/listcatalogs.xml.

OpenEdit Inc., is pleased to announce the latest release of open source EnterMedia digital asset management software. Version 6.536 was released December 17, 2009. Download EnterMedia v.6.536.

We try to release a new version of EnterMedia each month. Most of the features are corporate sponsored ones, which are then shared with everyone who downloads EnterMedia. 

Release Notes, December 17, 2009:

Social Networking Features:
We have added several new features bringing social networking capabilities to EnterMedia. Each user will now have their own user page, from which they can Upload a portrait, add or remove friends, and create, view, or share their albums.
We have also redesigned the Home page to help you keep track of recent activity from your friends. Currently you will see notifications when a friend creates or comments on an album.

New Album Interface:
We've cleaned up our album interface and included album comments on the main album page.

New Events System:
We have implemented a new system to allow you to create your own events that can run java code or scripts. These are stored as _site.xconf files within subfolders inside of the "events" folder. You can then schedule these events to run on a timer or have your pages call these events. Events are managed from their own tab in the catalog administration area (Choose a catalog from the "Edit Catalogs" dropdown in the admin/settings area).

Mounting/Importing:
We have simplified the process for importing new assets from your server. From the import screen in the admin/settings area, you can select a catalog and enter a local (server-side) path and import your assets without having to worry about configuring the mount yourself.
For users that are using mounting for other purposes, you can still access the mounting tool, also in the admin/settings area. This area has been simplified to reflect the separation of mounting and importing.

Clear Invalid Assets:
A new feature that goes hand-in-hand with mounting and importing. This action will check all of the assets within a catalog and remove any assets whose original file no longer exists. This will allow you to keep your catalogs synchronized with your importing folder.

View EnterMedia release notes from the past six months.

About EnterMedia:
Open source EnterMedia software, is a 100% web-based, digital asset management system, used by Fortune 1000 corporations and organizations. EnterMedia, developed by OpenEdit Inc., is used primarily by the creative services industry, marketing departments and firms needing a centralized repository to share, collaborate, track, manage and reuse creative media content.

OpenEdit installs easily on OS X, Linux, Solaris and Windows.

Licensed under a royalty free, perpetual and transferable GNU LGPL license, OpenEdit is free to download and use, including all upgrades.

For more information about EnterMedia open source digital asset management software, please visit entermediasoftware.com

October 21, 2009 - EnterMedia v.6.378

Here are the release notes for the latest, tested release of EnterMedia Open Source Digital Asset Management:

Important Upgrade Info:
We have moved the catalog fallback directory up one level (outside of the "tools" directory).  Any preexisting catalogs will need to have their fallback reconfigured.  This is located in the _site.xconf in the root of the catalog.  For example: To update the photo catalog in the included sample webapp, you would need to edit /media/browse/photo/site.xconf and change
"<property name="fallbackdirectory">/WEB-INF/base/entermedia/tools/catalog</property>"
to
"<property name="fallbackdirectory">/WEB-INF/base/entermedia/catalog</property>"

Audio Support:
EM will now play audio types other than mp3s by generating an mp3 version that will work with the embedded audio player.  This is verified to work on wav files but should work for any type supported by LAME (lame.sourceforge.net).
   
Generated Image/Audio/Video Storage Changes:
All EM-generated versions of original files are now stored in the assets directory along with the _site.xconf containing the record's metadata.  This includes image thumbnail, medium, and  preview sized versions, mp3 versions of audio files, and flash versions of video files.  This has elminated an entire unnecessary directory structure (assets/images/generated/...) and should also make it simpler to keep backups of your data.

Album Backend Changes:
Albums are now Lucene based, making it possible to search and sort within an album.

New Datepicker:
We have a new date picker tool that uses jQuery and generally works and looks better.

Importing Fixes:
We have separated the mounting and importing screens.  Both are accessible from the EnterMedia Admin (Settings) area.  Importing will now remove records for original files that are no longer there.  This will keep your records synchronized with your originals folder.

http://www.entermediasoftware.com