Keyword for file type

(Kate Needham) #1

[Am very, very new at Matrix…] Is there a keyword for file type (e.g. HTML, PDF)?

(Greg Sherwood) #2

Actually… not that I know of. We have keywords for file size, but I think that is it.


If your trying to use the keyword in the asset listing, you could consider creating a format for each type of asset being listed. If you are using asset listing and want to give this a go, let me know and I'll post some more instructions here.

(Kate Needham) #3

Yes, I'm doing an asset listing.


So far I have:



<TABLE>

<TR>

<TD><A href="%asset_URL%">%asset_metadata_DC.Title%</A><br>%asset_metadata_DC.Description%</TD>

<TD>%asset_file_size_readable%</TD>

<TD>%asset_metadata_DC.Format%</TD>

</TR>

</TABLE>



It's not ideal… file types come out looking pretty raw (e.g. application/pdf, application/msword, because they're the MIME types we've identified for the DC.Format metadata) - I'd like to know more about the formats you're talking about.



(We are using DC.Title to avoid having PDF file names come up in the listing.)

(Greg Sherwood) #4

The most you can do with formats is to show a difference between PDF's, images, and DOCs.


The asset listing allows you to customise the looping layout for each type of asset you are listing. You can configure it (on the Details screen) to list the PDF, WordDoc, File, and Image assets in the listing. Then you can check a box to get custom layouts for each type of asset.



Basically, you can change the way each of these types look. So if you are printing the entry for a Word Document, you could print an icon if you want. Same thing for PDF. Then you can use generic FILE and IMAGE icons for the other assets.



For this to work, you need to make sure your file assets are correctly assigned as either PDF file asset or WordDocs (they have different icons). If all your files in Matrix are the generic FILE asset, Matrix wont be able to differentiate them.

(Kate Needham) #5

So far, so good. It seems to be working well… except that %asset_file_size_readable% does not display HTML file sizes. Is there any way to do this?

(Greg Sherwood) #6

It should display the file size like any other file…
Is a file size displayed on the details screen of the HTML file?

If the HTML file a FILE asset in Matrix? (you can find this at the top of the details screen too)

(Kate Needham) #7

The HTML files I'm referring to are not FILE ASSETS per se, they are standard pages that I'm lising in an asset listing. I tried using %asset_page_size_readable% (as a guess) on a type format page, but that didn't work either.

(Greg Sherwood) #8

There is no size for standard pages - only for file assets.

(Kate Needham) #9

OK. Thanks.


Is there no way to do a Type Format for Excel files (I've been able to set up Type Formats for PDFs and Word docs)?

(Greg Sherwood) #10

No, we dont have an Excel asset yet.

(Kate Needham) #11

OK.


Sorry this thread goes on and off topic…



I've added FILES to my asset listing to display Excel documents (I now have PAGES, PDFs, MSWORD and FILES), but it causes all the design assets (gifs, jpegs, style sheets) to be listed in the asset listing as well. What gives?

(Avi Miller) #12

You need to turn "Inherit Types" off. Otherwise, every asset type that inherits from File will get displayed.

(Kate Needham) #13

OK. How do I do that?

(Greg Sherwood) #14

That wont help much. CSS files are files too.
What you really need is to put all your files into a directory strucutre and then point your asset listing at that. If your asset listing is looking in a site, it will pick up files in the design as well.



Remember, you can reuse assets, so you could have a folder strucutre like:

Files

|__ PDFs

|__ Word DOCs

|__ Others



and then list the Files directory. Throughout your site, you could then link in the files as required.



Hope that makes sense.

(Kate Needham) #15

We are going to have lots and lots of these asset listing pages. For example, we might have HR forms and Finance forms as asset listing pages, then have an asset listing of both those asset listings to show all forms (see AGIMO’s publications page for a working example - http://www.agimo.gov.au/publications).


Therefore, would the set up you’ve suggested have to be done for each asset listing, and would the asset listing of the asset listings still work?

(Avi Miller) #16

I setup the AGIMO Publications system, and asset listing several asset listings still maintains the layout systems. Each lower asset listing has the appropriate root node and sort order and the parent asset listing then lists the contents of its children.


You can contact me off the forum for more information.

(Greg Sherwood) #17

It's up to you to define a structure that will allow you to do what you want. You could have:

    Files
     |__ Forms
           |__ HR
           |__ Finance


etc.

You can then point an asset listing at HR forms, Finance forms, or even all forms.

Asset listings of other asset listing will work regardless of the struture you are listing. In my example above, you could have an asset listing for HR forms, one for finance forms, and then one that lists the other two asset listings. In this case, your structure might look like:

    Site
     |__ Forms (asset listing of children)
     |     |__ HR Forms (asset listing of HR folder)
     |     |__ Finance Forms (asset listing)
     |
     |__ Files (folder)
           |__ Forms (folder)
                 |__ HR (folder)
                 |__ Finance (folder)