Asset Factories

Overview

Asset Factories allow users to rubber stamp new assets with certain configurations and content already in place. Asset Factories can be used to create assets from scratch or be based on an existing pre-configured base asset. Cascade CMS comes with seven built-in Default Asset Factories, and additional custom Asset Factories can be created.

Asset Factories and their containers can be configured to be accessible only to selected groups in the Add Content menu. Containers for Asset Factories appear as sub-menus in the Add Content menu. For example, a "Press Release" Asset Factory might be filed in a container named "News", which would be accessible only to News contributors.

Creating an Asset Factory

To create an Asset Factory:

1. Navigate to Manage Site > Asset Factories.
2. Navigate to the container in which the new Asset Factory will be stored, or create a new container using Add > Container.
3. Click Add > Asset Factory.
4. Select the type of Asset Factory you'd like to create and click Choose. You can create Asset Factories for the following asset types:
   • Block
   • File
   • Folder
   • Page
   • Format
   • Link
   • Template
5. In the Name field, enter a name for your Asset Factory. The name will be used as its label in the Add Content menu.
6. In the Parent Container field, select a container for the Asset Factory, if desired. Asset Factory containers appear as submenus in the Add Content menu.
7. In the Settings tab, configure the following fields:
   
   1. Base Asset - An optional asset on which assets created using this Asset Factory will be based.
      • If no base asset is selected, new assets will have no pre-populated content or configurations.
   2. Placement Folder - An optional folder in which assets created with this Asset Factory are placed.
      • If a Placement Folder is chosen, users will not be able to choose a different folder when using the Asset Factory unless Subfolder Placement is enabled (see below).
      • If no placement folder is selected, users will be able to choose any folder as long as they have read/write access to it.
   3. Subfolder Placement - Enabling this option allows assets created using this Asset Factory to be placed in subfolders of the Placement Folder.
   4. Description for New Menu - Allows you to provide a description or help text for the Asset Factory which will appear in the Add Content menu.
   5. Folder Placement Position - Determines the order in which the new asset will appear in the selected placement folder.
      • For example, a new press release may always need to be placed first in the folder in order for dynamic navigation menus to render them by most recent. The value 0 can be used to place assets in the first position; leave the field blank to place assets in the last position.
   6. Overwrite - Allows newly-created assets to overwrite existing assets with the same name.
   7. Applicable Groups - Determines which groups can access the Asset Factory in the Add Content menu.
      • These groups must also be included in the Applicable Groups of the Asset Factory's container(s).
   8. Workflow mode - Determines if workflow is required when creating assets with this Asset Factory.
      1. None - Workflow is not required for assets created with this Asset Factory.
      2. Folder Controlled - Create-type Workflow Definitions that are applied to the folder in which the asset is being created will be used.
      3. Selected Workflow Definition - Use the chooser to select a Workflow Definition to be used whenever assets are created with this Asset Factory.
8. In the Plugins tab, add one or more Asset Factory plugins by selecting one from the drop-down menu and clicking + Add Plugin.
9. Click Submit.

Base Assets

Base assets allow newly-created assets to inherit pre-configured properties. For example, if a page Asset Factory has a base page selected, new pages created using that Asset Factory will inherit the base page's Content Type, block and format assignments, metadata, and content.

Folder Asset Factories with a base folder specified can be used to create entire collections of folders and assets, and links contained in those assets will be resolved relative to the newly-created folder. For example, when creating a new calendar year folder with month pages that link to each other:

Year 1
Month A
Month B

Year 2
Month A1
Month B1

If under the Year 1 folder, a page called Month B links to a page called Month A and this folder is the base folder for an Asset Factory, when Year 2 is created, Month B1 will link to Month A1.