Automatic import¶
A storage can be configured to automatically import new files/image sequences
that are detected. Auto-import rules define what transcodes that should be
performed as well as what metadata to be used if none can be found. Metadata
can automatically be found if it shares the same filename and has the extension
.xml
, for example video.avi
and video.xml
.
Auto-import rules can also use Import settings
to set up access control lists by setting the optional settingsId
element.
Setting a user for jobs started as a result of an auto import rule¶
New in version 4.6.
The default behavior is that jobs started from an auto import rule will not have
a user set. This can be changed by setting the <user>
tag in the rule XML:
PUT /storage/VX-2/auto-import
Content-Type: application/xml
<AutoImportRuleDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
<tag>myflvtag</tag>
<user>angela@company.com</user>
</AutoImportRuleDocument>
Importing with a metadata file of an external format¶
Vidispine also supports auto imports with a metadata XML file that is of a different format than the native Vidispine MetadataDocument. This is achieved by associating a Metadata projections (XSLT transformation) with the auto import rule. First, create the projection, then set the auto import rule:
PUT /storage/VX-2/auto-import
Content-Type: application/xml
<AutoImportRuleDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
<tag>myflvtag</tag>
<projection>myProjection</projection>
</AutoImportRuleDocument>
Where the projection
element contains a Projection id.
Any auto imports from this storage will then first transform the supplied XML file using the specified projection.
Disable automatic import rules¶
New in version 4.9.
Auto-import rules can be disabled by setting the enabled
field to false
, or by
using the disable rule request. When a rule is disabled
then no new auto-import jobs will be created for new files discovered on the storage.
Jobs will be created once the rule is enabled again. By default rules are enabled.
Example¶
If the admin only wants the user to be able to import during specific hours a program like cron could be used:
0 0 * * * curl -X PUT -uadmin:admin http://localhost:8080/API/storage/VX-1/auto-import/enable
0 5 * * * curl -X PUT -uadmin:admin http://localhost:8080/API/storage/VX-1/auto-import/disable
Exclude sidecar files¶
New in version 4.8.
The AutoImportRuleDocument contains a field ignoreSidecarImport
.
Setting this property to true
means that the sidecar files will be excluded
from the automatic import. The default is to include sidecar files with the automatic import.
This could reduce runtime and also be a handy tool if there are sidecar files
which Vidispine does not yet support.
Title as metadata¶
The AutoImportRuleDocument contains a field fileNameAsTitle
.
Setting this property to true
means that the “title” fields of all single
files imported form this storage will be set to their file names.
Applying file name filters to auto import rules¶
There are two kinds of filename filters that can be applied to auto import rules:
- Exclusion filters
- Used to exclude files from being auto imported. This
can be useful when the OS creates files automatically, e.g.
Thumbs.db
on Windows or.DS_Store
files on Mac OS. Note that the expression must match the entire path, not only a part of the path. - Shape tag filters
- These can be used to transcode the imported file using
a specific shape tag when a file name follows a certain pattern. You might
want files ending in
.tiff
to be transcoded using the taglowimage
for example.
The filters are specified in the XML document you use to create/update the auto import rule.
Example¶
<AutoImportRuleDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
<metadata>
<timespan start="-INF" end="+INF">
<field>
<name>title</name>
<value>This is an auto-imported item.</value>
</field>
</timespan>
</metadata>
<tag>generictag</tag>
<excludeFilter>
<pattern>.*\.DS_Store</pattern>
<excludeFilter>
<shapeTagFilter>
<pattern>.*\.tiff</pattern>
<tag>lowimage</tag>
</shapeTagFilter>
<shapeTagFilter>
<pattern>.*\.mxf</pattern>
<tag>lowvideo</tag>
</shapeTagFilter>
</AutoImportRuleDocument>
This rule will exclude any file ending with .DS_Store
. Any files ending with
.tiff
will be imported with the shape tag lowimage
, and any files ending in
.mxf
will be imported with the shape tag lowvideo
. All files will be
imported with the shape tag generictag
.
Auto import of image sequences¶
Deprecated since version 4.6: Define a sequence pattern on the storage and use an auto-import rule without a sequence definition instead.
Image sequences can be auto detected and imported if their file names match the predefined regex in AutoImportRuleDocument. The elements in the document are:
fileSequence
- Defines the file name pattern, and it is mandatory.
sequenceMetadata
- Defines the metadata file name pattern.
idGroup
- The matching group in the regex should be used as the id of the file sequence.
numGroup
- The matching group in the regex that should represent the position of a file in a sequence.
timeout
- A sequence is considered as completed after a certain timeout (in seconds). The default timeout is 60 seconds.
Example:¶
<AutoImportRuleDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
<tag>mp4</tag>
<metadata>
<timespan end="+INF" start="-INF">
<field>
<name>title</name>
<value>auto-imported item.</value>
</field>
</timespan>
</metadata>
<sequenceDefinition>
<sequenceMetadata>
<regex>(.*)-metadata.xml</regex>
<idGroup>1</idGroup>
</sequenceMetadata>
<fileSequence>
<regex>(.*)-([0-9]+).(dpx|tga|png|jpg)</regex>
<idGroup>1</idGroup>
<numGroup>2</numGroup>
<timeout>10</timeout>
<!-- seconds-->
</fileSequence>
</sequenceDefinition>
</AutoImportRuleDocument>
Given a storage with the above import rule, with the files:
foo-metadata.xml
foo-001.dpx
foo-002.dpx
foo-002.dpx
Then these would be recognized as a sequence foo
with foo-metadata.xml
as the metadata.