This assignment mode should be performed only if the corresponding reference to digital asset is provided by importing the catalog data to the PIM Server(HPM). For it the corresponding properties should be properly configured, please visit the pages: Installation, configuration and execution and Configuration for Auto path resolution by reference.

Generally it consists of following steps:

Import catalog date with reference in PIM

Import catalog date with reference in PIM
Assigned multimedia document with reference as identifier, it may be
1. By the mode "catalog data first": the reference will be resolved in the next step
2. By the mode "Digital assets first(Post Import mode)": only if the reference can not be resolved.
Reference is resolved with asset identifier from Media Manager
1. By the mode "catalog data first": the reference is replaced with asset identifier after it is uploaded in Media Manager.
2. By the mode "Digital assets first(Post Import mode)": after import in PIM, the corresponding mapping information about source file name to identifier is fetched from Media Manger and resolves the reference directly.

Catalog data first

In this scenario the catalog data is imported in the PIM Server first, then the digital assets are uploaded in the Media Manager.

The catalog data contains one or more references from the PIM object to digital assets, which indicates the particular PIM objects have assigned digital assets. In PIM Server this data is imported and a multimedia attachments with an associated multimedia document is created and assigned to the PIM object where the imported reference is stored as the identifier of the multimedia document. As a provided reference it may be:

For master catalog: it can only be the file name of the digital asset.
For supplier catalog: usually at least the file name of the digital asset or the file name plus a relative path.

Later the digital assets are uploaded to the Media Manager in following ways:

For master catalog: directly via the PIM desktop or Media Manager application(native medias or web application).
For supplier catalog: in a ZIP file (through Supplier Portal (HSX)). The reference information given in the catalog data including the relative path has to match the directory structure inside the digital assets' ZIP where the ZIP file represents the root the files' paths are relative to.

The asset upload action triggers a workflow in Media Manager which places messages with the topic "AssignDocument" on the message queue. These messages are then received and processed by the PIM Server. The source filename is taken from the message and all catalog data is searched for multimedia documents with this identifier. If such multimedia documents are found, the identifier (source file name) is replaced by the asset id (PKOM_PNR) of Media Manager. And then all exsiting derivatives of the asset will be also assigned to the corresponding PIM object.

Digital assets first(Post Import mode)

In this scenario the digital assets are uploaded to the Media Manager firstly, the JMS messages are received by the PIM Server but there is no catalog data yet to which the uploaded digital assets can be assigned. Nothing happens (from an user's point of view) and the message is removed from queue.

Then after the catalog data is imported in PIM Server, a post import step is executed which calls connector API method to fetch from Media Manager database for relevant associations between following information to resolve the reference from catalog data and then perform derivative assignment.

the identifier(PKOM_PNR) of digital asset.
the (source) file name of digital asset,
- For master catalog: file name of the digital asset
- For supplier catalog: file name of the digital asset or the file name plus a relative path, which indicates the path in Media Manager file server to store the uploaded asset.
the catalogID to which the digital asset belongs to.

This post import mode is always available for supplier catalog and has to happen via Supplier Portal (HSX), which uses the Media Manager hot folder to upload the assets, because only thus the above mentioned association(source file name) can be stored in Media Manager database, this association will be provided then for PIM user to resolve the reference by import.

This post import mode is also limited available for master catalog, for that only a file name(without relative path) as reference can be resolved to an asset which is fetched from Media Manager database according to its file name(not source file name).

If you are sure never to upload the catalog data after the digital assets you can turn off the post import step.

Sometimes you do an "update import" which contains only some changes. The imported value is a reference (source filename) again but the previous reference has already been resolved to an asset identifier(PKOM_PNR from Media Manager). Therefore it should be checked if the reference has been changed, for that the "source path" field is used which contains always the previous reference(the initially imported source filename). If the new reference is different from the value in the "source path" field, the identifier and "source path" will be replaced by the new reference, and the identifier will be resolved later to an new asset identifier from Media Manager, otherwise not.
In case you work on a very large catalog and do an update import with only a few changes, it might be inefficient to fetch all association for all digital assets from Media Manager. So there is a configurable barrier and if less assets have changed a list of these filenames will be used to fetch only relevant association for these digital assets from the Media Manager.

Extension point for post import steps

To implement a post import step a new Extension Point is available. The Extension Points' id is com.heiler.ppm.importer5.core.postImportStep. It expects only a class implementing the Interface com.heiler.ppm.importer5.core.postimportstep.PostImportStep and optional for documentation purposes you can give the extension a name and a description. The interface has only one method executePostImportStep which is called after the import and which is given an ImportProfile, an ImportResult and a ProblemLog. (After the import means after the importFinished methods of the entitySpecificImportConfiguration have been called)

Support of StructureGroup in Autoresolve mode

The auto path resolution for StructureGroup can be performed by strict conditions. It works like the side effect of the auto resolution for article(/product/variant), because it is unknown that the corresponding asset should be stored in which catalog at Media Manager.

For detailed information please read the corresponding clause: Configuration of auto path resolution for structuregroup.