How to connect MASV with your Iconik MAM

Step-by-step guide for integrating MASV with your Iconik system

This article includes the following topics:

Overview

Getting started

Iconik Group Roles

Set up MASV with your Iconik application credentials

Connect a MASV Portal

How the MASV and Iconik integration works

Iconik storage account requirements

Troubleshooting

Overview

Iconik is a Multimedia Asset Management (MAM) tool that can be used to gather and organize media from anywhere. When connected to your MASV Portal(s), you can receive large media files from anyone, anywhere at blazing fast speeds and have them delivered directly to your Iconik account. You can also collect metadata from a Portal and flow it through to Iconik.

Getting started

First, you need an Iconik account that is connected to your cloud storage provider of choice (Azure, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, or AWS S3). You will need to create an Application Token in Iconik (contact your administrator if you do not have access to create this) before you can integrate MASV:

  1. Log in to your Iconik account

  2. Click the Admin button

    Iconik admin dashboard
  3. Click the Settings icon on the left-hand menu to expand it then click Application Tokens.

    Iconik dashboard icons

     

  4. Click the New Application button in the upper-right corner

    Iconik add new application

     

  5. Enter a name for the application and select a User that this token will belong to. This means that when MASV uploads files it will be acting on behalf of the user and will have their level of access; the user you select here must have read, write and delete authorization to upload files to your storage account, create jobs, initiate transcode operations, and must be a Power user. See the section below about Iconik Group Roles for more details.

    iconik-add-a-new-appplication

     

  6. You will now see the application in the list, but you need to click the Create New button next to it to generate the token you need for MASV integration.

    Iconik create new button

     

  7. Copy and save both of the following in a safe place. Both are required to connect MASV.

    1. Click the button beside Copy Token to copy the Application Token and save it.

    2. Click the button at the far right under ID to copy the Application ID and save it.

      Iconik application token

Iconik Group Roles

The user that the application token is associated with must belong to a group with specific roles enabled OR be an Admin user to ensure that MASV will have the necessary access to transfer your files. They must be a Power user to ensure that package metadata can be added to each asset.

  1. Login to your Iconik account

  2. Click the Admin button

    Iconik admin button
  3. Click the Groups icon on the left-hand menu and either edit an existing group or create a new one.

    Iconik group button

     

  4. Under Group Information, toggle Roles - Advanced View. The following permissions must be enabled (others can be enabled too, these are the minimum):

    1. Assets - create, delete, purge and write

    2. Collections - create, delete, purge, read and write

    3. Files - delete, purge, read and write

    4. Formats - create and write

    5. Jobs - delete and write

    6. Metadata fields - read and write

    7. Metadata views - read and write

    8. Storages - read

    9. Transcode jobs - create

      Iconik advance role dashboard
  5. Click Update after you’ve added any that were previously unchecked and you’re done!

Set up MASV with your Iconik application credentials

  1. Log in to the MASV Web App as an account Owner, Admin, or Integration Manager (roles).

  2. Browse to Integrations, and on the Integrations page, select the Available Integrations tab, and select Iconik.

  3. In the Add Integration window, paste in the App ID and App Token you generated in Iconik.

    iconik-masv-add-integration-window
  4. From the Choose an Account selector, locate the cloud storage that you want MASV to store your files in. If you want to set a specific directory, set it Target Directory.

  5. Click Connect to save your settings

Note: MASV requires read, write and delete permissions on the storage account. If the storage you want to use does not appear in this list, please see Iconik storage account requirements.

Now you can attach your cloud integration to your MASV Portal(s) to have your uploads automatically transferred to Iconik. You can also select this integration to upload individual packages using the Send to Cloud feature on the Packages list pages.

Connect a MASV Portal

To attach a cloud integration to a MASV Portal, simply do the following

  1. Log in to the MASV Web App as an account Owner or Admin (roles).

  2. Browse to Request Files with Portals and on the Request Files page, select the menu icon vertical-3-dot-menu-b in the Actions column for the Portal that you want to connect to Iconik.

  3. In the menu, select Edit.

  4. On the Edit Portal page, select the Cloud Integrations tab.

  5. In the integration list, locate the Iconik you want to use, and enable the toggle in the Status column.masv-return-to-previous-page-arrow

Note: Email notifications are sent to any email addresses listed in the Recipients field when new packages are uploaded to Iconik.

How the MASV and Iconik integration works

When a package is uploaded to a connected MASV Portal or the Send to Cloud feature is used from the package list, MASV transfers the package to Iconik and the connected storage account.

  • In MASV:

    • Portal recipients receive an email with a download link as well as a second email indicating the status of the transfer to Iconik

    • A message is published to a connected Slack channel to indicate the transfer status to Iconik

  • In Iconik:

    • A collection is created and named for the package, with each file organized within it.

      • Send to cloud: /MASV/[package name]

      • Received portal uploads: /Portal Downloads/[portal name]/[package name]

    • The package structure is replicated, with each folder being represented as a collection.

    • A job is created for each file so that you can monitor the progress within Iconik’s Admin panel if you wish.

    • Each file has a keyframe (preview thumbnail) generated for it automatically.

    • The package name, uploader’s email address, and portal name (if received via portal) is attached to the description field of each file asset.

  • In the cloud storage account:

    • A directory is created and named for the package, with each file organized within it.

      • Send to cloud: /MASV/[package name]

      • Received portal uploads: /Portal Downloads/[portal name]/[package name]

    • The package file and folder structure is replicated as-is.

 

Note: Empty subdirectories are not recreated in Iconik or the cloud storage account.

Iconik storage account requirements

MASV uploads packages to the cloud storage that your Iconik account is already connected to. For transfers to work correctly, there are a few requirements that must be met.

If the cloud storage service does not appear as an option when integrating Iconik with MASV, review the information below carefully to ensure permissions and settings are correct.

Note: We recommend that you upload a file from within Iconik to ensure the storage connection is working properly.

Required settings

  • Purpose: Files
  • Method: (Backblaze) B2, AZURE, (Google Cloud Storage) GCS, S3 (AWS or compatible)
  • Status: Active
  • Read: Enabled
  • Write: Enabled
  • Delete: Enabled

Optional settings

  • Path: A path may be specified or left empty. MASV will create directories to hold each package

    • Send to cloud: /MASV/[package name]
    • Received portal uploads: /Portal Downloads/[portal name]/[package name]
    • Setting a path on your storage configuration will result in the above directories being created within that path. For example, if your path was set to “/uploads” then packages would be transferred to /uploads/MASV/[package name] and /uploads/Portal Downloads/[portal name]/[package name]
  • Add unique id to the filenames: If this is enabled the filenames in connected storage will have a unique identifier appended to their names. This will not appear in Iconik itself.

Note: MASV will attempt to identify if a package has been previously uploaded before and will automatically number subsequent packages with the same name - this will be reflected in Iconik and the cloud storage by appending a number to the package directory/collection name. Example: My Upload (2)

  • ACLs

    • Ensure that the user to whom the application belongs has at least read, write, and delete access on the storage account.

iconik-user-db

  • Other storage settings do not affect MASV behaviour

iconik-path-connection-string-db

Note: If you change cloud storage services for your Iconik account, it is best to delete your current MASV integration and reconnect.

Troubleshooting

For any and all issues related to upload errors, the key debugging steps are:

  • Can the user associated with the application token upload to the storage account within Iconik? For example, can they log in to Iconik, go to Upload, select the storage account, and upload a single file?  If not, check the following:
    • Verify the Group Roles for the user.
    • Verify the storage account configuration.
  • In MASV, re-enter the App ID and App Token in the Add a Cloud Connection window when integrating Iconik, save, then retry the job. MASV will detect if there are any issues with the credentials.

Google Cloud Storage (GCS)

Note: Storage Legacy Bucket Owner and Storage Legacy Bucket Reader and Storage Object Admin are required.

Backblaze (B2)

Azure

S3 (AWS S3 or S3 compatible storage)