Services
- Morten Lindequist Køhler
Storage Service
Perfion Storage service is a web service which is created to handle any binary data operations for binaries stored in ABS. It include service functions, which allow binary data to be saved, retrieved, deleted, etc. It also have services which are used with media services, e.g. to support binary data caching operations.
The Storage service is independent and created for each customer. It is protected using API Key which can be changed by using Storage service GUI.
The Storage service is hosted and administered by Perfion.
Built-in Media Services
The Perfion Storage service is set up together with Perfion media services. Media services allow serving file and image type binaries. The media services are the same as standard media services which can be installed by users in their own servers and which use Perfion database. Media services installed with Storage service from functionality perspective are the same, but the difference is that they can only handle the binary data stored in the ABS.
The media services are independent and are created for each customer. The media services can be configured by using Storage service GUI.
The media services are hosted and administered by Perfion.
Storage Service GUI
Storage service GUI is a web site which is created to allow configuration of Storage and media services. Storage and media services are managed by Perfion and users do not have access to them. The only possibility to change any settings related to those services is by using the Storage service GUI.
When Storage service is created, Perfion will provide the URL where the Storage service GUI is located.
Login
The Storage service GUI has user login. Please use your email address to log in. You should use the same email which was provided to Perfion. The login page is shown in Figure 2.
In order to login for the first time, please use the “Reset password” feature. An email will be sent to you with password reset URL which when used will allow setting a new password for your account. The reset password page is shown in Figure 3. In reset password page enter your new password 2 times and press the “Save” button. Note that the password must have:
At least 8 characters
At least 1 lower case letter
At least 1 upper case letter
At least 1 number
At least 1 special character
Account information
The page shows user account related information.
To edit account information press the “Edit” button. Only some of the fields can be changed as shown in Figure 5 and described in the table below.
Parameter name | Description |
Email address. It can be changed. When email is changed it must be confirmed, so make sure that the email was written correctly, it is valid and you have access to it. The email address confirmation email will be sent to the new email address with email confirmation URL. The account will not be accessible to user until the new email will be confirmed using that URL sent to the new email address. | |
Customer Name | The name of the customer. It can be changed. |
Contact Name | The name of the contact. It can be changed. |
Service URL (default) | The URL of where the service is located. This is the direct URL to the service. It cannot be changed, but it will be defined by Perfion when setting up the account. |
Service URL (own domain) | The domain URL of the service which should be used instead of the default service URL. It can be changed. |
API Key | The API Key used to authenticate requests to the Storage service. Without this key one cannot use the Storage service. This key must be used when setting up Perfion storage location to the use Cloud storage in order to allow Perfion to access the Storage service. The API Key can be changed by issuing a new key by pressing a button “Renew key”. The new key will be generated automatically. Refer to Figure 5. Note that after changing the API Key the key must also be changed everywhere where Storage service is used from, e.g. Perfion. |
Storage Service URL | Storage service URL. This is URL where the Storage service is located. This URL is automatically generated and cannot be changed. This URL must be used when setting up Perfion storage location to use Cloud storage in order to allow Perfion to access the Storage service. |
Active | The status of the Storage service. It can be changed. If the checkbox is not checked, then the Storage service will be disabled. |
Media service setup
The page shows media service setup parameters.
To edit media service parameters press the “Edit” button. A new page will be loaded as shown in Figure 7.
The fields are described in the table below. Note that some fields (marked with * in the table below) are the standard fields for media services like it is used with database based media services. More information about some of parameters can be found in media services manual. Refer to “Perfion API - Reference Guide”.
Parameter name | Description |
Active | The status of the media services. If the checkbox is not checked, then the media services will be disabled. |
Server name | The name of media server. |
HTTP Cacheability * | HTTP Cacheability value. |
Watermark range * | The watermark range in pixels. The watermark image will be applied to images which exceed this value in either width or length. If set to 1, then watermark will be applied to all images. Any value <= 0 will disable watermark image use. |
Watermark image * | The watermark image. The image will be used only if watermark range parameter is set and conditions of target images match watermark range criteria. Note that after replacing the original watermark image it cannot be restored. Save a copy of the image if it has to be reused later. |
No image found image * | The image which will be used in case the requested image was not found. Note that after replacing the original image it cannot be restored. Save a copy of the image if it has to be reused later. If image is not set, then Perfion will use the default image. |
Please refer to “Perfion API - Reference Guide” for more information.
Media Services
The Storage service has its own media services which are set up to use only those binaries which are located in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage. Since Storage service can be set up to be used with multiple Perfion databases, such media services will be able to serve the binaries from all of them. However, the limitation is that it does not have any connection to Perfion databases and can only serve the binaries which are physically located in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage.
Perfion has also standard media services which can be set up by users in their own servers. These media services are using connection to Perfion database in order to serve binaries and can only work with a single Perfion database. One can also set up multiple media services installations where each of them will be linked to different Perfion database.
The standard media services were updated to support the Asset Cloud. They use connection to Perfion database which have all necessary information about binary data location. After Perfion is setup to the Asset Cloud, the media services will work without any change and deliver binaries, regardless of where they are physically located. This also means that after enabling the Asset Cloud in Perfion, the media services do not need any extra configuration and will continue to serve binaries as usual. Therefore, the transition from binaries in the database and Asset Cloud is a seamless process including the time when the binary data is under migration process (e.g., when some binaries are located in the database and some are already in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage).
In addition to a standard media services setup where binaries can be served by using connection to Perfion database, one can also setup a media services installation which would use only binaries from the Perfion Asset Cloud storage similarly to how the media services are setup to be used with Storage services. To set up such media services installation one has to use Storage service URL and API Key in configuration file instead of using connection to Perfion database and the media services will use Storage service to serve binaries from the Perfion Asset Cloud storage. For more details about configuration refer to “Perfion API - Reference Guide”.
Perfion Setup
Perfion can be set up to use the Asset Cloud when the Storage service is ready and the license is issued which allows the use of this feature in Perfion.
To change asset storage location go to Administration -> Settings and then open the “Binary Storage” tab. See Figure 8.
If the Binary Storage tab content is grayed out and not usable, then it could be that the binary storage feature was not enabled by the license. Go to Administration -> License and load a new license file. When the new license file is loaded, restart Perfion.
From Binary Storage window one can change the location of binary data, control binary Migration Manager or cleanup binary data in the Perfion Asset Cloud storage.
Enter the “Storage Service URL” and “Storage Service API Key” parameters and press “Save” button. Note that this does not change the location of the binary data, but only registers the Storage web service parameters. After these parameters are registered, one can check the status of Storage service and various other parameters related to it.
To change the location of binary data use the Location select box and choose the preferred location where binary data should be stored and then press the “Save” button. If binary data location was changed, the binary Migration Manager will automatically be started which will begin migrating binary data to the new binary data location.
The change of binary data location is a safe process. The binary data will be copied to the new location first and only after successful migration the old binary data will be cleared. Note that the old binary data cleanup will be done only when migrating binary data from the database to the Cloud storage, e.g. the old binary data will never be automatically deleted from the Perfion Asset Cloud storage.
While the data is migrated Perfion will continue to work as usual. One can also change the location back to previous location at any time without any side effects.
Checking Storage Service Status
In “Location” area press the “Check Storage Server Status” button. Perfion will connect to Storage service and will check if it is available. It will also show which version of Storage service is running. In Figure 8 one can see the status after successful Storage service check which shows that the service was fond and is running v1.0. In case the Storage service is not found or any of Storage service parameters are not correct (URL and/or API Key), then it will show an error.