Introduction

VIDIZMO’s Watch Folder functionality is a quick and convenient way to publish content on your portal. It also provides the capability to process and publish content in bulk, as long as the files are VIDIZMO compliant. Utilizing Watch Folders saves a lot of time as manually uploading and configuring each file is automated.


Prerequisites

To utilize Watch Folders for automated processing, you need to have the following: 

  • VIDIZMO's Premium Package. 
  • VIDIZMO Desktop Application with your Portal configured.


Creating a Watch Folder  

Once you’ve decided on a dedicated folder, you can link it to utilize the Watch Folder functionality from the VIDIZMO Desktop Application. The steps below demonstrate the procedure.

  1. Click the Add Media Icon and select Watch Folder to move to its settings page.

2. With the plus icon at the top, create an instance of a Watch Folder and complete its configuration that includes:

                    a. Watch Folder Configuration Title: The name of your Watch Folder configuration.

                    b. Watch Folder Path: The path of the dedicated folder on your computer.

3. Use the Add button to save your Watch Folder configuration.



   4. The Watch Folder displays a message that it is scanning for compatible files in the designated folder on your PC.


5. If compatible files are found, the page will display all files and their details after some time. You can try refreshing via the Refresh button if the files are not visible.

6. The files in the folder will go into processing. You can determine their status with the symbol next to their name.



    7. After processing, you'll see them published on the portal. Files published this way utilize the Default Publish Settings of your portal. Learn more about these settings here: Understanding Library Settings.



You can also change the Media Settings of each file after they’re uploaded. Learn more about a file's Media Settings by visiting Understanding Media Settings.


Understanding File Status  

The Status indicates which phase of ingestion a file is at after it's added to the folder. The following is a list of Status a file can have: 

  1. Uploading: This indicates that the file is currently uploading. 
  2. Queued: Tells us that the file is due for processing.


    3. Completed: Indicates that the file has been published.



Adding New Files

Watch Folders enables you to add files continuously to set them up for automatic publishing.  As you add new files to the folder on your computer, the Watch Folder page will refresh to display the additions and begin publishing them.

  1. Let us demonstrate by adding two new files to the designated folder on our computer.



     2. The Watch Folder page on the Desktop Application displays a message that it’s looking for new files.



      3. The folder refreshes itself after a while, and the new files appear in the list. You can also manually Refresh via the Refresh button to display the updated list.



Altering Watch Folder Configurations

Once you’ve set up a Watch Folder on the VIDIZMO Desktop Application, you can change its configurations afterward. 

  1. The “i” icon is a toggle to see the edit options of your Watch Folder.


    2. In edit options, you can change the Title of your Watch Folder configuration, along with the path of the dedicated folder on your computer.

Note: Files uploaded via formerly linked folders will remain published on the portal. Switching to another folder does not affect the content that’s already published.



     3. Click the “Update” button to save your settings.

     4. You can use the bin icon to delete the entire configuration.



Deleting Files 

The files published via Watch Folders remain on the portal even if they are deleted or removed from the folder on your computer. 

  1. As a demonstration, we will delete the video "test3" from the folder on our computer.


      2. On our Portal's Media Library, the video named "test3" remains published.


 

      3. Deleting or removing files from the designated folder will update the deletion status on the Watch Folder page in the Desktop Application. The "test3" file has its Deletion status marked with a tick.



Sorting Files  

You sort files in the Watch Folder by clicking the menu items on the top row. The sorting order will depend on the menu item you select. 



Filtering Files   

Watch Folders allow you to retrieve and display specific files using various Filters. This feature comes in handy if the list of your uploads is long and incoherent. Filters provide an efficient way to search for specific files and determine their status. 

You can utilize Filters from the following steps:

  1. Clicking the Filter icon will display three options to filter out files from the list.  
  2. The first option lets you filter out files using keywords in File Name.  
  3. The second option allows you to filter out files using their Status.  
  4. The third option filters files by their Deletion Status
  5. Lastly, you can reset the Filters to display the default list using the “Reset” button.



Configuring Watch Settings

Watch Settings enables the Desktop Application to keep event logs for your Watch Folder. Maintaining these logs helps in diagnostics but affects the performance of file synchronization via Watch Folders.


Go into Watch Settings from the gear icon at the top-right



The Watch Settings window displays the ways to keep logs:  

  1. Enable File Logging: Creates and maintains a file that stores logs in your local workspace. Enabling this affects the performance of file synchronization.  
  2. Enable Console Logging: Maintains the logs in the Console of your Desktop Application. Enabling this affects the performance of file synchronization slightly.
  3. Use the reset button to clear all logs.