Introduction
The AWS Export App in VIDIZMO facilitates a secure transition of your Portal content files to a designated S3 Bucket. You can create a criteria in the application that determine which type of Portal Content will be targeted and which of their files will be exported. In addition, the AWS Export App gives you options to modify the export activities carried out on your Portal. For instance, you can automate the export process or delete the content after it has undergone an export activity.
Concept
The AWS Export App functions as a medium for migrating your content from your Portal to an AWS S3 Bucket. It acts as a one-way bridge that you can modify or control via its configuration. The application reliably exports specified content to a designated AWS S3 Bucket, offering a convenient data migration process.
The AWS Export App can be activated and configured from your Portal's application settings. During configuration, you enter your AWS credentials, assign an S3 Bucket to contain the exported files, define your preferred export criteria, and configure additional export options.
Automatic Export
A crucial setting to consider during configuration is the Automatic Export option. If this option is on and the AWS Export App is enabled, then the content on your Portal that meets the export criteria will undergo the export activity immediately. The AWS S3 Export app does this by initializing a continuous workflow.
The workflow continuously monitors all content on your Portal, including content added or created through processing, ingestion, upload, clipping, and more. If the new content meets the export criteria, its content files are automatically exported to the destination S3 Bucket.
To understand this, let's assume that the Export App is configured to export the thumbnails and supporting files of transcoded content on a Portal with automatic export turned on. A user uploads a video titled "ABC" to the Portal. The Export App does not consider it for export as it does not meet the transcoded condition defined in the export criteria in the application's settings.
However, when the user processes ABC for transcoding, it results in a state where it now meets the export requirements. The Export App then exports its thumbnails and supporting files to the destination S3 Bucket, according to its configuration.
Export Preference
Inside the application configuration, you will also find the option to set an Export Preference for the content present on your Portal when automatic export is turned on. This setting determines which content will be eligible for automatic export depending on when the Export App was enabled or disabled.
Two options are available to control this setting. You can enable the application with the Export Preference set to "Already Present." By doing so, the application will automatically export the content files of all content present on the Portal according to the defined export criteria. This also applies to past Portal content, and export-eligible content added to the Portal after the Export App has been enabled.
The content undergoing this export activity is updated with a dynamic tag, which shows its export status. You can see this tag on the content's thumbnail from the Portal's library. Once the content has been updated with this "Exported" attribute, the application does not run the automatic export activity on that specific content again.
Alternatively, you can choose "Export After Enable" to restrict the automatic export activity only to content that is added to your Portal after the Export app is enabled from the Integration App page.
Post Export Options
Users can determine what happens to their Portal content after it goes through an automatic export activity. The application can be configured to either delete the content and move it to the Portal's Recycle Bin, or keep it as it is by performing no action.
Manual or On-Demand Export
Aside from automatic export, users can export the files of their Portal content manually, which is also referred to as "on-demand" Export. The options to perform an on-demand export are available regardless of whether automatic export is enabled or disabled. You can also manually export content regardless of the Export Preference selected in the application settings.
The user can perform a manual export on Content present in their Portal's Evidence Library or Media Manager. However, the export app only exports the content files selected in its configuration.
Manual Export also allows you to "update" the content files on your S3 Bucket. For instance, if new files were generated when an already exported content was processed, then performing an on-demand export on it content will export those newly generated files to the content's named folder in the S3 Bucket.
Impact on VIDIZMO Portal
Content that has undergone any export activity is identified by an "Exported" tag on their thumbnail. There is also a "Not Exported" tag which indicates that the content files could not be exported due to an error, even though the Portal content met the export criteria. It is also worth noting that these tags will only be visible on your Portal's library if the AWS Export App has been enabled. Lastly, you can use these tags as search filters in your Portal's library to search for content affected by an export activity.
Additionally, you can set up Webhook notifications for the export activity on your Portal. To do this, add “Exported” as an Event on the Webhook App you've created from the Integration Apps page. Visit How To Create VIDIZMO Webhook App for more information.
Lastly, you can view the progress of your export activity from your Portal's App Activity Log. The log also consists of all instances of export activities that took place on your Portal. It provides detailed information for each instance of export activities, including the number of exported files, errors encountered, who initiated the export activity, and more. You can learn more here: Understanding App Activity Logs.
Analyzing Folder Structure For Export
Another intuitive functionality of the AWS Export App is to export files of your Portal content while they are present in a Case or Folder.
Exporting a Folder Hierarchy Ingested from an S3 Bucket
If you're exporting content that was ingested from an S3 bucket with its folder hierarchy preserved, then the application will recreate the same folder hierarchy on the destination S3 bucket.
If the folder hierarchy contains content that's eligible for export, then the application will export its files to the destination S3 bucket. The exported files will be present on the same path (or location) as the original content in the exported folder hierarchy.
If the content's files (namely supporting files) are present in another folder within the hierarchy on the source S3 bucket, then the application preserves its location during the export activity.
With the entire folder hierarchy maintained on the destination S3 bucket, the supporting files are present in the same folder, path, or directory as the source. However, if any new files are created when the export-eligible content is processed, they will be saved in the same folder that contains the original content.
Figure 1 illustrates how content present in a folder hierarchy on a source S3 bucket was ingested to a VIDIZMO Portal and then exported to a Destination S3 Bucket.
For the example in Figure 1, the Export App has Original Files, Supporting Files, and other file types selected in its Export Criteria. This is the reason why you see the original files and the supporting files present on the destination S3 bucket. The folder hierarchy on the Destination S3 Bucket also has the Original Files and additional Content Files that were generated during a processing activity.
Exporting Content Present in a VIDIZMO Folder
When a user exports a VIDIZMO Folder containing Portal content, the Export App creates a folder on the destination S3 Bucket for each eligible content it finds inside the folder. The exported content will be organized into folders with the same name as the corresponding Portal content, making it easy for users to identify which folder contains which files. It then exports the specified file types inside of those folders according to the Portal Content.
If the same content is processed for an activity that creates new files and then exports them, then the named folder on the destination S3 bucket will be updated with the latest files.
Figure 2 shows how the content files are exported to the Destination S3 bucket when the export-eligible content is present inside a folder hierarchy in VIDIZMO.
For the example in Figure 2, the user has chosen to export the Original File and other file types, like Transcoded files or Thumbnails. The folders on the Destination S3 Bucket are named after the Portal content that underwent export activity. All the relevant content files belonging to a specific piece of content are stored in the respective named folder.
Benefits of the AWS Export App
The application's selective export functionality ensures that the user only gets content that is relevant and required by them. It aids them in conveniently optimizing their storage space and saves them from the trouble of removing irrelevant files. The AWS Export App gives you the flexibility to define what file types are exported and tailor this to specific content on your Portal.
Furthermore, the transfer process is both secure and reliable, ensuring the integrity of files is preserved without any loss and instilling confidence in the overall export operation. The ability to maintain or create folders for exported files on your S3 Bucket provides a convenient way to organize and easily access your files. Maintaining the folder hierarchy also enhances user control over exported data.
For a complete guide on configuring and utilizing the Export App's functionality, visit: How to Export Content Files using the AWS Export App