Custom assets

This article covers custom assets, explaining what they are and how to add and configure a new custom asset.

What are custom assets?

The custom asset functionality allows you to add non-video content that doesn't fit within any of the existing asset types, for example, stars, belts, articles, etc.

Custom assets are the only asset type that can be created in Presentation Manager rather than being ingested. They're represented by the icon.

How do I create a new custom asset?

To add a new custom asset to your item catalog, navigate to the ASSETS menu, then select Items.

Click the button.
Title (mandatory): Enter the asset title here (you can change this later).
Click the button to proceed to the next step.

Recording asset information

Once you've added your new custom asset, the next step is to capture specific information about it. This includes metadata, images, and any related assets. These details are added in the same way for both custom and video assets.

On the left-hand side of the page, select a section to display relevant fields in the page body.

1. Adding metadata

When you select an asset from the catalog, the metadata option is selected by default. The asset title is pre-populated from asset creation but it can be edited.

Metadata variants

Here you can create additional language variants for your assets, so they can be displayed to users according to their language preferences.

Within the metadata menu tab, select the button next to the variant tabs to create a new language variant.

Find out more about variants and segmentation.

With the required variant selected, enter data into the relevant fields:

Title (mandatory): This field is pre-populated from asset creation, however, the title can be edited
External ID: A unique alphanumeric, externally-defined identifier
Sequence Number: Where relevant, this is used to control the ordering of similar assets
Contextual title: A short title relevant to the parent title, most applicable to seasons, episodes, or trailers
Role: If the asset relates to a person, you can select a role from the drop-down menu
Gender: If the asset relates to a person, you can select a gender from the drop-down menu
Tagline: Asset subtitle (85 character limit)
Sub Type: Select from the drop-down menu, if relevant, to provide more specific information about the custom asset. The available sub types are set by Administrators. If no sub types have been defined for this asset type, then the field is hidden.

Badge: Use this to draw attention to specific assets, for example, "New season" (20 character limit)
Short description: Brief description of the asset (256 character limit)
Description: Full description of the asset (512 character limit)
Genres: Select from the drop-down field or create a new genre
Sport: If applicable, select a sport from the drop-down list or add a new entry
Broadcast date: Select a broadcast date and time for the asset
Keywords: Used to support SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and external content tagging for rule-based lists - type to search for existing keywords or create new entries

	Custom Metadata: If you enter a field name here, the Enter value field is displayed
	Segmentation Tags: Select an existing segmentation tag from the list, or create a new tag
	Categories: High-level groupings of similar assets, for example, Movies, Competitions or Kids - select a pre-populated existing value or create new value
	Custom Destination: Select a pre-existing page within Presentation Manager or specify a destination URL

2. Adding images

Add new or edit pre-existing asset images that display throughout your apps. Follow the links to learn how to upload images and activate and manage images.

3. Setting the theme

Configure the background, foreground, and other colors within your apps here.

4. Defining the offer schedule

This option is only displayed for asset types that are offerable. Generally speaking, custom assets can't be offered in the same way as most ingested assets. To learn more about offerable content, read our article about deals.

Specify asset relations here - for example, a prequel or sequel to the custom asset being created. Available asset relations for each asset type are defined in the Admin settings.

Note: The recommended related asset limit is 100. While there are valid use cases for high volumes of related assets, the recommended approach is to organize assets into a layered hierarchy (for example, date or year ranges, rounds, etc.)

Select an option, for example, Other or Similar. The options will vary depending on asset type.
To add a new asset, start typing into the text field to display existing assets.

Related assets display in a list.

Use the icon to re-order assets.

Saving your custom asset

Not offerable

For assets that are not offerable (applies to most custom assets) click the button to save changes.

Alternatively, click the More button to Save or Delete assets.

Offerable

For assets that are offerable, click the button to save and activate offers.

Alternatively, click the More button to Save, Validate or Delete assets.

Compatibility notes: From AXIS Presentation Manager 10.0 onwards, the Call-to-action functions are as follows. They work in a consistent way across Presentation Manager.

To Save or Publish

The following buttons are available to save, or save and publish:

Save X (where X is the name of the side tab currently open) - this saves the content of the currently open side tab, but does not publish it. It is available when any changes have been made to the content of that side tab.
Note: In Pages, this button is entitled Save Variants. It saves all the variants in the Content side tab.
Save and Publish - any new changes across the entire object are saved, and the whole object is published to make it visible to your end-users to view and interact with. It is available when there are any saved or unsaved changes, which have not been published, in the content of any of the side tabs.

Buttons for saving variants and publishing content on a digital platform interface.

To Unpublish, Archive or Delete

Within the More drop down list are further options:

Unpublish - this removes the object from publication, so your end-users can no longer view and interact with it, and puts it back into a status of Draft.
Archive - this puts the object into a status of Archived, which prevents any further use, although it can still be viewed. Note that if this is actioned while an object is in a status of Live, it is automatically unpublished.
Delete - this completely removes the object from the system. It is only available in Pages.

Note: To check the success of selecting any of these options, the header includes the updated status of the object. See The header and status for details of the resulting status after taking any action, and what the header looks like in AXIS Presentation Manager 10.0.

The changes made in AXIS 10.0 mean that custom assets no longer need to be validated or instantiated. They are simply saved and published like all other objects.

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