This article covers link assets, adding new and editing and duplicating existing link assets.
What are link assets?
Links in Presentation Manager are asset types in their own right. They enable operators to schedule link assets to take users to internal areas of the app or an external site. Link assets can have a destination of either an asset, list, page, or external URL. When your end-users select the linked asset within their app, they're redirected to the specified destination. The example in the screenshot below shows a menu item linked to a list.
For further examples of link assets, see our article about block links.
An alternative use case may be a seasonal theme required for specific content. Use link assets to upload new asset imagery, then link to the relevant pre-existing asset.
Where do I find link assets?
To find previously ingested and custom link assets, navigate to ASSETS > Links.
Links are displayed in a table (see below). This is your link asset catalog. Sort your catalog by Title, Destination, Destination Path, Date Modified or Date Created.
You'll probably have many links in your catalog, which is why Presentation Manager has an extensive catalog search function that lets you quickly find the one you want.
Search for existing link assets by status and/or title/ID. Any link assets matching the search criteria display in the table.
Learn more about searching the asset catalog.
When viewing or editing a link asset, key information about the link is displayed at the top of the page:
Key | Control | What it means |
|---|---|---|
1 | Link thumbnail | The image you see here is typically ingested, however, you can upload images manually into Presentation Manager. Follow the link for further information on how to upload images. For any assets without a specified thumbnail image, a placeholder image displays by default. |
2 | Link title | This is the name of the link, for example, James Bond. |
3 | Status | This flag is dependent on whether the offers set at ingestion are approved and active. The status can also be Validated and Offered directly within Presentation Manager. |
4 | Link ID | This is a unique ID in AXIS Presentation Manager, useful for searching. |
5 | Last modified information | Details on who edited the link last and when. |
How do I create a new link asset?
Note: You can also add notes to the links section, see our guide on how to use notes.
Links are created in the same way whether the destination is assets, lists, pages, or an external URL.
Navigate to the Links asset catalog (ASSETS > Links).
To create a new link, select the
button at the top right-hand side of the screen.Enter information into the required fields (data entered can be edited at a later stage if required):
Compatibility notes: From AXIS 10.0, we have added the Link name. This is in addition the the existing Title.
Link name (mandatory): an internal name for a link that needs to be unique. This link name is not used in the apps, but is used to identify the link within Presentation Manager. Once the link has been created, this is displayed in the top section of the Metadata tab, above the language variants.
The rest of the details, once the Link has been created, are held in the default language variant. Subsequent language variants can be created in which different details can be used for Title, Tagline and Button label.
Title (mandatory): the title of the link (it need not be unique). This is used in the apps - screen readers read link titles if accessibility tools are in use.
Tagline: the subtitle of the link, which displays on some pages (85-character limit).
Destination: Select Item, List, Page, or External URL
Select item/list/page/external url: Choose the Item, List, Page or URL you wish to link to. If your destination is an external URL, put the full URL address here.
Button label: Specify text for a button to be displayed on the HX1 row. If this is left blank, the button will not display.
Select the
button to save the link asset.
Compatibility notes: From AXIS 10.0 onwards, once a link has been created, an ID is automatically assigned to it. This displayed in the Metadata tab, beneath the Title, within the Default language variant. It is unique to the link and is not available to edit. It has a copy icon to the right of it, to make it easier to paste the information elsewhere.
Recording link information
Once you've created your link, input or edit information such as further metadata and images. On the left-hand side of the page, select a section to display relevant fields in the page body.
1. Adding language variants and metadata
Selecting a link from the catalog opens in the metadata tab. The title you entered when creating the link is pre-populated, but can be edited.
Metadata variants
Create additional language variants for your links so they display in different languages.
| To create a new language variant, select the |
button next to the variant tabs.With the required variant selected, enter data into the relevant fields or edit existing data:
Title (mandatory): This field is pre-populated from link creation, however, the title is editable.
Destination (mandatory): The destination selected when creating the link is shown here. Specify or change your destination to one of the following: Page (default), Item, List, or External URL. Only available in the Default language variant.
Select Destination: The Select field is populated with content specified on link creation and is context-sensitive depending on the selected destination. Specify or change your destination details here. Only available in the Default language variant.
Note: From AXIS 9.4 the destination path you enter here is converted to a hyperlink, allowing you to easily navigate to the page, list or asset, in order to review or validate the link.
Applying segmentation tags
Target your links to specific groups based on age, activity, behavioral analytics, etc. Depending on how you've grouped your users, you can easily direct content to them. Read more about applying segmentation tags.
2. Adding link images
Add new or edit pre-existing link images that display throughout your apps.
Any images you add must correspond to the row image type. For example, if you want to apply a T1 standard tile row type, you'll need to update links with 16:9 images.
Learn more about the process of uploading and activating and managing images.
Note: Images need to be in JPEG or PNG format.
Note: You don't need to specifically publish a link – this happens automatically when you complete the link creation stage. However, any updates you make to the metadata or images require manual publishing.
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.
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.
In addition, Links has the ability to Duplicate the object in the drop down list.
How do I duplicate existing links?
Duplicating a link creates a new link that replicates the source link, including all metadata, images, themes, notes, and multi-language content. The new link is automatically named after the original link, but with copy added to the end.
Note: This feature is available from the AXIS Presentation Manager 9.9 update.
To duplicate existing link assets:
Navigate to the Links asset catalog (ASSETS > Links).
Select the Duplicate option in the dropdown menu of the Link row:
After duplication, you’re redirected to the details page of the new, duplicated link, where you can make further edits if required.