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Razuna 1.4 Preview Release 1 available

by on June 16, 2010 in Digital Asset Management, Razuna

It gives us great pleasure to finally make Razuna 1.4 available in a general Preview Release. This release is meant for testing and it shouldn’t be long before a final release. We kindly ask everyone to download and test this release. You can also upgrade your current Razuna 1.3.5 installation with this release.

Read on, what major features are available in Razuna 1.4 (we have over 100 changes for 1.4. Some of the highlights are below).

Option to catalog folders and assets on your server and from public URLs
The option to catalog folders and assets from your local server and from publicly accessible URLs is the one feature that we are most excited about and will turn your Razuna server into a cataloging server with a web front end. In order to understand this feature in full, we are giving here some examples;

  • Catalog your File Server and share assets
    Say you run an internal file server (be it Windows, Linux or MacOS X) and you want that your team and even clients have access to the same assets (always the same version of course) over the web. Something that would involve many different tools, plus a very skilled system admin will be an easy task with Razuna. Simply install Razuna on your network, point Razuna to your file server and it will recreate all the folders within Razuna, index all the assets and will make them available over a web front-end to your team and outside clients. All this with the same ease of use of Razuna, meaning you got permissions, folders & collections, sharing and collaboration and last but not least the option to convert your assets to different formats available.
  • Add assets from outside your network into Razuna
    Another option this new feature allows is to include assets from publicly available URL’s to Razuna. Say you see an image on Flickr or Facebook and want to share it in a project.  All you have to do is to simply copy & paste the URL to the image to Razuna and it wil behave just like any other image. The same goes for videos. You can include videos from Google Video, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Furthermore, you can include the whole embedded player in Razuna as well.

Search Improvement
Finding your valuable assets is one of the most important tasks of Razuna. We can say that we are able to index just about every asset you bring into Razuna and thus we have given the search & find function some more love in Razuna 1.4. You will now have the option to refine your search. That means, you can either search within the search results or conduct a new search again. Additionally you will see the description and the keywords with the option to click on the keywords itself to narrow down the search even further.

Extended Metadata reading and writing for all assets
Razuna was/is already capable of reading and writing metadata to JPEG images. We have extended this, so that Razuna will read metadata from all images (GIF, PNG, TIFF, EPS, PSD, AI, etc.) and will also write back to those image formats. Moreover, Razuna will read metadata of videos and documents and index and display them as well. Additionally, descriptions and keywords of PDF files will be written back to the PDF. Also, all converted images will inherit the metadata of the original file.

Backup & Restore
With 1.4 you have the option to backup your complete Razuna server and also restore it. Furthermore, you can backup your complete Razuna Server with all the available hosts or only backup/restore a single host (with it being available in the Administration of the DAM part). Moreover, this feature allows you to migrate from one server to another and also migrate between databases (say you want to go from the embedded one to MySQL, or MySQL to MS SQL or Oracle).

Rebuilding the search index
Rebuilding the search index allows you to keep your database, search index and assets in sync. Mostly, this is not needed, but if things go wrong or you feel like something is not included it is a nice option to have.

Administration overhaul
The main Administration of Razuna got some overhaul as that you don’t need to select your host upfront anymore and will have the option to select it within the sections. Additionally, we made some design changes, which will ease the use of the Administration even more.

General
As mentioned there are over 100 changes in Razuna 1.4 and those above are the ones we thought are worth mentioning. Thus here is a short list of those “other” enhancements;

  • Upgraded to JQuery 1.4
  • Upgraded to Tomcat 6.0.24
  • Upgraded to OpenBD 1.3
  • Reorganized complete Database model for much better performance
  • Many speed improvements could be gained from code streamlining
  • All images are converted to RGB color space for Internet Explorer compatibility
  • Rewrote the basket download for better handling of large assets

I hope you enjoy using Razuna as much as we have making it. Go grab your copy now over at http://razuna.org or sign up for a free hosted account over at http://razuna.com.

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A Digital Asset Management System will solve the following issues

by on April 20, 2009 in Digital Asset Management, Razuna

In my work with our very own Open Source Digital Asset Management System – Razuna – I come upon the same questions with almost every prospect that take into consideration the use of a Digital Asset Management System. Sometimes the question is phrased differently, but it always burns down to this;

“What solution will your Digital Asset Management offer to solve {the issue}…?”

Since I am facing the same questions (more or less), I thought to address the following in a blog post. May our (potential) customers and others benefit from it.

Issue 1: I have a file server, why should I use a Digital Asset Management System

While the concept of storing and retrieving files in a Digital Asset Management System and a file server are somewhat the same, the similarity stops here. While a file server, is exactly “a file server” and nothing more, that is to *store* files, a Digital Asset Management System brings you some added value like;

  • Search & Find. While a file server can be indexed by the local desktop machine who has “Spotlight” (MacOS X) or some Windows tool, the index itself will not be published to others to take advantage of it. Imagine this in a 10, 50 or more employees organization.
  • Access control from the Internet. In the case of Razuna, you will have a full featured web server at hand, meaning you can allow your clients to search and find assets in your system. Giving them even access to dedicated “project” folders and collaborate on the assets.
  • Collaboration. As mentioned above, giving clients access to projects, is a huge benefit. Instead of sending out a CD/DVD, wasting some valuable time and going back and forth with your client, you can do it right here, right now, with a Digital Asset Management System.
  • No more duplicates. While there is literally no control on a file server, you can gain control over your assets with a Digital Asset Management System.

This list is by far not complete, but it should give you a idea, why a Digital Asset Management System can be beneficial.

Issue 2: My assets are duplicated all over. Departments send each other eMails with the assets. How can I control this mess?

You won’t believe me, when I tell you that even big organizations have neglected the use of a control system for their images and print materials. You will even be more surprised, how they handle it. eMail is the number one “asset transfer” mechanism within the company. The use of a file server, is sometimes not even existing. While this “workflow” can work for a small team, where everybody is on the same page (even that is hard in a small team), it creates a big “mess” within a bigger organization.

The root cause, why the use of “sending someone an email within departments” has been widespread, is that people can not find the right asset and the right time. It is *not* that eMail is a bad medium (well, some would argue on this as well), but that your file structure is not organized and that people can not find what they are looking for.

As a example; With the use Razuna, it does not interfere with the current “paradigm” of the current “workflow”, but it will bring you more control over your assets. Organizations that have taken to Razuna, have found that searching and finding the assets is intuitive and easy. Most of the time, assets could be found within seconds. Once found, they simply send an eMail with a link or even the asset itself, right from the system, to their co-workers or clients. Giving them instant access to the asset.

Issue 3: The original asset is lost and we just spent hours to re-do the work. Can your system help?

Your digital assets are a value *asset*. They should be treated as such. Loosing the original work on your valuable, creates a major strain on you and your organization. Apart from any system, you should have a strict backup schedule in place, in case of a hard disk failure or some outside causes, you will want to secure the backup in a remote facility.

That said, the inner working of a Digital Asset Management System, should always leave your original asset “as it is”. In that way, you can create different versions of your asset within the system, but always leaving the original work untouched.

I am sure, there are more issues on the plate. Please feel free to comment on this post. We are more then happy to answer your questions and comments.

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