EasyPush: Working With Media

We have just deployed and started using Easy-Push (see here - company website) for getting publications (PowerPoint, Word Documents, etc) out to company iPads in several European countries.

EasyPush uses Umbraco CMS (open-source - see here) as it's back-end for storing the media and configuring the displayed screens. This blog post is a simple guide to using the two main type of screens (Standard and Asset Overview) to deploy already-uploaded media.

In the case of EasyPush "Media" can mean anything from videos, standard office documents, PDF's through to HTML5 websites.

Overview

You can access the media section, if your user has been granted permission, by clicking on the “Media” icon at the bottom left of the webpage after you’ve signed in;

EasyPush: Available Sections (Media Highlighted)

When you click on the icon the Navigator on the left changes to display the Media items that have been uploaded. You can pretty much organise these in any way you like but unlike the "Content" for the site you cannot grant users permissions to administer just their area of Media - anyone who can administer the Media section can makes changes to everyone's - something to bear in mind when you're setting up your site!

When you first enter media you should see the top-level "Media" item automatically expanded;

EasyPush: Media Section

Locate your folder. It might be under “AppData” but I’d recommend moving it to the root to make working with the media easier (in effect it’s one click less to do anything).

Everyone’s structure is different but I’d recommend, unless you’re going to have millions of files (you’re not), that you go with as flat a structure as possible mirroring as closely as possible your content structure (to make it intuitive for people to pick up).

It’s a good idea to have a “_shared” folder for items that are shared across several areas.

Creating New Folders

Right-click the “parent” folder where you’d like the new folder located and select “Create”;

EasyPush: Standard Create Dialog

 Enter the Name (which is mandatory) and change the Media Type drop down to "Folder" and click "Create".

Uploading Files

Right-click the “parent” folder where you’d like the new folder located and select “Create”;

EasyPush: Standard Create Dialog

Give the file a name and then click “Create”.

The new file will appear in the Navigation View on the left and the properties for it, including an upload button, will appear on the right;

EasyPush: File/ Media Item Properties

Click on the “Browse” button to locate the file you want to upload and once you’ve selected it click “Save”.

The file will now upload the properties page (on the right) will update with the actual files’ properties;

EasyPush: File/ Media Item Properties (Updated)

File Types and Formats

The following are supported file types and formats for version 1.5.022 of the EasyPush iPad application;

• Microsoft Office; Excel, PowerPoint, and Word only
• HTML5 (needs to conform to Apple Safari Web Kit and have an index.html in the root of the zip)
• Movies (m4v, mp4, mov - up to 8MBit/s 1280x720pixel, 30 frames per sec)
• URL's
• PDF
• Images (preferably .png, but does support .jpg)