Media library is a generic solution for storing media items attached to IFS business objects. Media items in the library may either be images or textual descriptions and are also used in reports that get printed. Items in the media library can be connected to certain IFS business objects such as part and inventory part, through configuration by an administrator.
Media item is an entity that holds certain information about an IFS business object. This information could be stored either as an image or a textual description. Each media item can be connected to several IFS business objects, as there may be standard texts or images that are relevant to many products or other IFS business objects. A media item can be created in the Media Item and Media Library Manager windows. When a media item is set to Obsolete, it will not be displayed in the system or be printed on reports.
The media item type can be either image or text. In the case of texts, the maximum size of a text file that can be attached is 8,000 bytes.
An IFS business object can consist of one or more media items. A collection of such media items is referred to as a media library. Therefore, a media library can originate from any IFS business object which has been configured to connect media items.
Media items are added to the media library through the Media Library Manager window. A media library can be created in two ways:
The media library header is automatically created with the relevant value in the Connection Object Source (e.g., PartCatalog, ConfigCharacteristic etc.) and a respective description is also displayed with some additional information based on the properties of the connected IFS business object.
A media library can be viewed/modified in the Media Library Manager window, where you can either create new media items or copy existing media items to a collection.
Each media library can have one image set as the default image.
IFS business objects can be configured to create media libraries for its' records using the Object Connections window. Media items attached to a certain IFS business object can be configured to appear in another window by configuring in the Object Connection Transformations window. This can be done only by a person with database administration rights.
Media items can be printed on reports once configured to do so. Customer order confirmation and sales quotation reports are examples of such reports. Printing of media items in reports can be controlled either in the Media Library Manager window or in the respective IFS business objects. For example, the print settings for customer order confirmation and sales quotation reports are available in the following windows/dialog boxes: