Adding or selecting a download
From the Search Downloads page:
- To create a new download, click Add download.
- To edit an existing download, click its Edit link.
The General tab of the Download Maintenance page displays.
About the Download Maintenance page
The Download Maintenance page is made up of the following tabs:
| General |
Contains most of the download properties, including:
|
| Product Linking | Used to link the download to one or more products. |
| Transactions | Contains a list of updates that have occurred to the download. |
Identifying and setting the availability of the download
On the General tab, the fields in the first subsection in the General Properties section are used to identify the download and determine when the download becomes available.
| Download ID | Required. In the Download ID field, type the pub ID for the download. The download ID must be unique. |
| Download name |
Required. To allow the download name to be localized, it must be added as a value in the To search for and select the name, click the find icon. You can either use the list value maintenance function to create the value beforehand, or create the new value from the list value search form. See Editing and localizing list values for information on working with list values. |
| Status |
To make the download available, select Available from the Status dropdown. To not allow the download to be selected, select Inactive from the dropdown. |
| Release date |
The release date determines when a download first becomes available. If you do not select a release date, the download becomes available immediately. To set the release date to a future date, type the date into the field, or click the date picker icon to select the date. |
Setting download properties
The second subsection in the General Properties section contains basic attributes of a download.
| Download type | From the Download type dropdown, select the category this download belongs to. For example, “Patch” might be one type of download. The download types are kept in the ES_DOWNLOAD_TYPE list. You can create your own download types. |
| Product line |
Required. From the Product line combo box, select the product line to assign this download to. Note that this selection does not restrict the products that can be associated with this download on the Product Linking tab. It is only used to help with download searches. |
| Priority | From the Priority dropdown, select the priority for this dropdown. The priority tells users how important it is for them to download the file. For example, a software patch might be a high priority download, but a trial version would be a low priority. |
| Size | In the Size field, type the size in megabytes (MB) of the download. The size is used to help calculate the time required for the download. |
| Show on Suggested Download | To include the download on the Suggested Downloads tab of the Downloads page, check the Show on Suggested Download check box. |
Selecting the download description
You use the Description field to provide a longer description of the download. Like the download name, the download descriptions also are stored as list values to allow for localization. The longer descriptions are kept in the ES_DOWNLOAD_DESCRIPTION list.
To search for and select the description, click the find icon. You can either use the list value maintenance function to create the value beforehand, or create the new value from the list value search form. See Editing and localizing list values for information on working with list values.
Loading HTML files with extended descriptions
About the extended descriptions
Each download can be associated with an HTML file containing an even more detailed description of the download. You can load a separate file for each available language.
The file names consist of:
- A base file name, followed by an underscore
- The two-letter language code -.txt
For example, if you set the base file name to MyDownload , then:
- The English version of the file is MyDownload_en.txt – The French version of the file is MyDownload_fr.txt These files are stored in the directory set by the setting
Poetic.FileShare.ESDDetails.Dirin FileShare.properties. The default value is the ESDDetails directory directly under data/publisherName.
Using data tags in the extended descriptions
In addition to HTML markup, the extended descriptions also support tags to allow you to insert dynamic data into the extended descriptions. These are similar in function to the tags used in notification templates.
For the extended descriptions, the available tags are:
| {DOWNLOAD_NAME} | The name of the download. |
| {DOWNLOAD_SIZE} | The size of the download. |
| {RELEASE_DATE} | The release date for the download. |
{CALC_DOWNLOAD_TIME=rateListValueCode} |
The estimated time to download for the type of connection represented by For each value in the To calculate the estimated time, Poetic divides the download size by the value in Custom 2 for the list value provided. The time displays as “# hrs # minutes”, for example, “2 hrs 3 minutes”.
For example:
If the user includes The result is 8.3 minutes. When the user displays the extended description, |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_1} | The value of the first download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_2} | The value of the second download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_3} | The value of the third download custom property. |
| <code{ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_4} | The value of the fourth download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_5} | The value of the fifth download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_6} | The value of the sixth download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_7} | The value of the seventh download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_8} | The value of the eighth download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_9} | The value of the ninth download custom property. |
| {ESD_ISV_PROPERTY_10} | The value of the tenth download custom property. |
Loading the extended description files from the Download Maintenance page
In the Base file name field, type the base name you want to use for all of the description files.
Below the Base file name field is a table listing the current active languages for the Poetic instance. If a file has been loaded for a particular language, then a check mark displays in the first column. To preview a loaded file, click its View link.
To load a file for a particular language, click its Load link. On the file selection dialog, select the file to load.
Poetic saves the file to the ESDDetails directory and gives it the correct name based on the base file name and selected language. The selected file replaces any previously loaded file.
Setting custom property values for the download
Poetic allows up to 10 custom properties for downloads. See Editing custom properties for details on how to configure custom properties.
The Additional Properties section contains the active custom properties.
Setting restrictions on download availability
The Eligibility Handling section contains any restrictions on the download other than the release date and status.
| Restriction type |
From the Restriction type dropdown, select the type of restriction on the download. If there are no restrictions, select None. If a user must have an entitlement for one of the products associated with the download, then select Entitlement/Product. |
| Max # of downloads per company |
In the Max # of downloads per company field, type the maximum number of times users from a company may download this file. For example, you may want to limit each customer to only download 2 copies of a trial version of software. To do this, you would set Max # of downloads per company to 2. |
| Max duration for download |
The Max duration for download field only applies to downloads that require an entitlement. In the Max duration for download field, type the number of days after the most recent entitlement start date that users can download this file. For example, you may want to only allow users to download a free enhancement for 30 days after they purchase software. To do this, you would set Max duration for download to 30. When users try to download this file, Poetic finds the most recent entitlement, and makes sure that the current date is within 30 days of that entitlement start date. |
Configuring the download integration for the download
Types of download integration
Poetic by default supports the following types of download integration:
| Poetic |
With the Poetic download integration method, the download files are stored in a single location, configured in web.xml. When users select a download that uses this method, a Java servlet, download.htm , is used to retrieve the file. A MIME popup displays to show the status of the download. |
| URL |
For the URL integration method, publishers can configure a base URL to use for all downloads that use this method. Poetic appends the URL set for the product to this base URL to set the full URL. |
| Akamai | Uses Akamai as the download manager. The Akamai integration method requires that you have an account with Akamai. |
For details on configuring these integration methods, see the Poetic ESD Management Reference.
Selecting the integration type
The Download Integration section contains fields to handle getting access to the actual file.
From the Download plugin dropdown, select the method used for the integration.
- To use the Poetic integration method, select Poetic.
- To select the URL method, which displays the file in a browser, select URL.
- To use Akamai to manage the downloads, select Akamai.
Providing the download URL
In the File name/path field, provide the download URL. The required value depends on the integration type.
- For the Poetic integration method, this is a simple file name.
- For the URL integration method, if a base URL is configured, then this may be a simple file name. If no base URL is configured, you can provide the full path to the file.
- For the Akamai integration method, this is the path from the base URL to the file.
Linking the download to products
Downloads with a restriction type of “None” are not linked to products.
Downloads that require an entitlement must be linked to at least one product.
On the Product Linking tab, to search for and select the products that are linked to the download:
- Click the find icon.
- On the Search Products form, provide search criteria for the products you want to select, then click Search Products.
- In the product search results, check the check box for each product you want to select.
- Click Check selected products.
You can also populate the list of products by typing a comma-separated list of product numbers into the Linked product #s field.