Sharing External File Assets

External file assets are targeters, groups, profiles, segments, slots, and scenarios that are created specifically for use with external users.

External file assets that are created through an ATG Business Control Center in one server cluster (such as management cluster) must be configured to be visible to an ATG Business Control Center in another cluster (such as an agent-facing cluster.)

Important: You must ensure that all external file assets that you want to be visible on both the management cluster and the agent-facing cluster are created on the management cluster only and then deployed to the agent-facing cluster. File assets that you create on an agent server cannot be deployed to the management cluster.

File assets that do not have to be visible in both places can be created on the agent-facing cluster if necessary. You can create file assets that are attachments for solutions and deploy those to the customer-facing cluster.

  1. Run the Publishing Agent’s DeployedConfig module on each agent-facing server. The DeployedConfig sub-module provides the code necessary to allow the agent server to both initiate its own deployments to the customer-facing server and receive deployments from the management server. The DeployedConfig module contains an instance of a ConfigFileSystem called DeployedConfigFileSystem. The standard ConfigFileSystem is used to expose versioned file assets for deployment, and the DeployedConfigFileSystem is used as an unversioned JournalingFileSystem for receiving deployments.

  2. Configure deployment on the management server. For each agent-facing server, add an agent to the deployment site used to deploy assets to the customer-facing server. For each of these deployment agents, map the ConfigFileSystem to the DeployedConfigFileSystem on the agent-facing server using the Available File Systems/Include File Systems fields in the Agents tab of the ATG Content Administration deployment UI. For detailed information on setting up deployment, refer to the ATG Content Administration Programming Guide.

  3. Edit your workflow so that the deployment-related elements contain the customer-facing site as the deployment target. Refer to the ATG Content Administration Programming Guide for more information on modifying deployment-related elements. Due to the configuration you made in step 2, when you deploy your file assets to the customer-facing server, they are deployed automatically to the agent-facing server as well.

  4. Ensure that all repositories that should be versioned are versioned on either the management server or the agent-facing server, but not both. This avoids conflicts that could occur if a repository is managed by ATG Content Administration from the wrong cluster. The ConfigFileSystem is versioned on both servers, which allows external file assets to be edited in the management server and internal file assets specific to agent servers to be edited in the agent-facing server.

Migrating File Assets Created in Earlier Versions

If you used earlier versions of ATG products, and you created external file assets on your agent-facing cluster, and you want to start using the shared visibility configuration described above, you should complete some migration steps to prepare your existing assets and servers for use with ATG 9.3. A migration utility is provided to help with this process. For information, refer to the ATG Upgrade and Migration Guide.

 
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