Custom locations

[cielo]

Hi Ftrack,

I am trying to write location plug-ins for our studio.

Assume I have two locations : server.a and server.b, how can I choose a location on a project basis?

ex. project_A -> server.a  and  project_B -> server.b

[Eric Hermelin]

Hi!

 

There is currently no out of the box support for handling project specific locations.

 

1.) You could implement a custom DiskAcessor and override the `get_filesystem_path` method to return different file systems based on the resource_identifer.

 

2.) Implement your own Structure plugin, leaving your DiskAcessors prefix to "/" and moving the logic for selecting the disk into the Structure plugin. 

 

3.) Implement a custom ResourceIdentifierTransformer, this would allow you the ability to modify resource identifier before it is stored centrally and/or after it has been retrieved, but before it is used locally.

 

cheers

Eric

[cielo]

I am a bit confused, I have created two locations, twr.tp.x and twr.tp.y

And I need to configure storage scenario before publishing asset from ftrack-connect, but it looks like only one location can be configured.

Is it possible to configure two locations? What I want to do is to choose a location whenever a new project is created, is there any way to do that?

[Mattias Lagergren]

An alternative solution to handle multi disk scenarios with a proxy location. The idea being that you write a special proxy location that does not store the component but merely delegates adding components to other locations.

Setup would be something like this:

Proxy Location

priority: 1

When add_component is called, it inspects the component and what version -> project it is attached to. Depending on the project it decides another Location and call location.add_component(..) on it.

When a component's path is retrieved you will automatically pick up the correct Disk Location A, B etc. as that is where the component exists.

Disk Location A | Disk Location B | etc.

priority: 100 (so that they are not picked)

prefix: the mount points of the disk

Represents the different disks/storages that you have and want to save the files on.

 

Efestolab actually has a similar tool: http://docs.efestolab.uk/tools/proxy-location/index.html

[cielo]

I have seen the document of  Efesto Ftrack Proxy Location,  it says if I want to tweak the code, I need to 

1) Initialise an efesto-toolbelt shell
2) Append efesto-ftrack-proxy-location/source folder to the PYTHONPATH (or set it through the envs.py, but not recommended)
3) Now you can try to run the tests

What is an efesto-toolbelt shell? Do I need to download it from an external source?

[Eric Hermelin]

 

Hi Again,

Sorry if there was any confusion, the proxy implementation mentioned by Mattias is a third party product just brought up as a example. If you want access to the source you would have to speak to Efestolabs directly. 

 

cheers

Eric

[cielo]

OK, I see.

Also, I found there's a disk setting in the system setting->connect location, if I add disks here, I can choose a location whenever a new project is created.

But there's another problem about publishing, when I publish asset from ftrack-connect-maya plug-in, the files can be published to the correct disks.

However, if I use ftrack-connect for publishing, it seems that the file can not be published to the disk.

(Please see the attachment) I've published a maya file (version 6) using ftrack connect, there is a record of publish on the webpage, but there is no v006 file folder on the disk.

How can I solve this problem?

[Mattias Lagergren]

Which API are you writing the Locations in - the legacy one or ftrack-python-api?

The legacy disks are a bit confusing and we're still deciding where to go with them. They have two purposes in the legacy API:

• The deprecated Connect Location uses them when publishing/importing.
• The Un managed Location uses them to translate paths between. 

Though you can still use the disk locations in the new api / for your custom location.

[cielo]

I think setting disks in the system setting -> connect location can solve our problem about choosing a disk on a project basis.

But I am still trying to figure out why publish can work properly in ftrack-connect-maya but not in ftrack-connect.

When a version is published through ftrack-connect-maya, the files can be published to the right disk.

But it seems that no files will be published to the disk if ftrack-connect is used.

Do I need to configure something or write a plug-in ?

[Mattias Lagergren]

8 hours ago, Yipeng Lin said:

I think setting disks in the system setting -> connect location can solve our problem about choosing a disk on a project basis.

I see - so you are not using any custom written location / just aim to use the deprecated Connect location?

Connect would be using the un managed location as default when publishing - you can setup a plugin to bump the priority in Connect. Do you want me to send you some code to do this?

[cielo]

Yes, please. That would be very helpful. 

Please contact me at  yipeng.lin@twrglobal.com

Thank you for your help.