One of the primary challenges for IT administrators dealing with media processing services is the operational overhead associated with the numerous tasks undertaken when sharing media across the network. The Cisco® MXE 3000® Media Experience Engine addresses these challenges in many ways. The Folder Attendant is one of the many automation features supported by the Cisco MXE 3000. This application note describes the Folder Attendant.
Folder Attendant Program
Folder Attendant is made up of two components:
• A Windows-based program that facilitates integration between external systems and the Cisco MXE 3000 platform
• A web-based user interface that allows you to configure and control Folder Attendant functions
The Folder Attendant program allows for complete automation of job submissions by monitoring watched directories on the network for the arrival of new or updated media XML files. It uses a configurable resource called a watch; each directory can be assigned one or more watches. Each watch is configured to look for a list of file types by extension and is assigned a job profile, related job parameters, and system settings.
Folder Attendant also includes administration functions, such as creating users and roles to give various users different levels of access to the program.
When a file that is copied into the watched directory matches the file type specified in the watch, it is matched with the configured profile and automatically submitted to the configured platform for processing (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Representation of Workflow for the Cisco MXE 3000
In summary, the Folder Attendant on the MXE 3000 allows users to automate even the most complex media processing workflows by seamlessly integrating precanned profiles that users can easily invoke and apply to processing jobs in a batchwise manner.