Third Party Mount Point Support

Evolphin Zoom offers certain enhancements to the third-party-mount feature so that it may be used with VideoFX or VideoLX. These are accessed from the client-side zoom.properties as described below.

PropertySample Value
IGNORE_PATTERN_IN_LINK_FILENAME_original
EXTENSIONS_PROXY_MAPmp4 -> mov, mxf

Both these properties are not supported from Zoom version 7.3 onwards.

 

IGNORE_PATTERN_IN_LINK_FILENAME

This property helps in mapping the proxy files present in Zoom Server, to the (high-res) files residing in third-party Mount location. This resolution is based on adding a preconfigured suffix pattern to the proxy file names.

For example, if you have the following property definition in your zoom.properties, then a proxy asset of name installation_detail.mp4 will be resolved to reference a high-res asset of name installation_detail_original.mp4 in the Third Party Mount location.
IGNORE_PATTERN_IN_LINK_FILENAME=_original

 

EXTENSIONS_PROXY_MAP

This property maps the file extension of the low-res proxy assets that are present in the Zoom Server and the file extensions of the corresponding high-res assets residing in the Third Party Mount locations.

EXTENSIONS_PROXY_MAP=mp4 -> mov, mxf

Third Party Mount Feature

From Zoom 5.5 onward, users will be able to set up multiple mount points which would essentially behave like auto-checkout mount points. They will however not sync up with Zoom as auto-checkout mount points do. Files have to be put in these folders manually by users. This will help them in creating links with large size files while maintaining a low-resolution proxy in Zoom.

Configuring third-party mount points

  1. Open zoom.properties file from $HOME/.zm on a Zoom Client machine. For Example:  C:\Users\joe\.zm\zoom.properties
  2. Add the THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT property for the first mount point location. Subsequently, add THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT property followed by a suffix, indicating the index e.g. THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT1, THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT2, etc.
    Example snippet from zoom.properties:
    #Mon Feb 08 14:30:59 PST 2021
    THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT=/Volume/WDExternal
  3. Set the value of all THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT properties to point to mapped network drives where resources will be saved. Currently, UNC paths are not supported for THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT in Windows. Always make sure to use mounted drives. To see how to use mounted drives, follow here.
  4. Note: On Windows – Use the forward slash(/) as the separator for the mount point value.
    For example:
    THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT=D\:\\  – WRONG
    THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT=D\:/ – CORRECT
  5. Save the zoom.properties file.
  6. Restart ClientProxy from the Z-menu to load the changes made to the zoom.properties file. Third-party mount point(s) are now set for this Zoom Client.

Alternatively, you could also set zoom.properties once on your Zoom MAM Server so that these properties may be pulled by Zoom Clients. Reload your Evolphin Zoom plugin in the creative apps for the new paths to reflect.

Features

  1. Files from the third party mount-point directories will never be imported back to Zoom. If a user tries to attempt it, the file will be skipped and an appropriate warning will be shown to the user.
  2. If a user is committing files which have links to files present in third-party mount directories, such that the remote path of the linked file already exists in Zoom, then links will be maintained on Zoom server and one will be able to see them in Asset Browser ‘Links’ panel.
    e.g. THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT1=D\:/thirdPartyMount
    Linked File path – D:\thirdPartyMount\defproj\links\a.jpg
    In this case, a.jpg will not be checked in. If it exists on Zoom in the server path \defproj\links, the main file will get linked to this file in Zoom.
  3. Drag and drop from VAB will work when THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT properties are set to a valid path. First preference will be given to auto-checkout, then third-party mount points and lastly working copy.
  4. Resolve links from the plugin will resolve the paths from third-party mount points as well. Current preference order for resolve links – auto checkout, third-party mount points, working copy.
    The remote path of the files will be same as the paths within a third-party mount point for resolving links within mount points. E.g. If the path of the linked file in Zoom is /links/image_link.jpg, the mount point path will be THIRD_PARTY_MOUNT_POINT/links/image_link.jpg
  5. If a file is present in the third-party mount point and also in the working copy, dragged file from Asset Browser will point to the mount point path. E.g. If some file xyz.jpg is present in the mount point folder and also in the working copy. And, if a user drags the same file from Asset Browser to any of the creative apps, then a link will be created to mount point file and not with the working copy file.
  6. If a file is present in the third-party mount point and also in an auto-checkout folder location, dragged file from Asset Browser will point to auto checked out path.

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