Getting started with assets

Assets are files that you can use when building a configurator. Images are one of the most common assets. Another common kind is the data source, which contains tabular data from e.g. a MS Excel or CSV file.

Typically, assets are imported from files you already have, such as images, documents or 3D models. However, some assets can also be created and edited directly in the asset editor, or imported automatically with workflows.
When you upload a file, you may be asked what kind of asset you'd like to create with it. Each asset serves a particular purpose: images can be displayed, files downloaded and data source filtered. Other assets are used for 3D visualization and more will be added over time.

Asset Bundles

Assets are organized into asset bundles, which must be assigned to a configurator to allow it to use those assets. You can further organize the assets in a bundle with folders.

An asset bundle can be assigned to multiple configurators, thus ensuring that the same data is used in all of them. If you have multiple configurators that share a common data set, this is a great way to prevent inconsistencies and simplify maintenance.
On the other hand, you can also assign multiple asset bundles to a single configurator. This may be useful when you have a lot of assets and want to organize them into separate bundles.

Versioning

Asset bundles are versioned. You control when the changes you make to an asset bundle go live. You can edit the assets of a bundle for as long as you want, without affecting any of your configurators. Only once you publish your changes will a new version of your asset bundle be created. You decide which configurators should use that new version, allowing you to update your configurators one by one – or all at once, the choice is yours!
Of course, you can also revert to an earlier version of your asset bundle at any time. The version history of an asset bundle allows you to assign any past version to your configurator.

Any changes you make to an asset bundle are automatically collected into a draft. You can either publish a draft or delete it, if you want to discard those changes.
You can also assign a bundle draft to a configurator draft to test your changes. When you later publish the bundle draft, you can choose to have the configurator draft be published automatically as well. (also works the other way around!)

Errors and Warnings

Assets within a bundle can have errors or warnings to make you aware of any issues (e.g. missing materials, folders, assets). They are visualized directly in the tree view of the asset manager, simply click on the asset to get more details about them.
Currently, we have the following types of errors and warnings:

Icon	Type	Name	Cause
	Warning	Missing material	A babylon asset is linked to a material which is not existing.
	Warning	Missing texture image	The given texture of a material asset is linked to an image which is not existing.
	Error	Missing linked folder	This data source contains a column with a linked folder which is not existing.
	Error	Missing linked default asset	This data source contains a column with a linked asset (i.e. default value) which is not existing.
	Error	Invalid data source value	A value of a column in a data source cannot be read.
	Error	Invalid data source list value	An item of a list column in a data source cannot be read.
	Error	Empty data source list value	An item of a list column in a data source is empty.