Digital Asset Management

11 The presentation tier

Introduction

The presentation tier is the user interface to the asset management system. As such, it makes or breaks an asset management system.The design of the presentation tier ultimately determines the usability of the system. The acceptance and whole-hearted adoption of the system will depend very much upon this usability.

As a user, you will want to undertake a wide-ranging set of tasks. These are just a few:

•  Edit index metadata

•  Manage authorisations

•  Search for content

•  Preview content

•  Retrieve content for editing

•  Archive content

•  Manage digital rights.

The presentation tier has two layers: the asset management server and the local client—the users’ PC (Figure 11.1). The server can be a normal ...