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This wiki is a collection of information for implementing Asset API Plugins in Foundry's Katana.

An Asset plugin is expected to implement 20 different methods of the Asset API base class. For each function this wiki will try to explain:

• What this method should do
• Minimum functionality needed
• Deal with different types of errors
• Examples of why and when Katana could call this

The methods can loosely be grouped into several categories, in order of importance.

Resolve

• containsAssetId Input string contains a valid asset id anywhere within it.
• getAssetVersions Find all the available versions of the given asset.
• isAssetId Input string represents a valid asset id.
• resolveAsset Lookup asset id and return path that it references.
• resolveAllAssets Replace asset ids found with resolved asset strings.
• resolvePath Resolve env vars, asset ids, and file sequences in.
• resolveAssetVersion Returns the version for a given asset id.

Publish

• createAssetAndPath Create asset and optional directory path.
• createTransaction Create optional transaction for multiple assets.
• postCreateAsset Finish asset after the files to be published exist.

Attributes

• buildAssetId Convert string fields into an asset id.
• getRelatedAssetId Find related assets.
• getAssetAttributes Get metadata associated with an asset.
• getAssetFields Convert an asset id named string fields.
• getAssetIdForScope Change scope of an asset id.
• setAssetAttributes Set metadata associated with asset id.

Nodegraph

• checkPermissions Validate certain operations allowed on asset id.
• getAssetDisplayName Name suitable for displaying to users for an asset id.
• getUniqueScenegraphLocationFromAssetId Scenegraph location name for an asset id.
• reset Reset any plugin state
• runAssetPluginCommand Run arbitrary command on an asset id.

License

This documentation is released under the Creative Commons CC0 "No Rights Reserved" license. https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0

By contributing to this wiki you agree to license any text you change or contribute under the CC0 license.

Foundry Documentation

Foundry's limited documentation is spread across Python code examples, header files, and disconnected fragments in their Katana documentation.

• https://learn.foundry.com/katana/dev-guide/OpsAndOpScript/AssetAPI/Cpp.html
• https://learn.foundry.com/katana/dev-guide/Plugins/Asset/Cpp.html
• https://learn.foundry.com/katana/dev-guide/Plugins/Asset/Python.html
• https://learn.foundry.com/katana/Content/tg/asset_management_system_plugin_api/asset_management_system.html
• https://learn.foundry.com/katana/Content/tg/asset_management_system_plugin_api/publishing_asset.html

Contributors

• Peter Shinners helped assemble the initial version of these documents from notes collected while implementing the Asset API plugin for Blizzard Entertainment. Before that Peter worked at Sony Imageworks on the early, internal versions of Katana.