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Installing and Configuring the OpenAsset Plugin for Wordpress
Installing and Configuring the OpenAsset Plugin for Wordpress
Piers Lowe avatar
Written by Piers Lowe
Updated over a week ago

Demo Videos:

General FAQs can be viewed here.


Why use the OpenAsset Plugin for WordPress?

The OpenAsset WordPress plugin enables AEC companies to publish projects, employee profiles with project experience and marketing-ready images directly from OpenAsset to their public-facing website. This eliminates data redundancy, ensuring that high-quality assets are maintained centrally. It streamlines workflows and boosts efficiency.

What is required to start using the OpenAsset Plugin for WordPress ?

However you choose to integrate the plugin into your site, a web development professional will be required. The level of effort required to integrate the plugin will depend on what you need your website to deliver. Therefore we do not advise installing directly on your live website until you are sure that you want to use it. Development with this plugin should be performed in a development environment and fully tested before putting it live.

Your website needs to be running at least Wordpress 6.0 and PHP 8.0.

To connect the plugin, a license will need to be added to your subscription. Contact your Customer Success Manager or speak with our Sales team to start that process.

You can download the plugin from the WordPress app store and install it as you would any other WordPress plugin.

With the license added and the plugin downloaded, let's start the installation and configuration processes...

1) Authenticating the Plugin with OpenAsset

Given you have a license and you have installed the plugin from the WordPress app store, enter the plugin from the WordPress plugin menu.

Alternatively you should see an option for "OpenAsset" in the sidebar

The first screen asks for credentials. So you'll need to create an API token via OpenAsset settings--we advise that you create a token that “Never Expires” for this purpose. Once the token is generated, copy the API Token and the Token ID before clicking “Complete”. Then back on the WordPress side, simply enter your OpenAsset URL along with the API credentials.

Once successfully connected, you will be taken to the screen to configure the plugin.

2) Configuring the OpenAsset Plugin for Wordpress

The plugin has 2 screens to configure it. “General Settings” and “Data Options”.

General Settings

Feed Settings

At the top of the General Settings screen are the Feed Settings. Here it is possible to change the API credentials if you need to. In this area there are also options for:

Change the API Token - It's possible to change the API token to another if you need to. Note that is is not possible to change the OpenAsset instance unless you uninstall and reinstall the plugin.

Enable logging - Turning this on produces logs for the data sync jobs and this can be useful for debugging issues if they arise as you get things set up. You may want to have this turned off if you are concerned about the size of the log over a long period of time. The log is a text file that resides in:

wp-content/debug.log

Sync Frequency - This sets the cadence that you would like the plugin to fetch new data from OpenAsset. We advise you to set this as low as you are comfortable with. There are 2 options 8hrs or 24hrs.

Note that this scheduling is triggered by the Wordpress wp-cron feature. This means scheduling is checked on page loads of your site.

OpenAsset - WordPress Settings

Choosing the Data Types to Sync

The plugin can synchronize both Project and Employee data from OpenAsset but you may want to use either Projects or Employees. You can choose what you want to use here:

When you first install the plugin these options are set to "No" so you will need to set at least one of them to "Yes" in order to sync any data.

Naming your Website Sections

You are able to determine the naming of your website sections. For example, you may want to call the section that presents your company's “Employees”, “Our Team” instead. You are able to specify singular and plural options for the section names.

Naming URLs Sections

You are also able to define the URL key for each section. For example if your employee section is called “Our Team” you may want the URL key for the section to be “our-team”.

Page Slugs

Each individual Project or Employee page will have a slug automatically created based on it's name. For example if you have a project called "The Tower of London" it's slug will be:

/the-tower-of-london

URL slugs that describe the page content contribute to SEO.

Data Options

This screen enables you to choose the specific data that you would like to sync from OpenAsset to your WordPress website.

File Options

Note that the plugin only enables syncing of image files although other file types may be available in the future.

For the image files that sync, you can choose to get these fields:

  • Copyright holder

  • Photographer

  • Caption

  • Description

Information from these fields can then be used to display on your website UI or in the metadata of the image tags. Adding descriptive metadata to your image tags contributes to SEO.

Project Options

This enables you to select of any project field or keyword category to sync by clicking checkboxes:

Selecting a keyword category will mean that each project’s keywords will be available for display from that category. Keyword categories can also be used to build filter menus such as the one in the plugin’s bundled template.

Setting the sort order of Projects

You are able to set the sort order for projects by a range of criteria such as date fields and [Project File Order].

Project Images

This enables you to set how Project images are pulled from OpenAsset.

Controlling specific project images to show

You have the option to select the specific images that you would like to see for each project. To do this you must set up a yes/no field in OpenAsset with the exact name “Show on Website”. This will give the field a REST code “show_on_website”. Read this page if you are not familiar with setting up fields in OpenAsset.

The plugin can then use this field to pull in images that have this turned on and you are able to control your website project images in OpenAsset by using this field.

If you would prefer that images are synced without you choosing them, set this option to "No".

Note that only images set with the green Access Level will be synced. This applies to images that are set to "Show on Website".

Setting the maximum number of images per project

You are able to set a maximum number of images to pull per project. The default is 5. Note that this number is in addition to the hero image that will always be pulled in so it can be used in your website search results and as the main image to represent the project.

Setting the sort order for project images

You are able to set the sort order for your project images by things like Date Created or Rank.

Employee Options

This enables you to select of any employee field to sync by clicking checkboxes:

Employee Images

This enables you to set how Employee images are pulled from OpenAsset.

Controlling specific employee images to show

You have the option to select the specific images that you would like to see for each employee. To do this you must set up a yes/no field in OpenAsset with the exact name “Show on Website”. This will give the field a REST code “show_on_website”. Read this page if you are not familiar with setting up fields in OpenAsset.

The plugin can then use this field to pull in images that have this turned on and you are able to control your website employee images in OpenAsset by using this field.

If you would prefer that images are synced without you choosing them, set this option to "No".

Note that only images set with the green Access Level will be synced. This applies to images that are set to "Show on Website".

Setting the maximum number of images per employee

You are able to set a maximum number of images to pull per employee. The default is 5. Note that this number is in addition to the primary photo that will always be pulled in so it can be used in your website search results and as the main image to represent the employee.

Setting the sort order for employee images

You are able to set the sort order for your project images by things like Date Created or Rank.

Role Options

In OpenAsset Roles are the relationships between Projects and Employees to capture the work carried out each project. The plugin enables you to select the Role fields that you would like to sync to your website.

Syncing Data

In order for Projects and Employees to sync to the plugin you must:

  • Create a Yes/No field OpenAsset with the exact name “Show on Website” Read this page if you are not familiar with setting up fields in OpenAsset. A “Show on Website” field should be added for both Projects and Employees. These should have the exact REST code “show_on_website”.

  • Set the Projects and Employees that you wish to sync to have their “Show on Website” field set to “yes”.

You are then able to sync those Projects or Employees by clicking the “Save and Sync” button in the plugin, or waiting until the automatic sync triggered, determined by the “Sync Frequency” setting.

Built-in Limits and Filtering

The plugin has some sensible limits and filtering built in in order to ensure that unwanted data does not get synced…

  • In theory there isn't a limit with how many Projects and Employees can be synced but it has been tested to a maximum of 500 records. We currently do not advise syncing more than that.

  • A maximum of 15 Roles per Project can be synced.

  • Images will only get synced if they have been set to the green Access Level.

Optimizing Images for your Webpages

The plugin will sync image sizes that offer maximum flexibility for you to display images however you need. Sizes are selected as being the closest to 2000x2000px, up to 3.15MB as jpg, gif or png. In order to optimize images for webpage display we recommend that your web developer uses the Wordpress built in image resizing as documented here. The bundled templates that come with the plugin use this resizing method.

Integrating the Plugin with your website

The plugin can be integrated into your website by either using and modifying the templates provided or you are able to integrate into a completely custom design. These pages explain each approach:

Updating the Plugin

When new versions of the plugin become available you will be notified of the update via the admin plugin page. You will be able to install the update from there.

Uninstalling the Plugin

The plugin can be uninstalled in the standard way via the Wordpress Plugins page.

Go to the Plugins page and click "Deactivate" on the OpenAsset plugin.

Then click "Delete"

Note that uninstalling the plugin will remove all data and files that the plugin has previously pulled from OpenAsset.

Connecting to another OpenAsset Instance

In order to connect to another OpenAsset Instance you must uninstall and reinstall the plugin. This means configuring and syncing again.

Further Reading

If you are looking to understand more about the bundled templates please read this.

If you would like to create a fully customized UI for your website pages, please read this.

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