When submitting images, your vendor will have the option to automatically map the images to their corresponding positions as defined in your Style guide.
In the Vendor Portal
For increased efficiency, external vendors can auto-map assets using additional identifiers beyond Exact Filename Match, Product Code, or Vendor Material Code. Other identifiers now include Style Code, Sample Code, Product Name, and selected Custom Properties.
Users may combine up to five methods with a set priority order, and enable the optional “Close Match” logic (normalization and partial matching) for cases with inconsistent naming.
Note: If an existing configuration setup is in place, all changes made will be applied and saved as the new configuration for Auto Mapping.
In Creative Force
In Studio Settings, admin users can define default auto-mapping settings per vendor. This ensures further consistency by external users when they are submitting vendor-provided images.
VPI Settings
Under Account Settings, choose Studio Settings, then scroll down to VPI Settings:
Product Vendor Configurations
Under Production Setup, navigate to the Product Vendors section, and choose the vendor name that you want to edit:
With this production setup, the admin in Creative Forces can create a default configuration for each vendor. Accordingly, when the vendor logs in to Vendor Portal for the first time, they will see this default configuration.
The vendor can make changes and apply new mapping rules, but they can revert to defaults made by the admin anytime!
However, in order to have this function work effectively, you as a studio person need to set it up firsthand before the vendor starts uploading images.
Look for material number in file name: You will need to put in the material code under product property 'Vendor material code'. Your vendor will then be able to auto map to the positions (sorted alphabetically).
2. Look for product code in file name: You will need to provide your vendor with the product codes for them to name the files. Your vendor will then be able to map the images to the products. They can also map the files to the positions (sorted alphabetically).
Note:
Mapping files to the positions (sorted alphabetically) means that you will need to set the image range count of each position correctly. There are the below scenarios:
When the positions have the exact count of images: auto map will fulfill the exact number of image counts in the first position and then move to the next one.
When the positions have the range count of images: auto map will fulfill the maximum number of the range count in the first position, then move to the next position with the same logic.
When the positions have an unlimited count of images: auto map will follow the above exact and range count first, if there is no such setup, all images will be put in the unlimited count position.
3. Look for exact file name match: With this option, your vendor will be able to auto map to the positions. In order for this to work, you cannot use the following merge fields in the asset output name: “Recurrence Index”, “Date”, “Datetime”, “Position Sequence Number”, “Production Sequence Number” and “Sequence Number”.
Sample code should not be used in this instance as Creative Force only assigns the sample code to a product once the Photography step is done. As using the vendor portal is an alternative option to in-house Photography, Creative Force cannot verify the sample code at this step.