Creative Force External Post Gateway API allows you to connect your CF instance directly to your vendor via an API as opposed to FTP or Box.com. For Tech-focused vendors, this can oftentimes be a great option to have a direct link between CF and themselves as opposed to relying on an intermediary data point like an FTP

This article will guide you through the steps of setting this up both as a CF customer and the external vendors.

Creative Force Customer Set Up

As the CF user, to set up the connection for your external vendors using Gateway API, there are two steps that you need to follow.

Step 1: Add the vendor to your external-post production vendors list

Studio Settings -> Post-production -> External Post -> Add
Add the Webhook URL from your vendor here. When a task is ready for the External Post step, CF will callback to the webhook of the vendor. We will talk in detail about this later in the article.
Once you added the Webhook URL, click ‘Save’. Creative Force will automatically generate a secret key. You will then need to give the secret key to your vendor for them to verify the Webhook URL.

After adding the vendor here, you can assign this vendor to your workflows and style guides.

Note: the Webhook payload URL for external post API cannot be the same as the webhook URL you set up in the Webhook section in Gamma.

Step 2: Generate a token for the vendor to be able to connect to CF Gateway API

Then, click ‘Register App’. You will have the option to register an app using Authorization Code Grant Flow or Client Credentials Flow.

Click here to learn more about using Authorization Code Grant Flow.

Click here to learn more about using Client Credentials Flow.

Once you have the tokens, you can share them with your vendor for them to access CF Gateway API. Please note that the tokens are valid for 1 hour.

External vendors

For the external vendors, this part of the article will run through the flow of how the tasks are being managed and processed and the Webhook callback detail.

For more details regarding the API call examples, you can refer to our API document here.

List of tasks or Webhook flow

Once a task is ready or rejected, CF will callback to your webhook so you will need to provide your Webhook URL to your client, for them to add it to the CF system. After adding your Webhook URL to the system, your client will give you a secret key and you will need to verify it.

In case of a missing webhook, you can use listing API as a fallback method.

GET /v1/expost/tasks?postProductionVendorId=

Tasks process flow

Input

taskId
contentCreationTypeId (ecom/editorial)

Ecom Flow

Get task detail
- Task info
- Input assets, and their expected output assets
- GET /v1/extpost/tasks/{taskId}
Get task annotations/markings
- Get all annotations from external post including both instruction & rejection notes.
- GET /v1/extpost/tasks/{taskId}/annotation
Download input & spec
- POST /v1/assets/bulk-get-assets
- POST /v1/files/bulk-get-files
- POST /v1/specs/bulk-get-specs

Get Product & Job information (optional)
- GET v1/jobs/{jobId}
- GET v1/products/{productId}

Start task
- PUT /v1/extpost/tasks/{tasksId}/start
- Only when you call this API, the task status will be changed to In Progress, otherwise, it will stay in To Do until you return the images back to CF.
Retouching
- Based on "expected outputs"
Upload all output files to CF storage (AmazonS3)
- POST v1/assets/get-presigned-url
- PUT https://s3bucket.amazonaws/t/a.jpg?signature....example
Submit asset output mapping
- POST /v1/export/tasks/{taskId}/submit-assets
- Submit assets for external post tasks. All expected assets need to be submitted at once. For rejection cases, only correction assets are required.

Editorial Flow

Get task detail
- Task info
- Input assets, and their expected output assets
- GET /v1/editorial/extpost/tasks/{taskId}
Get task annotations
- Get all annotations from external post including both instruction & rejection notes.
- GET /v1/editorial/extpost/tasks/{taskId}/annotation
Download input & spec
- POST /v1/assets/bulk-get-assets
- POST /v1/files/bulk-get-files
- POST /v1/editorial/specs/bulk-get-specs

Get Project & Deliverable information (optional)
- GET v1/editorial/projects/{projectId}
- GET v1/editorial/deliverables/{deliverabletId}

Start task
- PUT /v1/editorial/extpost/tasks/{tasksId}/start
- Only when you call this API, the task status will be changed to In Progress, otherwise, it will stay in To Do until you return the images back to CF.
Retouching
- Based on "expected outputs"
Upload all output files to CF storage (AmazonS3)
- POST v1/assets/get-presigned-url
- PUT https://s3bucket.amazonaws/t/a.jpg?signature....example
Submit asset output mapping
- POST /v1/editorial/export/tasks/{taskId}/submit-assets
- Submit assets for external post tasks. All expected assets need to be submitted at once. For rejection cases, only correction assets are required.

Webhook on new/rejected task

Headers are the same as shown in our Webhook article here.

Key	Type	Description
Action	string	The action that was performed. Can be one of: ExternalPostTaskReadyToWork ExternalPostTaskRejected
PayloadId	string	ID of the payload (GUID)
EventGroupName	string	The event group triggered. Value: ExternalPostTask
EventDatetimeUtc	long	Unix Timestamp (milliseconds) - the number of milliseconds since the Unix Epoch
TaskId	string	ID of the task (GUID)
ClientId	string	ID of the client (GUID)
JobId	string	ID of the job (GUID)
ProductId	string	ID of the product (GUID)
StepId	int	ID of the step
StepStatusId	int	ID of the Step Status
ProductionTypeId	int	Production Type ID
ContentCreationTypeId	int	Content Creation Type ID (Ecom or Editorial)
EditorialProjectId	string	Editorial Project ID (GUID)
EditorialDeliverableId	Array of string	List of ID of Editorial Deliverable (List of GUID)

November 2nd – Sprint 88 Release Notes

External post FTP and Box.com Filename transfer method

External Post-production: Gateway API Vendor

Best Practice: Recommended User Permissions for External Post Vendors