Install Sample Content Via Batch Ingest

To help with testing the system, a batch of example content is available. Depending on the speed of your Avalon installation it will take between four and six hours to process completely. Download the current package to begin.

Preparation

The example fixtures require the creation of a specific collection (Default Collection) and user (archivist1@example.com). Begin by starting up your Avalon installation. Within a browser navigate to the orange "Sign in" link in the upper right corner. Creating a new identity is done here.

The email address should be set to archivist1@example.com. Remember the password so that you can log into the system to create both a collection for holding the examples as well as verifying that they loaded properly. When done, return to the home page and authenticate as archivist1@example.com.

From the global navigation enter the content manager by following the Manage Content link

If this is the first collection that you have created you will be prompted to Create New Collection. If you already have test content in the system, find the Create New Collection link at the bottom of the page. This will bring up the New Collection form.

For the name enter Default Collection. This is case sensitive, so be sure to capitalize both words. For the description enter a brief summary such as "Example content provided by the Avalon Media System team".

Ingest

With the system ready to ingest the content unpack the example content into a new directory. Using the account information for the dropbox user, upload the DemoFixture directory to your Avalon server's dropbox (usually located at /var/avalon/dropbox). After a minute or two, the system will detect the new batch and begin ingesting the content. The next step depends greatly on the number of available processors and RAM. Avalon will convert each master into a series of streaming derivatives. Progress can be tracked in Avalon by visiting the Default Collection. In Avalon it should look something like the picture below when finished.

Choosing an item will show you the current conversion process. When the green bar reaches 100% the item is ready to be played back. If problems occur during the batch ingest process follow the troubleshooting steps listed at the end.

Troubleshooting failed batches

Batch is unreadable by the background process

When transferring the example content into the dropbox it is possible that permissions may get changed. The background process that processes derivatives requires write access to be able to leave an error log and / or a processing flag. If you discover a problem with the permissions the following command will repair the issue. Execute this from the dropbox directory.

chmod -R DemoFixture/ 0755