QBank allows you to create and configure an unlimited amount of publishing profiles (also referred to as deployment sites or Publishing sites).
QBank allows you to create and configure an unlimited amount of publishing profiles (also referred to as deployment sites or Publishing sites). A profile is basically an FTP or file host configuration, to which QBank will be able to connect and upload/remove files. A profile is usually created to work together with a frontend, CMS plugin or similar purpose. While it's possible to retrieve any image through the API, publishing enables the file to be accessible locally and can significantly speed up the process of displaying a media.
While configuring a profile it is possible to decide exactly which files are deployed. Perhaps you only wish to expose a thumbnail of the media, and not the original file itself. Another common usage is connecting image and video templates to a profile. When you publish a media, all applicable templates will be created for the respective media. This is used in most cases in regards to frontends. A frontend usually displays a preview of the media in some sort of search result. To ensure maximum performance, the required size of the preview image is then specified as an image template in QBank, and connected to the profile. When a user publishes to this frontend, the image template will be created, along with any other files, and exposed for the frontend.
Each profile can be associated with a given color, making it easy to spot published media in a QBank search result. You can also find detailed deployment information through the media detail views.
All published media are considered exposed (public) from QBank's point of view. This does of course not have to be the case in the end, as a frontend for example may implement its own security to protected the published media. It is also not a requirement that the published file is accessible.
It is worth noting that you cannot delete a published media in QBank. This is so the tasty recipe doesn't lose its image on the recipe page, because of an accidental deletion in QBank. This is also why we recommend that a profile is always used even if it is possible to retrieve images through the API. Another benefit is that usage and access control is simplified. For example, a CMS plugin doesn't necessarily have to report when and where a media is used. If the CMS plugin doesn't report that a media is in use, the media may be deleted in QBank, possibly resulting in broken images or videos in the CMS. If the plugin on the other hand only is able to use media published to a certain profile, the editor can investigate usages and the risk of accidental deletion is minimized.
We currently support (s)FTP, copy and symlink configurations when creating a publishment profile.