Guest blog: How to create and apply rules to dominate metadata

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About the author: Jos Antonio Fuentes, Front-End Developer at VSN

Jose Antonio Fuentes works as a front-end developer at VSN. Currently, he is focused on the front development of VSNExplorer and VSN NewsConnect. Nevetheless, he has been involved in projects with VSNLivecom and other company solutions during his six years in the company. He has a Computer Applications Development degree and 13 years of working experience, not only in Broadcast and Media. Jose Antonio has worked in multiple projects and fields, from radars to position airplanes at an airport to military communication systems and Big Data.

We are more than familiar with data at VSN's development team. For us, they are like a horse that needs to be tamed. The animal strength is powerful, but it might become a problem without control. It is the same situation for data; we can have enormous amounts of information, but it is more valuable if the user can apply program rules to operate with it.

At VSN, we always want to go one step further in the innovation of metadata technology. That's why we developed a rules editor for metadata generated by our assets in VSNExplorer. Basically, this system works like a programming language that allows our clients to create and manage thousands of data operations quickly as if it were an Excel sheet. Therefore, users can apply different conditions to metadata that will make easier their media management, like showing or hiding fields, displaying the results of arithmetic operations or changing the selected values depending on other areas.

What would an ideal rules editor look like?

The editor's interface must be accessible and easy to use. We don't want more complications; we want to simplify our customers operations when programming its own rules in the MAM system. We answered this challenge by developing a simple visual interface for our rule editor. The tool offers syntax highlighting and coloring while we are programming rules for each asset template for an improved visual understanding of the code. Also, each element of the rule language has its color for better visualization. For example, the operands appear green on our screens and the execution moments are red. Another element that makes creating rules easier is the autocompletion of terms. The system suggests how to end the code, avoiding mistakes and reducing time while we are writing.

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Once the user finishes the code, it can compile it (as the code of any other language). Once it's compilated, the editor points out the syntax errors and mistakes. Therefore, the user can consult and correct them in a simple manner. Apart from this, the rule editor is an ally to create an exchangeable script catalog between installations. The user can export the code to a file and move it to work in another editor. Also, we took some necessary measures in terms of security and flexibility. The system allows to temporarily or permanently disable the created rules according to the operational needs of the customer's assets.

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A programming language to control data

At VSN, we knew that the language's syntax had to be very simple. The development team wanted to create a comprehensive language to allow any VSNExplorer user to create its script in minutes. Let's take a look at the elements of our rule's language.

1.The elementary values: These are the primary data to operate and introduce in our assets as in most programming languages. They are the foundations of our code. We are talking about whole numbers (ex. -123, 4837 ) real numbers (ex. 382.4344 , -948.32 ), boolean elements (ex, true, false ) and texts, defined as chains in the technical language (ex. VSN, John Smith ).

2. The operands: If we climb another level, we will find the operands. Unlike the elementary values of our forms, we can't create new operands while we are writing, as the metadata field of the asset defines them. Operands are represented by an identifier enclosed in square brackets, like [userName].

3. Sentences: Let's take another step to the third level with the sentences, where our two first elements of the puzzle fit. Basically, they are operations created with elementary values and operands. We will display two examples.

In the first one, we want to define a user name as Toni; In this case, the operand will be represented by square brackets by [userName]. We will introduce an elementary value with the text Toni to determine the name. We will create the sentence using the equal sy

LINK:	https://www.vsn-tv.com/en/apply-metadata-vsnexplorer-mam/...
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