User guide

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The casting sheet example plug-in uses this method and Python expressions have access to an assetAttr built-in
method that retrieves asset attribute information.
Top Level Asset API Functions
The top level Asset API functions can be found by opening a Python tab and typing:
help( AssetAPI )
The most useful are:
• SetDefaultAssetPluginName()
Sets the default asset plug-in to use in the user interface for this Katana project.
• GetDefaultAssetPlugin()
Retrieves an asset plug-in by name.
• GetAssetPluginNames()
Lists the names of all the currently registered asset plug-ins.
LiveGroup Asset Functions
A studio may decide to use permissions for working with certain assets on a project. These permissions may depend
on the name of the current user, the name of the user’s workstation, or certain environment variables for a project,
such as show, shot, or sequence. Katana’s AssetAPI supports such access permissions through a dedicated function,
checkPermissions(), which is called for certain LiveGroup operations. When a function to check permissions in a
specific context is called, the asset API plug-in queries the Asset Management System (AMS) to check general
permissions or permissions for working with the asset with the given ID in the given context. Checking permissions
for a given ID can be used to check whether the current user has sufficient permissions to edit the asset or whether
the asset has already been checked out for editing.
NOTE: It is possible, with a custom implementation leveraging the Asset Management System, to inform
users of editable permission errors, such as when another user is currently editing the LiveGroup source of
the node you’re attempting to edit. If another LiveGroup node references the same LiveGroup source
and has been made editable by another user, an error is displayed and the state of the node is not
changed.
The function signature for checking permissions is:
checkPermissions(assetID: string, context: map of string to string): bool
The context dictionary contains information about the context from which to check permissions, with names of
information fields as keys and values of information fields as values. For example, the following might be produced:
• action = edit
27 ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PLUG-IN API | TOP LEVEL ASSET API FUNCTIONS