Introduction

Intuiface Collections can be automatically populated with content stored outside of a project. The advantage of this approach is the remote data source can be updated without having to use Composer, enabling even those unfamiliar with Intuiface to update the content appearing in a running experience.

This article summarizes four approaches to connecting Collections with remotely stored content.

Options for accessing remotely stored content

There are four methods to choose from when attempting to dynamically connect collections to remotely stored content.

For Player on any platform

• Use interface assets
  This approach works with any third-party content management system accessible through a public API. Intuiface can automatically create integrations with Web APIs - the typical interface for cloud-accessible content management systems - but can also communicate using .NET dll's and JavaScript. We have an entire chapter of this Help Center dedicated to interface assets.

Exclusively for Player on Windows

All three options below take advantage of Intuiface's ability to dynamically react to content changes in a folder or to content changes referenced by an Excel spreadsheet.

• Option #1: use third-party synchronizing software
  With this method, a folder within the locally stored Intuiface experience is set up to mirror the content of some other network-accessible folder through the use of third-party software. Collections are pointed to the folder in the experience; third-party software is used to keep that project folder in sync with a remote folder. 
• Option #2: use Windows folder syncing with a network folder
  With this method, a folder within the locally stored Intuiface experience is set up to mirror the content of some other network-accessible folder through the use of a Windows feature that will synchronize one folder with another. Collections are pointed to the folder in the experience; Windows is used to keep that project folder in sync with a remote folder. 
• Option #3: use Windows folder syncing with a commercial cloud storage solution
  With this method, a folder within the locally stored Intuiface experience is set up to synchronize with the content of a folder managed by a commercial cloud storage solution like Dropbox. Collections are pointed to the folder in the experience; Windows is used to keep that project folder in sync with a cloud-hosted version of the same folder.

Graphic summary of the three options exclusive to Player on Windows