Resources
Resources are specific to and contained within Manifold Projects. Resources are added and managed in the backend through a Project’s Resource sidebar.
Users with Admin, Editor, or Marketeer roles can manage Resources for any Project in an Instance. Project Creators can only add and edit Resources for those Projects they have created. Users with the default Reader role don’t have access to the backend by default but can be given permission to modify specific Projects and their Resources on a one-off basis (see Users and Managing Access).
What Are Resources?
Resources are media that support and contextualize a Project’s Texts or function as objects of inquiry, discussion, or exploration unto themselves. Resources can annotate a Project’s Texts in the Reader; display in the Resources Content Block on the Project landing page, where they can also be curated into Resource Collections; are collected into a library view within the project; and are individually allotted their own detail page:
https://{domain-name}/projects/{project-slug}/resource-collection/{collection-slug}
https://{domain-name}/projects/{project-slug}/resources
https://{domain-name}/projects/{project-slug}/resource/{resource-slug}
Resources are tied to individual Projects and can be added to a Project one at a time or in bulk. When a Project is exported, Manifold includes all of a Project’s Resources that it hosts in the export package (see Exporting and Preserving).
Currently Manifold supports ten different Resource kinds:
Image
Images are static visual elements, with the notable exception of animated GIFs. Photographs, paintings, drawings, diagrams, maps, graphs, charts, musical examples are all examples of Images.
| Format | GIF, JPEG, JPG, PNG |
|---|---|
| Filesize | Less than 10 mb (suggested) |
| Variants | High Resolution Image, Thumbnail Image |
Video
Video files can be uploaded into the native Manifold video player, and the application can source content hosted on YouTube of Vimeo for direct play. Manifold supports five video formats, two of which are playable directly in the browser; videos that cannot be played in the browser can be made available to readers for download.
| Upload Formats | MP4, WEBM, FLV, MOV, AVI |
|---|---|
| Formats Playable in Browser | MP4, WEBM |
| Filesize | Less than 100 mb (suggested) |
| Streaming Formats | YouTube, Vimeo |
| Variants | Variant 1, Variant 2, Poster Image, Thumbnail Image |
Audio
Audio files can be uploaded into the native Manifold audio player in the MP3, FLAC, and WAV formats. OGG and OAA files can also be loaded, but they won't be playable in the browser, only available for download.
| Upload Formats | MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, OGA |
|---|---|
| Formats Playable in Browser | MP3, FLAC, WAV |
| Filesize | Less than 100 mb (suggested) |
| Variants | Variant 1, Variant 2 |
File
Files can be of any type and are not rendered in the browser. They serve as a means to deliver any kind of content as a download. Zip archives and standalone applications are two such examples.
| Formats | Unrestricted |
|---|---|
| Filesize | Unrestricted |
| Notes | File Resources do not render in the browser; they are download only. |
Link
Links reference and direct readers to a location within the application or to a remotely hosted page.
| Format | URL |
|---|
PDF
The PDF Resource is an instance of the File Resource specific to PDFs. PDFs are not rendered in the browser by Manifold, though many browsers support that functionality or allow for add-ons that do. If the browser cannot render the PDF, it can be made available as a download.
| Format | |
|---|---|
| Filesize | Unrestricted |
| Notes | PDF Resources only render in browsers equipped for that purpose; otherwise they are download only. |
Document
The Document Resource is an instance of the File Resource specific to Microsoft Word, Open Office documents, and plain text files. Documents are only available as downloads and do not render in the browser.
| Formats | DOC, DOCX, TXT, ODT |
|---|---|
| Filesize | Unrestricted |
| Notes | Document Resources do not render in the browser; they are download only. |
Spreadsheet
The Spreadsheet Resource is an instance of the File Resource specific to Microsoft Excel and Open Office spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are only available as downloads and do not render in the browser.
| Formats | XLS, XLSX, ODS |
|---|---|
| Filesize | Unrestricted |
| Notes | Spreadsheet Resources do not render in the browser; they are download only. |
Presentation
The Presentation Resource is an instance of the File Resource specific to Microsoft PowerPoint. Presentations are only available as downloads and do not render in the browser.
| Formats | PPT, PPTX, ODP |
|---|---|
| Filesize | Unrestricted |
| Notes | Presentation Resources do not render in the browser; they are download only. |
Interactive
Interactive Resources use iFrames to bring remotely hosted content like interactive maps, data visualizations, and data analysis tools (e.g., Gephi graphs, H5P applications, Shiny packages from R Studio) into Manifold Projects.
| Formats | URL |
|---|---|
| Variants | Poster Image, Thumbnail |
Interface Overview
Consistent with the backend views for Projects, the Resource interface is composed of three parts: a header, a sidebar, and an editing pane.
Header
The header for the Resources view is the same as for all other Project-level Sidebar items, denoting the title and subtitle of the Project along with buttons to Preview or Delete it.
When individual Resource records are accessed, the header adjusts to the context, changing the functionality of those buttons: Preview opens the to the Resource’s detail page, instead of the Project homepage, and Delete removes the specific Resource from the system, versus deleting the entire Project.
Sidebar
The Sidebar’s Resource menu opens a view where new Resources can be added individually or in bulk and existing Resources can be searched through and filtered in a paginated list. When an individual Resource record is selected, the Sidebar will display new options specific to that Resource, described fully in Settings and Fields below.
Editing Pane
To the right of the sidebar, the Editing Page displays a search bar with filtering options to sort through and find one ore more existing Resources that match a set of criteria, below which are options to add new Resources individually or in bulk to the Project, followed by a paginated list of all the Project’s Resources, which can be selected and modified individually.
The search bar accepts keyword searches only and no search operators. Search results display beneath in the Resource list. Within the search bar are two buttons: Reset and Options. The Reset button clears the search bar and resets all of the filters. The Options button brings up two search filters and a sorting field to order the results.
The search filters, Select a tag and Select a type, are dropdown fields that surface lists of tags or Resource types (e.g., Image, Video) that are associated with existing Resources in the Project. Only one listing from each dropdown filter can be selected at a time. These filters can be used in conjunction with a keyword search or without, thereby filtering all Project Resources by tag and/or type.
The Order Results dropdown has options to sort matching results alphabetically by title or by the date.
Adding New Resources
The Add a new resource button changes the view, bringing up the New Resource page, where Resources are added to the system individually. This page contains a number of fields, most prominent of which is Kind.
The Kind field displays as a grid of thumbnails, each thumbnail corresponding to one of the ten different Manifold Resource kinds. The kind of Resource chosen affects which fields follow below. Generally, the system expects a user to choose a Resource kind, provide it a name in the Title field, and then use the File field to load the Resource file—or, for remotely hosted Resources like URL or Interactive, supply a URL.
Users cannot proceed beyond this step until a Kind, Title, and File/URL have been provided. Once they have, the system will redirect the user to the Resource Detail Page described in the Settings and Fields section below.
Bulk Adding/Updating Resources
Below the search bar, the Bulk add resources button brings up a new interface, categorized into a series of steps, where Resources can be added to a Project in bulk or where you can update in bulk those Resources that are already in the Project.
Integration with Google Services is required for the bulk add process to work; files intended for upload are fetched from a publicly viewable Google Drive folder (see Integrations). No other repository integrations are presently supported (e.g., OneDrive, Box, Dropbox).
Step 1: Upload
This step provides Manifold with the metadata file it uses to populate the fields for each new Resource it is creating—or to update metadata for existing Resources.
Manifold accepts comma separated files with either TXT or CSV extensions, which can be dropped onto the Upload a CSV field or selected using your device’s file system by clicking the Upload a File link.
Alternatively, Manifold can source the metadata from Google Sheet that is publicly viewable when the URL to that sheet is included in the Google Sheets URL field.
In either case, uploading a file or referencing a Google Sheet, Manifold expects the data to include column heads corresponding to metadata fields, with each row describing the information about the individual Resources, as in this template.
Step 2: Describe Data
The next two fields, categorized as Step 2, instruct Manifold how to understand the supplied metadata file.
The first, Which Row Contains the Column Headers, is a dropdown with input values ranging from 1–6. The system wants to know the row number where the column headers are in the metadata file. It will scrape the headers from the file for a later step, and knowing where the headers are allow the system to understand where in the sheet the information about the individual Resources begin.
The second field, Enter the Storage Identifier, tells Manifold which Google Drive folder from which to secure the Resources named in the metadata file. The system does not want the URL for the Drive folder; instead, it wants the folder’s identity, which appears as a string of numbers and digits following folders/ in the URL.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/{storage-identifier}
Step 3: Map Columns to Resource Attributes
The third step appears in its own view, with two containers, labeled Spreadsheet Columns and Available Attributes sitting below a button named Automatically Map Attributes.
Here the interface displays in the Spreadsheet Column container the header labels it scraped from the metadata sheet in Step 2, beside the system’s metadata attributes in the Available Attributes container.
Listings in the containers appear as ribbons with notches that fit together. Using a mouse to click and drag listings from Available Attributes to the Spreadsheet Columns container, metadata from the supplied file can be mapped to the appropriate fields in Manifold one by one.
The Automatically Map Attributes will attempt to automatically match the attributes from the supplied metadata file to the system attributes, based off the wording of the column heads. Items that aren’t mapped correctly can be manually adjusted.
This interface does not support keyboard controls at this time.
Step 4: Import Resources
The last step of the bulk upload process confirms what is being imported. The view includes a scrollable list of all the Resources Manifold is bringing into the project. Each row in this view corresponds to a row from the supplied metadata sheet. Manifold will indicate in each listing if it is creating a new Resource or updating an existing one with the material provided.
About the listings are two button options. Start Import will begin kick off the process where Resources are harvested and created in the system. The Back button returns the view to Step 3.
Once initiated, the import process may take a few moments to complete. As the system works, Manifold will provide regular status updates.
When the process is complete, the buttons above the listings will change to Back to Resources and Reset Import, and the individual listings will show with check marks or X’s denoting whether the import was successful.
Line items for failed imports will include a reason for the failure. The Reset Import button refreshes the Step 4 view, maintaining all of the settings from steps 1–3, to more easily run the import after correcting for any failures.
The Back to Resources button returns to the view to the main Resources view.
Settings and Fields
Each Resource loaded to Manifold has its own discrete settings that are configurable and which can be accessed when you select a Resource from the Editing Pane. Doing so transforms the view, alters the functionality in the header (see Interface), and makes available a Resource-specific sidebar with the following options.
Properties
Unless otherwise noted, the following attributes are common to all Resource kinds:
Kind
The values in this dropdown correspond to the ten different Manifold Resource types and instruct the system how to understand the Resource. If this field is changed for an existing Resource, the system will retain values for attributes shared between the two kinds.
Title
This is the display name of the Resource. It appears under the Resource thumbnail in the left margin of the Reader when the Resource is placed as a Text annotation, in the Resource modal window in the Reader, in the Resource library and detail page, and in the Resources Content Block and Resource Collection views.
The value in this field is also baked into the metadata that Manifold shares with other systems, crawlers, and social media platforms.
This field accepts Markdown formatting, though that formatting may not be respected by outside sites or ap
Featured
This toggle affects how resources are ordered on a project’s Resources landing page, the All Project Resources list view, available at this path:
https://{domain-name}/projects/{project-slug}/resources/
In that gridded list view, resources default to displaying in the order they were added to the system, newest to oldest. However, resources that have this Featured toggle activated, will be moved to the start of the list.
More than one resource in a project can have this toggle activated. In those situations, the system will display the Featured resources first, newest to oldest, followed by the remaining resources, again, newest to oldest.
Using this toggle does not prevent frontend readers from using the dropdown sorting options on the All Projects Resources page to reorder the resources in a way that makes sense for them.
Sort Title
Manifold sorts Resources alphabetically in lists and library views based on the value saved here. When left blank the system will instead use the value from the Title field.
Fingerprint
A Resource’s fingerprint is its own unique ID in the system. If a fingerprint value is not defined for a Resource when brought into the system, Manifold will assign a random UUID to it in this space.
Values entered here should be unique not just to the Project but to the entire Manifold instance.
Slug
A Resource slug appears as the final component of the the URL for its detail page:
https://{domain-name}/projects/{project-slug}/resource/{resource-slug}
If left blank, the system will automatically create a slug for each new Resource based on its title.
Tags
Tags function as filters on the Resource library and detail pages, relating different Resources by theme or framework.
This field is a typeahead dropdown field pre-populated with existing tags that have already been associated with other Resources in the instance. New tags can be added to the system by typing them into this field. Once entered, tags appear in the container below the dropdown with an × button beside their name, which removes them from the Resource.
Tags associated with Texts are distinct in the system from those associated with Resources.
Description
This is a Markdown-enabled field meant to capture a detailed account of the Resource, which is rendered on the Resource’s detail page and in the Manifold Reader modal for Resource annotations.
Caption
Copy saved here is intended to provide a brief statement about the Resource’s context within the Project and provide information about its source.
Copy from this Markdown-enabled field appears with the Resource in frontend views and is baked into the metadata that Manifold shares with other systems, crawlers, and social media platforms. Those other systems will likely not honor Markdown formatting and render the syntax as is.
The following two fields apply only to Image, Video, Audio, File, PDF, Document, Spreadsheet, and Presentation Resources. However, these will not show for Video Resources that are sourcing content from YouTube or Vimeo.
Allow Download?
Manifold does not make the Resource file loaded in the system available for download on the frontend unless this slider is toggled on. When on, a Download button displays on the Resource’s detail page.
The slider defaults to the on position when a new Resource is created.
File
This field displays the existing Resource file that was uploaded to the system. New files to replace the existing one can be dropped onto this field or selected using your device’s file system by clicking the Upload a File link.
Is This an Externally Linked Video?
This toggle, which applies only to Video Resources, tells Manifold whether the video is being uploaded to the system or if it is to be sourced from YouTube or Vimeo.
When toggled on, Manifold will fetch the video from the third party using the information from the following two fields that replace the standard File upload field.
Video ID
The value in this field, which is offered only to Video Resources, identifies which specific video file Manifold should target on YouTube or Vimeo to bring in as a Resource.
This field is not expecting a full URL, only a component of it. For YouTube, the ID follows after ?v=; and for Vimeo, it follows after vimeo.com/.
| Platform | Video URL | Video ID for Manifold |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg | 4czjS9h4Fpg |
| Vimeo | https://vimeo.com/493544128 | 493544128 |
External Video Type
This dropdown, which is offered only to Video Resources, has two values, Youtube and Vimeo, and orients Manifold to properly secure the identified video from the correct source.
Transcript
This Transcript field allows you to associate a transcript with Audio and Video resources to ensure you are in compliance with accessibility best practices. You can drag and drop your transcript file into this field or use the Upload a File button to select the transcript using your device’s file system.
Currently this field is not restrictive about file type, meaning you can load any file into this space. However, it is important to remember that if you load a file in a proprietary format (.docx or .pages, say), some users may not be able to access it. Saving your file in plain or rich-text formats (.txt, or .rtf) will prove more broadly useful. Better yet would be to prepare the file as HTML, allowing it to be used by any browser and easily accessible to assistive technology.
To learn more about when transcripts are needed and how best to go about preparing the, see the World Wide Web Consortium’s Transcripts documentation.
Transcripts are made available to frontend readers on the landing page for the Resource via a button labeled Transcript that appears to the right of the media. When the button is selected the transcript file can be downloaded to the reader’s local device. Transcripts do not display natively in Manifold.
It is also possible to associate Captions and Subtitles tracks with Video (and soon Audio) resources in Manifold. See the Tracks section below to learn more.
Timed tracks differ from transcripts in that they play in time with the media, where transcripts are time-independent.
Link URL
In place of the standard File upload field for Resources that get brought into the system, URL Resources instead require a target URL, which should be provided in full, e.g., https://www.nasa.gov/, not nasa.gov. The Link Resource is the only kind with this attribute.
Minimum Width and Height
These two fields, available only to Interactive Resources, provide Manifold with the preferred display ratio for the remotely sourced content. Input should be numerical and understood to be in units of pixels. Both fields are optional.
IFrame URL
This field, specific to Interactive Resources, provides the system with the specific path to the remotely hosted content that Manifold will create a Resource around. Input should be the complete source URL, e.g.:
https://sketchfab.com/models/c1c94e1f69df45eeae4a0a1d0d27e85b/embed
Allow Fullscreen? and Allow Camera?
These two toggles are only available to Interactive Resources. The first, Allow Fullscreen, makes it possible for readers to expand the content to the full size of the viewport. The second toggle, Allow Camera, gives the resource permission to make use of the user’s system camera.
Variants
This sidebar menu only appears for Image, Video, Audio, and Interactive Resources. All of the fields in this section anticipate an upload that can be dropped onto the field or selected using your device’s file system by clicking the Upload a File link.
High Resolution Image
Specific to the Image Resource, files loaded to this field are expected to be a higher-resolution alternative/equivalent to the primary Image Resource.
Manifold does not display the High Resolution Image in the application; instead, the hi-res file supplants the display version when provided as a download (see Allow Download? in Properties).
| Height and Width | Unrestricted |
|---|---|
| Max File Size | Unrestricted |
| Format | GIF, JPEG, JPG, PNG |
Poster Image
Manifold automatically generates a landscape preview for Resources in a number of views in the frontend: in the modal when a Resource annotates a text in the Reader, on the Resource’s detail page, and on Resource Collection pages.
Files loaded here replace the system-generated preview in those spaces.
| Max-Width | 1135 px |
|---|---|
| Max-Height | 650 px |
| Format | GIF, JPEG, JPG, PNG |
Thumbnail Image
Resources appear with thumbnail images in the Reader, when placed as an annotation, and in Collection and Library pages. Manifold also shares thumbnails with other systems, crawlers, and social media platforms.
The system will use the Resource file itself to automatically generate that thumbnail or include a system default when it cannot. Files loaded here replace the system-created thumbnails wherever they appear and when shared with other systems.
| Width | 80 px |
|---|---|
| Height | 50 px |
| Format | GIF, JPEG, JPG, PNG |
Variants 1 and 2
Because browser and system support for media files differ, Manifold accepts in these spaces alternate equivalents of the primary Video or Audio Resource.
For file types playable in the browser, if Manifold determines that the primary Resource file is not supported, it will look for a variant file that may be played instead.
| Video Variants | MP4, WEBM, FLV, MOV, AVI |
|---|---|
| Audio Variants | MP3, FLAC, WAV, OFF, OGA |
Metadata
This view groups into different categories the available metadata fields that describe a Manifold Resource. Values displayed here appear in the modal overlay for Resources placed as annotations in the Reader, on the Resource detail page, and they are also included in the BagIt archive when a Project is exported (see Exporting and Preserving).
All of the fields on this page support Markdown formatting with the exception of DOI.
The Metadata section provides definitions for each metadata element shown in this view.
Tracks
The Tracks sidebar menu allows you to add text tracks to Video (and soon Audio) Resources to ensure they are in compliance with web accessibility guidelines. Text tracks are formatted as WebVTT files (with a .vtt extension) and provide descriptive and navigational information to users playing media so they can better understand and engage with the content.
Tracks are most commonly associated with closed captions or subtitles that are layered over media content, though they can be used for additional functionality as well.
To add a track to your Video resource, select the Add a New Track button. That will open a drawer from the right where you will be presented with four fields that will describe and make your track available to the media player: Kind, Label, Language, and Track Content.
It is possible to add multiple tracks to the same resource. Once a track has been added to a Resource, it will be listed in this view below the Add New Track button.
Tracks are available to users in the media player when they select the More Media Controls button that appears above the scrub bar as three stacked dots. That will open a menu where users can toggle Captions on and then select either a Captions or Subtitles track to play with the media.
It is not possible to associate tracks with Video resources that are brought in via YouTube or Vimeo. To add tracks to remotely hosted videos, you will need to do so on the originating platform.
The Tracks sidebar menu was introduced in version 9 and currently only appears for Video Resources. However it will be available to Audio Resources in an upcoming minor release.
This section deals specifically with tracks, which are timed to and render with the source media. Transcripts, however, are time-independent and allow readers to digest any audio, verbal, or non-verbal elements from media at the reader’s own pace. To learn more about adding Transcripts to your Audio and Video Resources, see the Transcript section above.
Kind
There are five kinds of text tracks defined in the HTML specification. The Kind field lists four of those options in a dropdown, and currently Manifold only supports the first two, Captions and Subtitles. When you go to add a track you will want to select one of those two.
That said, definitions for all five track kinds are provided here to give you a greater sense of how these tracks function.
- Captions tracks are a timed transcriptions of the entire audio component of the media element and can also include non-verbal or musical information. Captions are layered over the media display during playback.
- Subtitles tracks are used when translating spoken words or visuals in a video from a foreign language into the language of the target audience. Like Captions, they are layered over the media display during playback.
- Chapters tracks are used by the media player to partition playback into discrete, titled segments on the “scrub bar” (otherwise known as the progress bar or time slider) that can be used for navigation. Chapters may also render as a button list option in the media player so users can select a specific chapter to navigate to.
- Metadata tracks do not display their contents to users; instead they provide time-coded metadata that can be used with scripts to perform a time-appropriate action, along the lines of how Chapter tracks are used by the player to provide different means of navigation.
- Descriptions tracks, while technically part of the HTML specification, are not currently supported by any browser, and as such they do not appear as an option in Manifold. In the future they may provide a means to offer a textual description of the media’s visual content.
In terms of playback, Captions and Subtitles render identically. It is not currently possible to initialize both a Captions and Subtitles track at the same time.
It is beyond the scope of this documentation to describe how to prepare tracks files. However, the World Wide Web Consortium maintains a page on Making Audio and Video Media Accessible that will be a useful resource in understanding and preparing tracks for your media.
Currently Manifold only displays Captions and Subtitles tracks. In future releases we expect Manifold will support Chapter tracks and, potentially, Metadata tracks.
We have no plans to support Description tracks until they are broadly supported by all the major evergreen browsers.
Label
The Label field is a textbox where you can assign a simple title to the track. Labels should only be a few words long and use plain language. Labels are often displayed by the media player as an option readers can select. For instance, Captions track labels could be “Korean,” “Spanish,” “English,” and so on to indicate the language of the track.
Language
The Language field expects a language tag abbreviation that describes the language of the track you are uploading. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains this registry of all available language tags in a rather lengthy text document.
To find a language tag in that list, use the search function in your browser and search for the name of the language you are looking for. Languages will be associated with a Description. Above that Description there will be a line-item for Subtag. The abbreviation following that Subtag label is what you need to input into Manifold.
For example, if you searched for French, the result in that registry would bring up the following:
Type: language
Subtag: fr
Description: French
Added: 2005-10-16
Suppress-Script: Latn
You would want to put fr into the Language field in Manifold.
The BCP 47 language tags mentioned in the user tip in Manifold correspond to (and in fact are sourced from) the tags in IANA registry linked to above. You can confidently use the language tags you find in the IANA registry.
Track Content
The Track Content field is the space where you can drag and drop your WebVTT file or use the Upload a File button to select it from your system’s file directory.
This field only accepts files with WebVTT files with a .vtt extension.
Track Listings
Each saved track appears as a list element in this view, made up of the track’s Label, flags indicating the Kind of track it is and the Language associated with it, the name of the track file that was uploaded to create it, and a Delete button in the form of a trashcan icon.
Of these only the track Label and the Delete button are actionable. When you select the track Label, a drawer will open from the right of the screen where you can edit any of the four fields originally used to create the track. The Delete button will open a modal asking you confirm you want to remove the track. Once confirmed the track will be removed from the system and no longer available in the media player interface.