Storing assets within STEP can greatly increase the database size. As the database grows, the time required to back up the database also grows. Deleting assets from STEP does not automatically recalculate the database size; this means the time required to back up the database is not reduced. Updating the database size after asset deletion requires that the database be compressed and then restored. An effective way to avoid this whole scenario is to store assets outside of STEP, while continuing to allow them to be displayed in and exported from STEP.
Important: While Stibo Systems supports the use of externally stored assets, the user is responsible for managing those assets and maintaining the external storage system.
Details about the options for storing assets externally are defined in the following sections:
- External Digital Asset Management (DAM) - where a URL is used to retrieve the asset content
- External File Structure (EFS) - where a unique file name is used to retrieve the asset content
For both of these methods, configuration asset files (such as transformation lookup tables and export configurations) will be stored within STEP.
Regardless of the method used to store assets, either in STEP or externally, assets must be linked into at least one classification, can be referenced by products and entities, can be approved, and can be imported and exported. For more information about using assets within STEP, refer to the Digital Assets topic.