Table of Contents
Using an Index Manager search result as a channel input
This topic explains how to configure a Color Factory channel to search an Index Manager archive and process the assets that are found.
09. September 2026
Table of Contents
Index Manager search input
In Color Factory Settings, expand the relevant channel and select Input & Output Options.
Open the Remote Input tab.
The following dialog appears.
Here, you can set up the channel so that Index Manager notifies Color Factory when an index is updated. Color Factory will then send a search request to the Index Manager server and process any hits. To use this functionality, you must enter the path to the index folder and the search criteria, either manually or by selecting Insert Search String.
Select Browse (...) to open the Index Manager browse dialog, which you use for locating an index on an Index Manager server. You will need to know the hostname of the Index Manager server to list its indexes.
Force the use of FWP instead of SMB access
Select this option to force Color Factory to use FWP for transferring the files retrieved in the search. Color Factory then ignores any SMB paths provided by the Index Manager server and always requests the file(s) via the FWP/FWPS protocol.
Replacing the input file
Replace the input file and use the same location and file name. Color Factory saves the processed file in the original folder, overwriting the file originally found in the archive and overriding any output folder and auto-routing settings.
Note: When using this option, you cannot use the Metadata Macro feature (described below) to update the original file to prevent double processing. That's because the input file will be tagged with the macro, then overwritten by the ready-processed file that does not contain the macro's tag set.
Therefore, to avoid double processing when replacing the input file, you should also enable the Metadata feature in the channel and use a General Metadata Macro to update the file being processed.
Only applying metadata updates to the input file
Only update metadata of the input file. No output file will be produced - all enabled metadata features in the channel will be applied to the found file(s), but the channel will not produce an output file - the files are updated in their original location.
Deleting the input file after processing
Delete input file after processing - The input file will be removed from the archive after processing. Note that enabling this option disables the above feature, and vice versa.
Avoiding double processing by updating the processed file's metadata
To ensure that Color Factory doesn’t process the same file in the index archive indefinitely, select Metadata Macro to change the metadata in one or more fields in the image found. This way, when Color Factory queries Index Manager, files that have already been processed will not be found again.
To do so: select Metadata Macro to open the metadata editor and select Add Field to begin adding a criterion. Typically, you now add information that the file has been processed, or you may want to alter the contents of a certain field.
Example
All unprocessed files in the archive have been tagged Unpublished in the Edit status field (metadata field #007). The channel uses the Index Manager search input feature to find unprocessed files by searching for this string. After processing, you want to change the status to Published and insert the publication date to avoid processing the same file twice.
First, choose Field #007 – Edit Status in the Field to Add dropdown list. Then choose an action, in this case, to replace the previous field content. Enter the new field content in the edit window, for instance, Published, and select Insert Code. Select %%INSDATE from the list to insert the image processing date. Typically, this would be sufficient to tag processed files with the necessary information. However, you can also choose a criterion that must be met for the action to happen. To specify a condition, select the corresponding checkbox and choose, for instance, #007 – Edit Status Contains unpublished.