09 ‐ Publisher

It's a great tool that prepares and exports the rig file for animation.
The main concept is to have work-in-progress rig files during the rigging process. When we are ready to deliver the rig to animation, the Publisher will do all the verification, fixes, and "compile" the setup to have a better deliverable rig file. The deliver rig file will be lighter and faster than the wip rig file. To achieve this, the Publisher will call all the marked validators [Checkout, AddOns, Finishing] and follow the Pipeliner instructions to export the file correctly.

It has an easy and friendly UI:

• File path: the folder where we want to save the published file.
• File name: the published file name. The system suggests the file name with good versioning depending on the pipeline.
• Comments: a text field to write comments that will be saved as a string attribute in the All_Grp node inside the rig. This text will be used to integrate some other applications, like a message in Discord or a text comment in the Trello asset card, for example.
• Verify the checked validators: a checkbox to validate or not the setup when publishing. If it is not checked, the published file will be a simple copy of the wip rig file. It's true (active) by default.
• Pipeliner: button to open the Pipeliner and configure the settings.
• Diagnose: button to run all the checkout validators in verify mode to see if there is anything to adjust in the rig setup.
• Publish: button to run all the publishing processes. If we have a defined pipeline, it'll do:
  • Run all the marked addOn validators.[^1]
  • Run all the marked checkout validators.
  • Save a copy of the validated rig as a published file in the file path directory.
  • Make a zip file of the published file and save it in the ToClient folder.
  • Create a copy of this zipped file and put it in the Dropbox Job folder to easily share with the client.[^2]
  • Create an image preview of the rig with some text info on it and save it to the ToClient folder as well.
  • Send a message to Discord weebkook.[^2]
  • Run all the callback scripts if there are some in the pipeline.
  • Open the ToClient folder.
  • Update the Trello's asset card.[^2]
  • Run all the marked finishing validators.[^3]
  • Generate the log.
  • Ask if the user wants to open the wip or the published rig file.
• Batch: button to open a window and select all the assets we want to publish as a batch sequence in the current project:

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[^1]: If there are any add-on module validators in the pipeline.

[^2]: If there's an integrated application.

[^3]: If there are any finishing module validators in the pipeline.