Now that we've looked in some detail at the process of creating a model record, we're going to take a look at how to actually add content to a Wacs site. There are a number of ways in which new material can be imported into the system, and we're going to discuss some of them here. Once of the key concepts is that the process is divided into three distinct sections:

Each of these tasks is actually performed by a separate web application in the Wacs system which are known respectively as wacsunpackmgr, wacsplacemgr and wacssetmgr. In this chapter, we are concentrating on the first of these namely wacsunpackmgr. The primary task of wacsunpackmgr is to gather together all the materials for the set we're about to create - images, icons, video clips, descriptions; make a few notes on where it came from and which models are involved, and put it in a place where it can be previewed and picked up by the placement manager ( wacsplacemgr).

Each administrator of the wacs system will be given their own unpack area within the download spool area of the Wacs system. While configurable, this is usually in /var/spool/wacs/download/unpack/ username, so for instance beaky's unpack directory would be /var/spool/wacs/download/unpack/beaky. Having individual areas allows multiple administrators to import content at the same time, and allows people to take a break during the process (to confirm details perhaps) without troubling others. Any given user can only unpack one set at a time however.