Skip to main content

Frontify for Desktop (Technical Documentation)

Updated this week

General

What is the difference between the Frontify web interface and the Frontify Desktop application?

The Frontify desktop application represents yet another interface with access to

specific brand content in a more convenient way – using a local desktop application

rather than web access.

How does the Frontify desktop application work?

The Frontify desktop application connects securely to a cloud location where all

customer content is stored and allows you to search, display, and download this

information without needing to navigate to the web interface. This content is only

consumed, there is no way to modify the existing content or create/upload new

content via the application.

Each user needs to have an account and authenticate it via the same authentication

mechanism that is used on the web interface – which depends on the customer’s

configuration – but could include SSO or standard access, with username and

password, with or without 2FA.

Requirements

What are the system requirements?

  • Storage size: 200 MB required, 1 GB or more is recommended for

  • temporarily downloaded files

  • RAM: 4 GB is required, 8 GB is recommended

  • Internet connection is required

  • Screen resolution: 1280 × 720 required, 1680 × 1050+ is recommended

Which version of OS is supported?

Both Windows 7+ and Mac OS 10.10+ are supported.

What technologies are used?

There is literally nothing that needs to be installed to support this application.

Frontify desktop application is using an open-source framework called electron in

combination with TypeScript + VueJs

Identify management

How is the user management/identity handled?

The whole user management (create, invite, and delete users) is handled in a single

cloud location via web interface.

After a successful user authentication, a specific user access token is generated in

order for the application to connect to the cloud instance and function. There is no

user personal data stored on the local machine.

We take data privacy very seriously – https://www.frontify.com/en/gdpr/

How does the application prevent a brute-force attack?

The prevention is exactly the same as on the web interface, since the same

authentication process is used. By default, after 10 unsuccessful login attempts,

the account is locked for 5 minutes. Both attributes (# login trials and # minutes

locked) are configurable on the web interface. This applies to standard authentication

only, because when authenticating against your SSO identity provider (IdP), such

rules are set on IdP.

Data storage

What data is stored on the local machine and where?

All customer content is stored exclusively in cloud storage all the time. Once a user

decides to download some of the content (e.g., an asset) locally, this data is stored

temporarily in the user’s home directory. This is different depending on the OS used.

he user has the option to change this target folder through the preferences. Apart

from this, user preferences/settings (e.g., download folder location, appearance

settings etc.) and user access token, (needed to communicate with cloud location)

are stored in the same user’s home directory.

Network Communication

How does the application retrieve the data? What connection and port does it use?

The Frontify desktop application uses V1 API and communicates over HTTPS (port

443) using a bearer access token. Each user has its own access token stored, locally,

which is generated at the first successful login.

Each customer has their own separate API endpoints. Following are the endpoint

locations to date (30/6/2020):

  • /v1/viewer/data/{assetToken}

  • /v1/brand/{brandId}

  • /v1/brand/list

  • /v1/assets/search/{documentId}

  • /v1/facette/list

  • /v1/guidelines/{brandId}

  • /v1/user/info

For example, in case of weare.frontify.com, the absolute URL looks like this:

Licensing

What is the application cost and/or licencing model?

There is no cost associated with using the application at this moment.

The Application is included in the general Frontify subscription fee.

Installation, operation, and maintenance

What are some of the installation options (e.g., silent install)?

• Windows: .zip and .exe

• macOS: .zip and .dmg

Are there any options to control the application configuration?

Yes, there is an option to enable/disable certain functionality, like application updates, restrict access to certain content, etc. via the app-config.json file – located in the user’s home directory. Here is a documentation on all the available configurations:

What permissions does the application need to install and run (in a user context)?

Since the application installs all the supporting files and data into the user’s home

directory, as well as its temporary data, it is stored in the same location: There is no

need to have administrator privileges for installation, nor operation of the application.

In other words; the application runs in a user context.

How is the application updated?

The Frontify Desktop App has an internal updating mechanism. On application start

or manual user request, the application checks if there is an update available on

GitHub. If there is an update available, the application automatically downloads the

update and installs it in the user context.

How is the application supported? What is the release cycle?

Frontify as a product, in general, has a weekly release cycle. For urgent/high severity

issues, hotfix is typically provided in a matter of hours – depending on SLA.

Where can I see a list of bug fixes/issues/feature changes?

You can find a list of all new features, improvements and bugs here:

Where is the source code of the application located?

The source code is private/not accessible, and only installation files are public –

all hosted on GitHub.

Did this answer your question?