90 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
90 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
# Asset Hosting Services
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## Overview
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Hosting Services provide an integrated facility for using Addressable Assets configuration data to serve packed content to local or network-connected application builds from within the Unity Editor. Hosting Services are designed to improve iteration velocity when testing packed content, and can also be used to serve content to connected clients on local and remote networks.
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### Packed mode testing and iteration
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Moving from Editor Play mode testing to platform application build testing introduces complexities and time costs to the development process. Hosting Services provide extensible Editor-embedded content delivery services that map directly to your Addressables group configuration. Using a custom Addressables profile, you can quickly configure your application to load all content from the Unity Editor itself. This includes builds deployed to mobile devices, or any other platform, that have network access to your development system.
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### Turn-key content server
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You can deploy Asset Hosting Services into a server environment by running in batch mode (headless) to host content for both intranet- and internet-facing Unity application clients.
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## Setup
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This article details the initial setup of Asset Hosting Services for your Project. While the setup guide focuses on Editor workflows, you can use the API to configure Hosting Services by setting the `HostingServicesManager` property of the [`AddressableAssetSettings`](../api/UnityEditor.AddressableAssets.Settings.AddressableAssetSettings.html) class.
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### Configuring a new Hosting Service
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Use the **Hosting window** to add, configure, and enable new Hosting Services. In the Editor, select **Window** > **Asset Management** > **Hosting Services**, or click the **Hosting** button from the **Addressables window** menu to access the **Hosting window**.
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To add a new Hosting Service, click the **Add Service** button.
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In the **Add Service** dialog that appears, you can select a predefined service type or define a custom service type. To use a predefined service type, choose from the **Service Type** drop-down options. Use the **Descriptive Name** field enter a name for the service.
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**Note**: For more information on implementing custom hosting service types, see the section on [custom services](#custom-services).
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The newly added service appears in the **Hosting Services** section of the **Hosting window**, and defaults to the disabled state. To initiate the service, click the **Enable Service** button.
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The HTTP Hosting Service automatically assigns a port number when it starts. The port number is saved and reused between Unity sessions. To choose a different port, either assign a specific port number in the **Port** field, or use the **Reset** button to randomly assign a different port.
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**Note**: If you reset the port number, you must execute a full application build to generate and embed the correct URL.
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The HTTP Hosting Service is now enabled and ready to serve content from the directory specified in the `BuildPath` of each asset group.
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### Profile setup
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When working with Hosting Services during development, Unity recommends creating a profile that configures all asset groups to load content from the Hosting Service using a directory or directories created specifically for that purpose.
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In the **Addressables window** menu (**Window** > **Asset Management** > **Addressable Assets**), select **Profiles** > **Inspect Profile Settings**. You can also access these settings via the `AddressableAssetSettings` Inspector.
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Next, create a new profile. In the following example, the new profile is called "Editor Hosted".
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Modify the loading path fields to instead load from the Hosting Service. `HttpHostingService` is a URL that uses the local IP address and the port assigned to the service. From the **Hosting window**, you can use the profile variables named `PrivateIpAddress` and `HostingServicePort` to construct the url (for example, `http://[PrivateIpAddress]:[HostingServicePort]`).
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Additionally, you should modify all build path variables to point to a common directory outside of the Project's _Assets_ folder.
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Verify that each group is configured correctly. Ensure that the `BuildPath` and `LoadPath` paths are set to their respective profile keys that are modified for use with Hosting Services. In this example, you can see how the profile variables in the `LoadPath` are expanded to build a correct base URL for loading from Hosted Services.
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Finally, select the new profile from the **Addressables window**, create a build, and deploy to the target device. The Unity Editor now serves all load requests from the application through the `HttpHostingService` service. You can now make additions and changes to content without redeployment. Rebuild the Addressable content, and relaunch the already deployed application to refresh the content.
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### Batch mode
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You can also use Hosting Services to serve content from the Unity Editor running in batch mode. To do so, launch Unity from the command line with the following options:
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```
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-batchMode -executeMethod UnityEditor.AddressableAssets.HostingServicesManager.BatchMode
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```
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This loads the Hosting Services configuration from the default `AddressableAssetSettings` object, and starts all configured services.
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To use an alternative `AddressableAssetSettings` configuration, create your own static method entry point, to call through the `UnityEditor.AddressableAssets.HostingServicesManager.BatchMode(AddressableAssetSettings settings)` overload.
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<a name="custom-services"></a>
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## Custom Services
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Hosting Services are designed to be extensible, allowing you to implement your own custom logic for serving content-loading requests from the Addressable Assets System. For example:
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* Support a custom [`IResourceProvider`](../api/UnityEngine.ResourceManagement.ResourceProviders.IResourceProvider.html) that uses a non-HTTP protocol for downloading content.
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* Manage an external process for serving content that matches your production CDN solution (such as an Apache HTTP server).
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### Implementing a custom service
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The `HostingServicesManager` can manage any class that implements an `IHostingService` interface (for more details on method parameters and return values, see the [API documentation](../api/UnityEditor.AddressableAssets.IHostingService.html).
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To create a new custom service:
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1. Follow the steps outlined in the [configuring a new Hosting Service](#configuring-a-new-hosting-service) section above to access the **Add Service** dialog.
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2. Select **Custom**, then drag and drop the applicable script into the field, or select it from the object picker. The dialog validates that the selected script implements the `IHostingService` interface.
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3. To finish adding the service, click the **Add** button.
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Moving forward, your custom service will appear in the **Service Type** drop-down options.
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