Assets app

The Assets app allows you to manage media assets in Magnolia's digital asset management system (DAM).

You can upload original assets into the system, organize them, perform basic image manipulation operations such as cropping. The assets can be used on the website.

Configuration

The app is based on the content app framework so its configuration is typical of any content app.

The app is configured at /modules/dam-app/apps/assets.

Turning the image thumbnails off in the Browser subapp

By default image thumbnails are displayed next to the asset names in the workbench of the Browser subapp:

This behavior can be changed by setting the thumbnails property to false under the  /modules/dam-app/apps/assets/subApps/browser/workbench/contentViews/list/columns/asset node. An icon is then displayed next to the asset name instead of the thumbnail:

The default value is set to true in the definition class. This means that if you do not set the value to false in the app configuration, the value is true and the thumbnails are displayed.

Workspace

The Assets app operates on the dam workspace. The dam workspace stores the uploaded original assets and variations created with image operations such as cropping.

Node types

The DAM App module registers a custom mgnl:asset node type. The Assets app operates on nodes of this type and on folders. 

Editing and upload configuration

Icons, thumbnail images, preview images and supported media types are configured in /dam-app/config/editAssetAppConfigurations. The configurations define the supported media types and asset preview configurations for each asset category. For images, the edit configuration is also configured.

Based on the SupportedMediaType related to the Asset, the corresponding EditAssetAppConfiguration is retrieved during the rendering of the detail subapp. Only appropriate actions are displayed and can be executed in the detail subapp. For example, users have the option to open the image editor and edit images, but this is not possible for other media types.

Here's the configuration for images:

Nodes and properties:

Here's an image in the Asset dialog.

For other assets only the supportedMediaTypes and thumbnailComponentProviderClass nodes are configured. With one exception, they all use the same thumbnail provider class that displays an icon, and all media types are supported by default. SVG images use the image thumbnail component provider class. An image thumbnail displays but these images cannot be edited in Magnolia. 

Here are the configurations in /modules/dam-app/config/editAssetAppConfigurations. 

Nodes and properties:

Here's a video in the Asset dialog.

MediaTypes in the SupportedMediaTypes node are configured as a list of String properties. These String properties are a representation of the corresponding MediaType:

    String incommingMimeType = "image/png";
    // 'image/*' is the string to be put in configuration if the config has to support all images
    MediaType allImage = MediaType.parse("image/*");
    // 'image/Jpeg' is the string to be put in configuration if the config has to support only jpeg
    MediaType onlyJpeg = MediaType.parse("image/jpeg");
    // RETURN TRUE
    boolean isImage = MediaType.parse(incommingMimeType).is(allImage);
    // RETURN FALSE
    boolean isJpeg = MediaType.parse(incommingMimeType).is(onlyJpeg);

Using the app

See Digital asset management for how to use the Assets app to store and use your media files.