Managing assets

Browsing assets

You can browse the Magnolia DAM in three views:

Tree view: Displays a hierarchical tree, including the folder structure.
List view: Displays the items individually. You can sort them alphanumerically by clicking the column headings.

The DAM can handle a very large number of assets. However, if you have more than 20.000 assets, you should organize them into folders. Avoid storing too many assets in the same folder. Instead, create subfolders and organize your assets. Storing too many assets within the same folder may lead to performance issues. If you need a large and unstructured flat list of assets, disable the thumbnail and list views.
Thumbnail view: Displays thumbnail images of the assets. There is a zoom control at the top for resizing.

Supported file formats for preview generation

Image formats

The most common image formats are supported, excluding:

image/x-icon
image/x-portable-bitmap
image/x-xpixmap
image/x-portable-graymap
image/x-cmu-raster
image/x-portable-pixmap
image/x-xbitmap
image/x-rgb
image/x-xwindowdump
image/x-cmx
image/cis-cod
image/ief

Video formats

video/mpeg
video/webm
video/mp4
video/ogg

Audio formats

audio/mpeg
audio/webm
audio/mp4
audio/ogg
audio/aac
audio/aacp
audio/flac
audio/wav
audio/x-wav
audio/mp3

For more information on supported formats, see DAM Preview module.

Searching for an asset

To search for an asset, use the Find bar at the top of the UI:

You can also narrow your search. Click the button in the top left corner and refine your search using the options provided:

Uploading a single asset

To upload an asset:

Select a parent folder or upload the image at the root level.
Click Upload asset.
Select a file to upload or drag and drop it into the Media field.
The file uploads.
For images, the image details and a thumbnail displays. You can edit the image in Magnolia.
For other assets, the file details and an asset type icon displays.

Uploading multiple assets

You can upload a ZIP file in the Asset app in order to import multiple assets.

To import a ZIP file:

Click Upload ZIP archive.
Select a location. You can choose between:
- Extract into new folder – Adds a new parent folder (default).
- Extract here – Extracts the ZIP archive directly into the current folder.
Browse to the file.
In Encoding, select UTF-8 or CP437, depending on what system the ZIP file was created on.
Click Save.

The assets are imported like this:

Extract into new folder	Extract here

Uploading an asset from another app

You can upload an asset into the Magnolia DAM also from any other app that can browse the DAM, for example when creating a new contact in the Contacts app. The procedure and actions are identical to those in the Assets app and work in exactly the same way. You can define app-specific metadata fields which can be different from the standard metadata fields available when uploading in the Assets app.

Downloading an asset

To download an asset from the DAM, use the Download asset action in the browser or edit dialog. The action opens the download dialog of your operating system where you can save the file to your computer.

Deleting an asset

Versioning is enabled in the DAM. This allows you to restore previous versions of an asset or folder. The delete action marks the node for deletion and the deletion is completed on publication of the deletion.

To delete an asset or folder:

Select an item.
Click Delete folder/asset.
Confirm your action in the dialog.This marks the node for deletion and creates a restorable version. The item icon (folder or node) is replaced with the trash bin.
Click Publish deletion to complete the deletion. At this point you can cancel the deletion by clicking Restore previous version.

Asset metadata

The metadata fields are located in the Asset dialog. You can set metadata when uploading or add/edit it by clicking Edit asset to open the dialog.

Magnolia native metadata

The system records certain data automatically, with such fields typically disabled. By default, the following fields cannot be edited (those marked with * are not currently used):

Describe asset using: The supported metadata standard. By default, the Simple Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) is supported. You can customize Magnolia to support different standards.
Identifier: An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context. An alphanumerical string is used to identify and reference the asset. Editors can move assets without breaking links in the DAM.
Type*: The nature or genre of the resource.
Creation Date: Date of upload.
Modification Date: Date of last modification.
Creator: An entity responsible for creating the resource (uploading the asset).

Dublin Core metadata

Magnolia supports the Simple Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) standard by default and the following fields are available:

Caption: The asset caption.
Language: Language tag of the asset. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as RFC 4646 .
Title: Asset title.
Subject: The topic of the asset. Typically, the subject will be represented using keywords, key phrases, or classification codes.
Coverage: Scope of the asset. Typically this refers to a place, period or jurisdiction.
Description: Full description of the asset.
Publisher: Original publisher of the asset if being republished from another source.
Contributor: Use to name asset contributors.
Rights: Type of copyright.
Source: A related asset from which this asset is derived.
Relation: Related assets.

Setting alt attributes

The alt attribute of the img tag specifies alternative text for an image when that image cannot be displayed on a page. The standard rule is to use concise text that serves the same function as the image.

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