Assets Console (DAM, Digital Assets)

Unlike files that are uploaded individually and embedded directly into a page, digital assets are stored centrally in the Assets part of the UBCMS (sometimes called the 'DAM'). Each site has its own folder in Assets, where they can be easily shared onto multiple pages (or sites), and are much easier to curate.  

Unlike an asset that is uploaded and embedded directly into a page, Assets are just 'referenced' by the page, linked or displayed as needed, but these assets are actually managed centrally in Assets.

Once you have uploaded files into Assets, you can find them in the Side Panel's Assets browser, which appears on the left of the window as you edit a page. The Assets browser provides an easy drag and drop interface that allows authors to add these files to pages.

Assets are normally visible to all authors, and when you add an asset, it is promoted as "new" to all authors at the top of the display in the Assets Browser. If you temporarily need to keep them private (e.g. a photo for an upcoming event, consider embedding them directly into your page, or use Private Authoring.

Making an Assets folder 'orderable':

By default, Assets folders are not orderable. Content is handled chronologically based on when it was uploaded, with the most recent additions at the bottom.

The view can be sorted by the various columns in Author, which will change how the assets display in Author, but these temporary changes are ignored by the UBCMS when using this content say in a Photo Gallery.The UBCMS uses the 'natural order'.

To impact how the assets are used by the UBCMS, you must first set the folder as 'orderable' in its Properties. and this step should be taken before any content is uploaded, definitely before any uploaded content is published. You can then reorder the assets as desired.

To be sure you are seeing the natural order:

1. Switch to Card View  and select Sort by 'None'.  This is the natural order.
2. Switch to List View and make sure none of the column headings has any up or down arrows next to it. If a column is sorted, click the sort arrow a couple of times until the arrow goes away. This is the natural order.

And to 'fix' a folder that has been switched to 'orderable' or to change the settings for a published folder:

1. Uunpublish all the assets and the folder.
2. Make any changes to the folder's Properties.
3. Publish the folder, and then publish all its assets.

Located in the top left of the window.

The Adobe Experience Manager link links to the main Start page.

Located in the top left of the window.

This dropdown loads the Side Panel located on the left side of the window. Additional information about the selected assets is available in separate Drawers.

Located in the top middle of the window.

Use this dropdown to navigate back up through the file tree from your selected folder.

Located in the top right of the window.

This tool selects all files in the lowest level displayed. Click the "X" or Escape key to deselect.

Located in the top right of the window.

The 'Create' button reveals a dropdown with choices to create the following:

• Import UGC (not used)
  
• Folder
• Files
• Content Fragment (not used)
  
• Live Copy (in pilot)
• Metadata (not used)
  

Located in the top right of the window.

This unlabeled dropdown toggles different displays of the site pages. Typically a dropdown at the top provides navigation back up the tree. The List View allows many sorting options, which only affect the individual user's view, while the other views provide an 'Order' dropdown at the top of the window.

• List View (the default) - Loads the folders as an expandable file tree for the selected level, including additional details for each asset such as Title, Name, Modified, Published and Template, which all allow the user to sort their own view of the folder's contents. We recommend List View because it allows reordering of pages.
• Card View - Loads the pages as an exploded grid for the selected level.
• Column View - Displays a series of side by side page lists, with a new list loading to the right of the last, each time a page with children is selected. For a page with no children, the final pane shows page information.
  
• Insights View - (unknown)
  
• View Settings - (unknown)

Natural order is by creation date (newest assets are last) but this can be manually reordered in List View if the folder is set as 'Orderable', preferably when it is created, or later in Properties. To see the natural order, go to the list view, and make sure none of the column headings has any up or down arrows next to them. Click the arrows if present one or two times until they go away. This is the natural order.

Located along the left side of the window.

On demand, a left sidebar called the Side Panel can be revealed to provide more information about a site and its pages. The Side Panel is revealed (or concealed) using the unlabeled Content Tree dropdown in the top left of the window.

The following options are provided. Keyboard shortcuts are listed as "(Alt-n)".

• Content Only: The default. Side Panel is closed.
  
• Content Tree (Alt-1: Loads a file tree of all displayed assets. (Note, this displays the same order that is shown in the current file View.)
  
• Navigation (Alt-2): Switch between asset clusters, such as Files, and Collections.
  
• Timeline (Alt-3): Shows recent activity to a selected asset, including the latest publication or modification timestamps, Versions and Annotations. (This is not the asset's complete history.)
  
• References (Alt-4):  Shows additional information about a selected asset such as incoming links or calls for display from UBCMS pages.
  
• Filter (Alt-5): allows you to search within the selected folder, by name and format
  

Located in the center of the window.

This is the heart of the console, displaying the actual pages that make up each website.

Depending on the View chosen, you can navigate through the parents to reveal their children and some information about each page. We recommend the List View. It is the only view that lists all details and allows reordering.

• Click on a folder to reveal information about that folder.
• To expand the view of a folder, click the folder name or > icon.
  
  • The next level of content appears in an adjacent scrollable sidebar.
  • To expand an additional level deeper, click the folder title or > icon next to a folder in the adjacent sidebar.
• Click a asset's thumbnail to select the asset and display general details about that asset:
  
  • Name
    
  • Title
  • Locale (not used)
    
  • Status (not used)
  • Type (e.g. Folder)
    
  • Dimensions (for images, in pixels)
  • Size (e.g. 200 KB)
    
  • Rating
    
  • Created (timestamp)
    
  • Modified (timestamp and user)
  • Published (timestamp and user)
    
  • Workflow

Located across the top of the window when an asset is selcted.

This tool bar appears when an asset is selected (click the thumbnail). Multiple assets can sometimes be selected and acted upon together.

• Create
  
  • Version *
    
  • Live Copy (in pilot)

* Up to ten versions total of an asset will be saved for 90 days and the most recent five versions are stored forever.

• Start Workflow
  
• Download (if several assets are selected, will be collected into one zip file)
• Checkout - locks the asset(s) until unlocked by that user
  
• Properties - displays settings for the selected asset
• Edit (opens an image with the Image Toolbar)
• Annotate (similar to annotations for regular pages)
• Manage Tags (not used)
• To Collection - add the asset(s) to a Collection (like a gallery)
  
• Copy - copy the selected asset, which then turns on the Paste option
  
• Move - relocate the selected asset elsewhere in your site, or give it a new name
  
• Quick Publish - selected asset will be published instantly
• Manage Publication - allows Publish/Unpublish, and Scheduling at a future date and time
• Relate (not used)
  
• Unrelate (not used)
  
• Delete - delete the selected asset
• Export Metadata (maybe just for folders)
  
• X - deselect the selected asset(s)

Located across the top of the window when an image is opened to Edit.

This tool bar appears when an image is opened for editing -- select the image then click Edit. Changes are applied to all iterations of the image and should be apparent immediately where the image is referenced -- be sure to publish these changes to the live version.

• Crop
  
• Rotate Left (counter-clockwise)
  
• Rotate Right (clockwise)
• Flip Vertically (reflection)
• Flip horizontally (reflection)
• Launch Map (image map) - not used
  
  
• Undo - revert last change from this session
  
• Redo - reapply last change from this session
  
• Cancel - exit without saving changes
  
• Save - save changes and exit

Please note these are very basic tools and the interface is tricky. Instead we recommend modifying your image before you upload it, or for existing images, download, modify, then re-upload.  

Every UBCMS site has three sections: Sites, Shared Content and Assets.

To enter the Assets area (or 'Assets console'), click the link on the Start page as you first log into the UBCMS. Or, from any other console, click Adobe Experience Manager in the top left of the window to return to the Start page. Then click Assets + Files. Once there, the screen is labeled "Assets" in the top center.

Navigation is like the Sites Console. There is a Content Tree dropdown in the top left and a View dropdown in the top right.

The Content Tree will display a file tree of the entire Assets area. Navigate to the area of interest, select a folder, and the content will display in the tree and also in the center of the window.  

Example: sites + www + president (Office of the President's assets) would be /content/dam/www/president and the URL will be https://ubcms-author.buffalo.edu/assets.html/content/dam/president.

Create a folder to house your assets in a more systematic way. Folder names form part of visible links to your assets, but are not otherwise visible to the public.

When creating a new folder (or uploading a new file), it is important to use human and machine readable language in your names. Separate words with hyphens and do not use spaces, underscores or special characters. For example, if you are creating a folder titled "Our Images," type "our-images" as the name.

Assets added to a folder are normally listed in the order they were added. If you wish to maintain the assets in a particular order that you set, or change the order later, select 'orderable' when you create the folder. You can also change that setting later in the folder's Properties, but if you do so, and any of the assets are published, you must unpublish the folder and its entire contents, then republish the folder and its contents to replicate that information for your live site.

Several settings can be adjusted when a folder is created, or later in the folder Properties dialog box.

Select the folder in the Content Tree then click Properties in the Command Menu at the top of the window.

• Orderable (Details tab)
  • This setting allows assets added to this folder to be ordered manually (normally assets are ranked in the order they were added).
    
  • If you enable this setting and any of the assets are already published, you must unpublish the folder and its entire contents, then republish the folder and its contents to replicate that information for your live site.

1. In the Content Tree, navigate to the folder that will house your new asset(s). If needed, create a new folder first.
   
2. Click the Create tool in the top right of the window.
3. In the dropdown menu, click Files.
4. A dialog box will open, showing your local computer.
   
5. Find and select your local file(s) and click "Open."
6. You will then have the option to rename the file (be careful to keep the same file extension).
   
7. The new asset(s) will then be imported into the UBCMS and appear in the chosen folder.
8. If the 'orderable' option is set for the folder, you can then adjust their order by dragging them by the 'domino' icon at the far right of each asset.
   
9. Remember to Publish new assets so they are visible on your live site.
   

If you choose the same name as an existing asset in this folder, you will have the chance to Cancel, Keep Both, Replace, or Create Version. If you 'Keep Both', a number will be appended to the new asset's name (e.g. test.doc will become test1.doc). If you 'Replace,' the new asset will overwrite the existing asset.

New assets will be flagged as 'New' in the Assets browser for one day.

Images uploaded directly into components should be less than 6000 pixels in both height and width or they will not load and be flagged with a red 'X' in author. This restriction does not apply to images uploaded into Assets.

Allowable image formats include JPG, GIF, PNG and PSD (PhotoShop) and others. Most images are recompressed in JPEG format for optimal page performance. GIF and PNG images are kept in those formats to retain their unique features (lossless compression, selective color palettes, transparency).

In addition, when you add photos to the DAM, the text you enter in the Description field is the text that will appear in the caption section if the photos are being used in the Photo Gallery component.

Captions and Alt Text are required by state accessibility policies for images displayed in components, carousels or galleries. For individual images, these can be set in the component on the host page, but Photo Galleries draw this information from Assets and Photo Components also support this option.

To add or modify this information manually, select an asset then click Properties in the toolbar at the top of the window. You can now modify the meta-data for that file.   (See webaim.org for tips on writing alt text.)

List View provides the opportunity to sort the display of pages in each of the various columns. This is just for your personal view of Author, and has no impact on site navigation or lists, or your published site, but will perpetuate throughout Author until you change or undo this specification. The other views have a single 'Sort by' dropdown at the top of the page with several options.

Click the ^v button at the top of any of the columns (Title, Name, Modified, Published, Template, Workflow). The sequence is Ascending > Descending > Off (default), and in each case, the pages will be ordered in alphanumeric or chronological order as appropriate.  Clicking the next column overrides the first choice. If you click through to Off, we recommend you reload the page to correctly see the default order.

A more powerful way to sort your displayed assets is provided by the Filter (search) tool.

Open Side Panel and select Filters, or use alt+5 keyboard shortcut. This will provide a controlled search for the selected folder in Assets. You can ignore the search box, but choose from the available filters, including File Type, Last Modified, Status, and more.

Assets added to a folder are normally listed in the order they are added ('Date Created'), and this order is maintained by the UBCMS. Order is important when the assets are displayed in the Photo Gallery or when a list is created by child pages with no specific sort order.

Views allow the user to change their current view of the asset order (not the real order). List View has many sorting options, while the other views have a 'Sort by' dropdown in the upper right. To see the natural order, go to the list view, and make sure none of the column headings has any up or down arrows next to them. Click the arrows if present one or two times until they go away. This is the natural order.

If you wish a folder's assets to be in an order you maintain, select 'Orderable' when you create the folder, or later adjust that setting in the folder's Properties. Then switch to List View, click the 'domino' icon at the far right of an asset, then drag and drop it into the preferred position.

Note: if you later change the folder to 'orderable', and any of the assets are published, you must unpublish the folder and its entire contents, then republish the folder and its contents to replicate that information for your live site.

Before you delete an asset, make sure it is not being "referenced" by other pages (in other words, linked to or used as Shared Content). Failure to do so may result in broken links and missing content on your live site.

To delete an asset:

1. Select the Asset.
2. Click Delete in the tool bar at the top of the window. (Delete may be hidden with the "..." more options.)
3. You will be asked to confirm the deletion.

Deletion is permanent. No backups or versions are saved but we can sometimes get copies of deleted assets from our QA server. This contains a complete copy of the entire author environment that is renewed regularly.  

Assets are added to your pages while editing the page. Use the Assets Browser in the Edit Console's SIde Panel.

1. Select the asset.
2. Click Properties in the tool bar at the top of the window.
3. In the new window, look on the right for References.
   
4. References to your asset are displayed, but only include pages that you yourself can view (shared content plus your own Web pages).
   
5. Click on any of the referenced pages to load it in the window. (We suggest right-click + open in new tab.)

It is not possible to apply a shorter URL or redirect an existing URL to an asset. To get around this limitation, create a regular website page using the Redirect Template. Then input your file's location into the page's dialog box; e.g. /content/dam/www/eub/about_ub/UB-org-chart.pdf