Managing individual media assets

Overview

This page walks you through the basics of managing your individual media assets, providing descriptions of the different Media Library views, asset operations and asset identifiers, and listing the basic management capabilities you can apply to your assets.

The rest of the pages in this guide provide details, use cases and examples of the additional options for managing your individual assets:

Media Library views

You can display your assets from any view (Assets, Folders, Collections, Moderation, etc.) as:

• Mosaic View: A responsive masonry layout. This view offers an immersive visual experience by optimizing the use of space, positioning elements dynamically, minimizing gaps between assets and displaying them with their true aspect ratios.
• Card View: A grid of square thumbnail cards. This view allows you to browse your assets as previews with descriptive details displayed on them.
• List View: An asset list. This view allows you to see detailed information about all your assets in list format, providing a global view of your assets and enabling you to easily compare their data.

You can switch between these views using the View drop-down menu at the top right of the main Asset Pane.

Note

The icon allows you to configure different display settings for these two views:

• Card View: The settings option allows you to customize your asset cards by selecting which descriptive details to display on the card and whether to always show them. If you don't select to always show the details, they'll be displayed only when you hover over a card.
• List View: The settings option allows you to customize your list by choosing table columns to show information that suits your needs, including structured metadata fields. You can also sort your asset list in ascending or descending order by clicking on sortable columns.

Asset operations

For any displayed asset in any Media Library view, i.e., Assets, Folders, Collections, and Moderation, you can perform the following actions:

Action	How to	Details
Viewing or editing summary details such as display name (relevant only for dynamic folder mode), public ID and metadata (tags, structured, contextual) in the Preview pane Selecting one asset to perform operations	Single-click the asset	The Preview pane is available on the right side of the screen. If the Preview pane is closed, click the Open Preview button to display it. Perform any of the operations available in the displayed asset toolbar on the selected asset.
Navigating between assets	Left/right arrows	Moves selection one asset to the left or right.
Managing the asset	Double-click the asset or Click Open from the (3-dots) options menu	Opens the Asset Management drill-down page where you can view or edit summary, metadata, and analysis data.
Selecting one or more assets to perform bulk operations	Click the checkmark icon or Shift+single-click a first and last asset in a range or Cmd+click (Mac) Ctrl+click (Windows)	Performs any of the operations available in the displayed asset toolbar on all selected assets at once. For example, you can delete selected assets, add/remove tags or custom metadata, move assets, download them, apply a moderation status, or generate a Product Gallery.
Selecting all assets on the page	Cmd+A (Mac) Ctrl+A (Windows)	The number of assets selected appears on the toolbar. If there are more assets in the folder that you want to select, keep scrolling down and pressing Cmd+A or Ctrl+A until all the assets you want are selected.
Deselecting all previously selected assets	Single-click an asset or Single-click the grid background	Deselection can't be undone.
Share the asset with team members and external stakeholders	Hover over Share from the (3-dots) options menu and select an option	Publish a Link: Generates a public link to the selected asset that you can share with external parties. - Note: This option is only available for Nexus. Invite: Share a link to the selected asset's manage page with users who have access. Copy URL: Enable developers to access the asset by sharing the delivery URL.
Opening the asset's context menu	Right-click the asset or Click the (3-dots) options menu	Provides another way to perform many of the above actions as well as additional operations. For example: - Navigate to the asset's containing folder (when you are currently in a non-folder view). - Download the asset in one of several forms. - Share the asset internally or externally. - Rename the asset - Add the asset to a collection. - Open the Access control options. - Delete the asset.

Download options

Several download options are available from the asset's (3-dots) options menu. Download the asset:

• In its original form.

• Modified by applying a transformation template. (The option to download multiple assets with a transformation preset applied is available from the asset toolbar.)

  For Assets users

  The transformation templates feature is a premium feature for our Assets product, and its availability depends on your account setup. If transformation templates is not yet enabled for your account and you'd like to enable it, please contact your Customer Support Manager.

Nexus only options:

• Sized to fit a selected social media format.

Download menu Download menu (scrolled)

• In the format and quality of your choice. (Click Download Image as to open the dialog box.)
  
  

Asset identifiers

Dynamic and fixed folder modes offer different ways to name and identify assets in the Media Library:

Display name

The display name exists in dynamic folder mode only.

• The display name is located at the top of the asset management drill-down page and Preview pane in the Media Library, as well as in media portals and published collections.

Manage page Preview pane

• The display name is a user-friendly identifier that can include spaces and special characters. The only limitation is that it can't include forward slashes /.
• The display name doesn't have to be unique, and there can be more than one asset with the same display name, even in the same folder.
• The display name isn't part of the delivery URL. Therefore, it can be edited freely, if you have permission to do so, without risking breaking links to assets in production.

To edit the display name:

Open the Summary tab or the Preview pane. If you have the necessary permissions, you can click on the display name and edit.

Public ID

The public ID is used to identify assets in production and is part of their delivery URL. An asset's public ID value may be just a single name or it can be an entire path (with slashes). The public ID can be edited in the Media Library or programmatically, but if an asset is already being delivered in production, changing the public ID can break production code. Any edits to the public ID should be done carefully and in coordination with the developers on your team.

Any level of permission on the folder that the asset belongs to enables you to view the public ID. However, in order to edit the public ID you must have Can Edit or Can Manage permissions on the folder that the asset belongs to, and, depending on your setup, additional user permissions, as well.

The public ID can include any language character (including non-English letters) as well as characters such as dots (.) dashes (-), forward slashes (/). It can't include spaces or any of these characters: ? & # \ % < > + '.

You can edit the public ID from both the asset management drill-down page and the Preview pane. The way you view or edit public IDs in the Media Library differs depending on whether your product environment uses dynamic folder mode or fixed folder mode:

Asset management drill-down page:

Summary tab
Dynamic folder mode Summary tab
Fixed folder mode

Preview pane:

Summary tab
Dynamic folder mode Summary tab
Fixed folder mode

Public ID in fixed and dynamic folder modes

In addition to the way you view or edit public IDs in the Media Library, the public ID differs in fixed and dynamic folder modes in the following ways:

Folder path

In dynamic folder mode, the public ID field shows the entire public ID value (full path). This value isn't directly related to the Media Library folder where it's currently located.

In fixed folder mode, only the "public ID name" (the last segment of the public ID) is displayed in the Name area. However, if the asset is located in a folder in the Media Library, then the full public ID path includes the folder path.

Editing the public ID

• In dynamic folder mode, edit the public ID by clicking the edit icon and editing the public ID from the dialog box that opens.

• In fixed folder mode, edit the last segment of the public ID by clicking in in the Name area. If you need to change any other part of the public ID path, you would do that by moving the asset to a required folder hierarchy, which would update the public ID path accordingly.

Asset management drill-down

The asset management drill-down page provides access to many of the management tasks you can perform on your assets. Open the asset management drill-down page from the (3-dot) options menu on each asset or by double-clicking the asset.

Main drill-down page options

For both video and image assets, the asset management drill-down page enables you to perform the following actions from any tab:

• Preview the asset.
• From the (3 dot) options menu at the top right of the page:
  • View and restore previous versions of the asset.
  • Rename the asset.
    Note

    In dynamic folder mode renaming refers to changing the display name while in fixed folder mode it refers to changing the public ID.
• Open the Media Editor by clicking the Edit button. Make simple edits to assets such as cropping, rotating, or flipping an image. You can either download or save the updated version.
• Share the asset, either with teammates by inviting other users, or with external stakeholders by sharing or the asset's delivery URL.
  For Nexus users

  Additional capabilities are available for Nexus saving a variation as a new asset when using the Media Editors and sharing a public link to the asset.

For images only:

• Preview the image with indications for detected elements, such as detected faces.
• View the actual size of the image.
• Rotate 3D models to view them from all sides. (Supported file formats include GLTF, GLB, GLTZ, OBJZ and FBXZ.)

Drill-down tabs

The asset management drill-down page provides multiple tabs that offer specialized information and various ways to manage your assets based on specific categories. The asset management drill-down page always opens to the Download Options tab:

• Download Options tab: You can perform several actions on the original asset or its transformed assets (variations of the original generated by applying transformation templates), including:
  • Preview: Click the thumbnail belonging to the Original or transformed asset to view an enlarged preview.
  • Download: Click the download icon.
  • Copy URL: Click the <> icon to copy the original or transformed delivery URL for easy share with developers and other stakeholders. (Available if the asset's access control status is Public.)
  • Edit Transformation: Opens the original or transformed asset in the Transformation and Asset Details Editor or Advanced Editor for further editing. Select this option from the kebab menu next to the desired asset. (Requires Can Edit or Can Manage permissions.)
  • Open in new tab: Opens the original or transformed asset in a new browser. (Available if the asset's access control status is Public.)
    Tip

    When you click a transformation template in the asset management drill-down page to preview an asset with that template, it doesn't count against your transformation quota. However, the first time someone views that transformation template for a specific asset outside the Media Library (open in a browser tab, download, etc.), a derived asset is generated and counts like any other transformation.
    
    For Nexus users

    If you have Nexus, you can additionally download your asset resized to fit one of several social media platform requirements, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
• Summary tab: View basic details about the asset including when an asset was last externally delivered, such as through a website or app, edit the asset's display name (relevant only for dynamic folder mode), edit the asset's public ID, and view or set the asset's access control.

  The Summary tab reflects the differences in the way public IDs and display names are used in dynamic and fixed folder mode. For more details, see Asset identifiers.

Dynamic folder mode Fixed folder mode

• Metadata tab: View and update an asset's custom metadata and view its embedded metadata. For more information, see Setting custom metadata values.
• Comments tab: Collaborate on the asset with other DAM users. For more information, see Add comments
• Analysis tab: View, set, or adjust analysis data for a specific image. For more information, see Analyze assets.