5. Design and organisation of the DAM

The effective management of digital assets is crucial for the scalability and efficiency of content strategies. Magnolia CMS offers a powerful DAM solution out of the box which  facilitates the handling of a variety of media formats such as images, documents and other media types. Of course you can add your 3rd party DAM system if you need a central hub for all other systems in your company. But in this page we want to discuss how you structure your DAM to be productive.

Best practices for setting up the digital asset management (DAM) structure

Understanding the DAM structure in Magnolia CMS
Magnolia's DAM is based on a hierarchical structure that simplifies the storage and retrieval of media. To get started, you should familiarise yourself with the basic elements of the Magnolia DAM, including the nodes that represent individual assets and the workspaces in which these nodes are organised.

Setting up the directory structure
The directory structure should be set up to reflect the way content is used in your organisation. Consider the following questions:

• What are the main categories of assets? (e.g. images, documents)
• Are there subordinate categories? (e.g. product images, marketing documents)
• How often are these assets updated or replaced?

A structure analogue to the page structure is not recommended for the following reasons:

• Different access requirements
• Reusability of assets
• Simplified administration
• Scalability
• Performance optimisation
• More effective search functions

Naming conventions
Consistent naming conventions make it easier to search for and manage assets. Define standardised prefixes, suffixes and naming patterns that are used across all assets.

Metadata and tags
Use metadata and tags to improve the searchability of assets. Metadata such as author, creation date, copyright information and relevant tags can be added directly when uploading assets.

Organisation and management of content in the DAM

Upload and maintenance of assets
When uploading new assets, it is important to specify the defined metadata and tags immediately. Magnolia CMS allows you to perform batch uploads and edit metadata for multiple assets simultaneously, making the process more efficient.

Access rights and workflows
Define clear access rights for different user groups within your DAM. Magnolia supports the setup of workflows for the approval and publication of assets to ensure that only reviewed and approved content is used.

Regular review and archiving
A regular review of the assets stored in the DAM is essential to ensure that outdated or no longer relevant content is archived or deleted. Setting up a regular review and archiving process helps to keep the DAM clean and organised.

Integration with other systems
Magnolia CMS offers the possibility to integrate the DAM with other systems, such as CRM or ERP systems. These integrations can help to automate the workflow and further increase efficiency.