Assets

The dotCommunity CMS provides an Asset Library to store all the rich media necessary to display your website's content.

Whenever a rich content document (such as an image, audio file, or other standalone media) is added to a website it must be available somewhere online at all times. In other words, websites cannot display content directly from the author's computer as visitors do not have access to the author's hard drive. To make them available these documents are stored on the server that is running the website being visited. This is true of rich content shown on dotCommunity websites. Therefore to enhance your website with these sorts of content your dotCommunity website stores them for you. The storage area in dotCommunity is called the Assets Library.

CMS Assets

An individual asset library containing only that sites media is available to all dotCommunity websites and is fully integrated with the WYSIWYG editor making it simple and easy to use.

Adding an Item to the Asset Library

There are two methods to add items such as images to the asset library.

Firstly you can add the asset directly to the library before you wish to use it. This allows you to build up a complete asset library before you start using it. To do this click the Assets Library page of the Content Management tab. Next click the Add link for the type of rich content you are adding and fill out the displayed form. When you are filling in the Upload File field click the browse button and select the file you would like to upload. Finally click save and publish. Your asset is now available and can be selected directly from the list provided by the insert/edit image or link buttons in the WYSIWYG editor.

Secondly you can add the item at the point you wish to use it in a document. To do this create your content as laid out in the Editing section as normal. When you wish to add the image (or other document type) to your content click the Insert/Edit Image button to add images or the Insert/Edit Link button for other media types. When you are presented with the window to edit the details of the image, click the button at the end of the "Image URL" field. A new window will be displayed listing all the relevant assets for the button you clicked (e.g. images when adding an image, or all pages and assets when adding links). Below the list of existing items will be a form as with the form for adding a new asset directly to the library. Complete this form as above. When the file has completed uploading you will be returned to the insert link or image form with the link to the Image or Link URL field already filled in.

Managing Assets

Over time you are likely to find that some assets become old and unused or you may wish to update existing assets. To do this click the Assets Library page and the content tree on the left will display a list of all your assets. Simply click on the asset you wish to modify or delete and fill in the form displayed or click the delete action button.