Internal vs. external Digital Asset Management (DAM)
Magnolia supports different approaches for storing and managing digital assets:
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Magnolia DAM with binary storage options: internal (JCR) or external (S3 or other providers)
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Magnolia External DAM framework with integrations to third-party DAM systems
Magnolia DAM with internal or external binary storage
DAM 6.0 separates binary storage from metadata. Metadata remains in the dam JCR workspace, while binaries can be stored externally.
This approach reduces JCR size and speeds up publishing. Search performance stays high because metadata remains in JCR. It suits projects with many assets, large media files, or external storage systems that can’t manage full metadata.
The Configure the DAM JCR S3 submodule submodule provides Amazon S3 storage out-of-the-box. To use other storage providers, implement a custom binary storage connector: Custom binary storage.
The DAM module continues to provide core asset management functionality and works out of the box.
| Authors use assets in the Magnolia interface the same way, regardless of the storage method. |
External DAM framework
Magnolia continues to offer the external DAM integration framework. It includes a ready-to-use Bynder connector and supports other third-party systems through extension modules.
For configuration details, see External DAM integration framework: Connection configuration.
You can also use extension modules to integrate additional systems:
| To integrate additional providers, extend the DAM API. |