Digital asset management (DAM)

Magnolia’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) system organizes, stores, and retrieves images, videos, and documents efficiently. It combines robust native features with seamless integrations to external DAM tools, giving both content and technical teams flexibility and interoperability. AI-powered tagging, recognition, image generation, and editing enhance discovery, organization, and creative workflows.

The DAM supports multiple storage models:

Store assets entirely in Magnolia’s JCR
Store binaries externally (for example, in Amazon S3) while keeping metadata in JCR via the DAM module
Integrate with an external DAM solution using the External DAM Integration Framework

These options optimize performance and integration for different organizational needs.

In the Assets app, you can manage and edit assets, embed them in webpages, or link them as downloadable files.

Magnolia Assets app with Image Focal module installed

Features

The Assets app supports a wide range of capabilities for efficient asset management:

Upload multiple assets at once, including .zip files to preserve folder structures
Store all common media types (images, video, audio, documents) in one place
Use assets on webpages and in custom content types
Edit images directly in the app (crop, resize)
Tag assets with AI-generated metadata for easy search and organization
Generate images with AI assistance
Edit images with AI-powered tools
Apply metadata that follows Dublin Core by default, or extend with custom schemas
Control access with permissions to ensure security and governance
Define focal points, areas, and hotspots for responsive display and interactivity
Store binaries externally while metadata remains in JCR
Support animated GIFs natively

The DAM focuses on practical, everyday asset management for websites, complementing rather than replacing advanced media tools for archiving or complex editing.

Benefits

The Magnolia DAM offers advantages for both content and technical teams:

Centralize: Keep all assets in one place, accessible across sites on a Magnolia instance.
Reuse: Avoid duplicates by using the same asset across multiple pages; updates apply everywhere automatically.
Ensure consistency: Update an asset once in the Assets app and changes propagate to all references.
Standardize: Apply the same file properties each time the asset is referenced.
Integrate: Connect external DAM systems or cloud storage (for example, S3, Bynder).
Improve performance: Decouple binaries and metadata to reduce repository size and speed up publishing and search.
Enforce quality: Make metadata fields mandatory so editors include relevant content.

Digital asset management (DAM) modules

Magnolia modules are shipped to you in different ways depending on your license:

Community Edition (CE): Modules are included as part of the free and open-source version.
DX Core: Modules are included as part of the DX Core enterprise product. These modules are in addition to those in the Community Edition license where bundled.
Special: Some modules need their own special license as they are not included with CE or DX Core licenses. In some cases, an additional license is required.

For more details, see License.