The External assets library allows you to utilize assets stored in external locations without uploading them to Bluestone PIM. You can organize and link different types of assets to products, including images, music, videos, and documents.
The library is available from the main menu. If the library icon is not presented directly, click the 3-dots icon to expand the menu.
Handling external assets from a product
Overview
Filters
You can use the filter to find relevant assets. Filtering can be done based on specific asset information; Title, URL, Description, Asset type, Labels, Sources and Status. Multiple criteria can be added to reduce the number of assets found.
The current filter criteria are presented above the grid.
- You can remove a specific criterion by clicking the [x] in the pill.
- You can remove all criteria by clicking Clear all.
Grid
All assets matching the current filter criteria are presented in the grid. If there are more than the number set for Items per page (default 20) you can browse through the pages from the lower right corner. You can also change the number of assets to be presented per page by clicking the arrow button.
For each asset, you can perform the following actions directly from the grid:
- Open in new tab: Loads the URL contents in a new browser tab.
- Delete: Removes the link to the external asset.
View types
There are two types of views. You can select the preferred view type by clicking the Change view type button in the upper right corner.
- List with thumbnails (default)
The status, title, type and description are presented for each asset. - Tiles
The title and status are presented for each asset.
Add new external asset
To register an asset located externally, do the following:
- Click the plus icon (Add asset) in the upper right corner.
- The Add new asset window is presented. Register information as follows:
- Title: Specify a title for the asset.
- URL: Specify the link to the asset.
- Description: Optionally specify a descriptive text for the asset.
- Asset type: Select the correct type of asset; Image, Audio, Video or Other.
Note: The asset type will automatically be suggested when it can be identified from the URL.
- Labels: Optionally select one or more pre-defined labels. You can also create new custom labels by adding new values.
- Source: Select the correct source of the asset; Vimeo, YouTube or Other.
Note: The source will automatically be suggested when it can be identified from the URL.
- Status: Select whether the asset should be Active or Inactive once saved.
- Click Save when you are done.
Handling external assets
View details
Click an asset from the grid to open the details panel. The panel consists of two tabs; Details and Linked products. The status and title of the asset are presented at the top.
You can enlarge the panel by clicking the Expand button in the upper right corner.
The following information is presented in the Details tab:
- Title: The name specified for the asset.
- ID: Unique asset identifier.
- URL: Link to the asset.
- Description: Any descriptive text specified for the asset.
- Asset type: The specified type of asset.
- Labels: Any labels used for organizing/handling the asset.
- Source: The specified source of the asset.
- Status: The current state of the asset.
- Created: The time when the asset was added.
- Updated: The time when the asset was last updated.
See Add new external asset for more information.
View linked products
Already linked products are presented in this tab. You can click the product name/number to open the product.
Link products to asset
One or more products can be linked to the asset in the same operation. Do the following from the Linked products tab:
- Click the plus icon (Link products). The following page is presented:
- Use Categories, Filters and/or Views to find the relevant product(s).
Note that products that are already linked are selected and greyed out. - Select relevant products by ticking the checkboxes.
- If you want to go through the list of selected products before saving, click Review.
- Click Save if you are happy with the selection.
- Click Edit if you need to add/remove products.
- Click Cancel if you want to cancel the whole linking process.
- Click Save directly from the initial selection list if you are happy with the selection and don't need to review it.
Change asset status
Only active assets are available in channels.
You can easily change the status of an external asset from the asset details panel. Click the arrow in the upper left corner and select Active/Inactive.
Delete asset
A reference to an external asset can be removed in two different ways:
a) From the grid; by clicking the 3-dots menu and selecting Delete.
b) From the asset details panel; by clicking the trashbin icon (Delete).
Handling external assets from a product
When you are working with a product, any external assets assigned can be found in the External assets tab that can be opened from the product's details panel:
Assign assets from external library
To assign one or more external assets to the product, do the following:
- Click the arrow button (Assign from library) in the upper right corner:
The following page is presented:
- To make it easier to find relevant assets, you can utilize the search function. Click the magnifying glass icon and enter a search phrase. The system searches for the phrase in asset titles and descriptions.
- To make it easier to identify relevant assets by images, you can change the view type by clicking the Change view type icon:
The available options are Big tiles, Tiles and List with thumbnails. - Select relevant assets by ticking the checkboxes.
- If you want to go through the list of selected assets before saving, click Review.
- Click Save if you are happy with the selection.
- Click Edit if you need to add/remove assets.
- Click Cancel if you want to cancel the whole assigning process.
- Click Save directly from the initial selection list if you are happy with the selection and don't need to review it.
Sort external assets
The assets assigned to the product can be sorted manually by using drag-n-drop:
View asset assigned to product
To open the asset URL in a separate browser tab, click the 3-dots menu and select Open in tab:
Unassign asset from product
To remove the reference to an external asset from the product, click the 3-dots menu and select Unassign:
PAPI Metadata
To use external media in PAPI, you need to get the plugin registered with the Metadata provider in your PIM setup, then the external media will be available in the product "metadata" with the needed information.
{
...
"metadata": [{
"id": "external-media",
"value": [... array of external media...]
}
]
...
}
Example of one external media in the metadata
{
"id": "667b5e496c3217096ghde98c",
"title": "Apple iPhone 14 128GB, Yellow",
"description": "Resolution: 2400 x 1800, Angle: Front, Type: Product",
"url": "https://cdn.example.com/21/c5/21c5b533-5cfd-4219-b8db-3a574fb9ea91.jpg",
"source": "other",
"status": "active",
"mediaType": "image",
"contentType": "image/jpeg",
"labels": [
"FE"
],
"sortIndex": 0
}