Customizing OpenEdit DAM

Being built on the OpenEdit framework, OpenEdit DAM offers nearly infinite opportunities for customization.

Configuring Data Fields

Many aspects of OpenEdit are defined through properties and views. Properties define the available data fields for a particular object, while the views define which of those properties are visible on a given page. For example, the metadata fields for a product (or asset) is defined by the product properties. Which of those fields are displayed on the Product Details page is defined by the Product Details view. All of these lists of properties and views are editable through a single interface we call the Data Editor. To introduce you to the data editor, we will begin by creating and editing some Product Properties, and changing the views to reflect these changes.

1. The Data Editor is accessible by selecting "Setup Data" from the Settings menu in the OpenEdit toolbar.
2. Next, select the catalog whose data you wish to edit, in this case, we will be clicking on "Archive".



3. You will then be prompted to select a Field Type. Click on "product".



4. Click on the "Edit Properties" link at the bottom of the next page.
5. You will now see a list of all of the properties, or metadata fields, currently available for your assets. Perhaps you are storing photographs of people, and you want a field to list the subjects of the photograph. We can create a new Product Property by entering the label for the new field, and clicking the "Save New" button, as in the screenshot below.



6. You will see your new property appear at the bottom of the list. Interestingly enough, Properties themselves have a set of properties also. Click on the ID of your new Property to edit it.



7. You can now set the properties for your new Product Property. Each of these properties is defined below.
   • ID: This is the id used internally by OpenEdit. You should probably just leave this alone.
   • Label: This is the name for the property that will be displayed on your site. You can edit this to anything you like.
   • External ID: This is used if you are importing your assets from an external database. If you want this field to be populated by some metadata field in that external database, the External ID needs to be set to the name of the external field.
   • Date Format: Only needed if Type is set to "Date". Common formats would be "yyyy-MM-dd" (4 digit Year followed by Month and Day) and "MM-dd-yyyy"(Month followed by Day and Year).
   • Editable: If you want to be able to edit this field on the Product Edit page, check this box.
   • Index: If you want to be able to search for the values in this field, this needs to be checked.
   • Stored: This needs to be checked if you want the value of this field to be stored. You will want this checked in almost every case.
   • Is Keyword: Checking this box will allow the values of this field to be found by the simple search box. You will generally want this checked.
   • In Filters: This will add this field to the search filter options.
   • Type: If you want this field to be something other than a text field, select the correct type from the dropdown.
   For our "People" property, we will want to set the properties as shown below. Be sure to click the "Save" button when you are finished. This will take you back to the Product Property list.



8. Now that we have created our new Product Property, we will need to make it visible on a couple of pages by adding it to the Views. Click the "Edit Views" link at the bottom of the Product Property List.
9. You will see a list of applicable Views for products. We will want to be able to see the values for our "People" property on the Product Details page, and we will also want to be able to edit it in the Product Edit page. First, click on "productdetails".



10. In the "Add New Property" field, located below the list of properties already in the View, select our new Property, "People", and click the "Add" button.



11. You will see "People" appear at the bottom of the list of properties in the productdetails view.
12. Click the "Edit Views" link at the bottom of the page to return to the list of Views.
13. Click on "productedit", and add the "People" property to this list, just as you did before in the productdetails view.
14. You will need Re-Index your products before your changes will be visible on your site. This is done from the Catalog Administration screen. To get to this screen, first go back to your main archive page by selecting your archive from the "Digital Assets" menu in the OpenEdit toolbar.
15. Next, select "Administration" from the "Tools" menu in the green DAM header bar.
16. Then click "Re-Index Products" as seen in the screenshot below.



17. You can now search for one of your assets and look at the Product Details page and the Product Edit Page. You should see the "People" field on both screens.