Understanding the Media Library
The Media Library is where all of the document files, url embeds and images are held that have been uploaded onto the site.
This is the current list of media items that are available to upload into the media library:
- ArcGIS Visualization: Embed an ArcGIS map or app on a page easily, just providing the URL.
- Crowdiff: Embed a Crowdiff ID
- Data & Insights: Embed a Data & Insights widget.
- Document: A downloadable document, like a Microsoft Word file or PDF.
- Flickr: Embed a Flickr image or slideshow from a URL embed.
- Google Calendar: A Google Calendar from a embed URL.
- Google My Map: Embed a public Google my map embed URL.
- Image: An image to be used in your site.
- Power BI Visualization: Embed a Power BI visualization on a page using the visualization URL or embed code.
- Qualtrics: Embed a Qualtrics embed from a URL
- Remote Video: An embedded remote video from a site like YouTube or Vimeo.
- Tableau Visualization: Embed a Tableau visualization on a page easily, just providing the visualization URL.
The media library is also where you can easily edit your media by searching for the media item name that was created when it was uploaded onto the site.
Media Usage Best Practices
If there is a media item that is no longer needed best practices is to make sure you move it to the trash and it will no longer appear in your media library BUT the media file will still appear within the file tab.
Do:
- Use the Media Library edit button in the Operations row to update any documents or images media that has been added to the media library.
- Make sure that when see the file name in the File field or the image field of the media that you uploaded or are updating before you click save.
- Use the Delete link next to the Save button to properly and safely remove media and have it moved to the trash.
Don't:
- Click the remove button next to the file name within a media item and click save. This will not move that media to the trash but it only removes the file from the media container. This will then lead to broken links and a broken site. Always click the Delete link to move media to the trash.
How to Safely Delete Files from your site
You can safely delete files that you've uploaded onto your site within the Media tab by selecting the little arrow next to the edit button of the file you want to delete.
It's important to make sure you are not deleting media that is being used within a micro-content or other page. You will know if a media item is being used when you click on the delete button and a pop up alert appears that says there are recorded usages of this entity.
This means that you will have to select the recorded usage link to see the list of content that the media is on for you to remove from that page before you can safely delete it from the media library.
What happens if you delete a file that is being used in a place?
For example a common "Site unavailable error" happens because a file was deleted but it was being used within a link collection list and since the link collection list now had a broken link within it the page that the link collection list is embedded within crashes and causes the "Site unavailable error"
Author Role | Direct Link to a direct image or document | Add item using Media Library | Link to any Media Library Item (Linkit link) | Unpublish THEIR OWN Media Library Item | Unpublish ANY Media Library Item | Delete THEIR OWN Media Library item (goes to Trash) | Delete ANY Media Library Item (goes to Trash) | CAUTION | CAUTION |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anonymous | LEGACY | ❌NO | ✅YES | ❌NO | ❌NO | ❌NO | ❌NO | ❌NO | ❌NO |
Writer | NOT DESIRED | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ❌NO | ❌NO | ❌NO | ✅YES | ❌NO |
Editor | NOT DESIRED | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ❌NO | ❌NO | ✅YES | ❌NO |
Publisher | NOT DESIRED | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ❌NO |
Agency Manager | NOT DESIRED | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES | ✅YES |
How to Properly Update Media & Documents Files
When updating an image or media document best practice is to go within the media library and select the edit button or edit pencil directly because deleting the media directly from the library and then uploading a new media will result in you having to go back to each page that was using that media/document and update it.
The better method is to instead within the edit field of the image or document you can remove the file from that spot and then add your new file. This method will then have the platform update the media for you across all of the website pages so there are no broken images or broken document links.
Items up to 100MB may be uploaded to the site "Media Library" and used throughout any page that can embed or reference media.
Special Note on Media Library Image Sizes
If you are planning to place images in the hero they will need to be a minimum of 1440 x 604 but ideally to scale for retina we like to double the size 2880px (wide).
Our rule of thumb is the image should always be equal or bigger to the size it will be displayed.
We are trying to keep all images on the site to a 4:3 ratio, but the hero is a bit more custom. We have allowed for uploads of source image at up to 100MB with the focal point to be determined at the Media Library level. If you are planning to use them elsewhere i.e. promos, they should work fine in terms of size. So try to keep everything to a minimum of 1440px for width.
Images used as the feature on basic pages, promos, and visual link collections follow the 4:3 ratio, meaning that for every 4 pixels of width there should be 3 pixels of height. To calculate the image ratio: Take the height of your image and multiply it by 4/3 to compute the width; or. Take the width of your image and multiply it by 3/4 to compute the height. source: https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/4-3-aspect-ratio
If you need to adjust your image size and do not have Adobe Photoshop you can use one of these free online tools:
Log in to your site
Everyone who writes things on this website has a special title. These titles give them certain abilities, like who can edit, review and publish what. You can ask for a different title or take one away from someone using the user manager.
How to find the Media Library
You can easily find the media library by hovering over Content in the top left corner, then over Media, and select Media library.
How to add Media to a Basic Page
To add the media image that you uploaded into your media library, into a basic page, you'll use the "insert media" within your WYSIWIG toolbar.
Once you select that you can then scroll down to search and view the media items that you currently have within your image library.
You can also add new media items to your media library and page all at once.
Once you click on the "Insert selected" your image will embed onto your page
How to Find Media from a URL
If you have the media file URL but you don't have the name of the media item to find it within the media library then a simple trick is to go to the media url and then select "/download?inline"
and then replace it with "/edit" then press enter so that it will now take you to the page where that media item edit page which is where you can find the media item name which is what you can now use to easily locate it within the library.
How to Edit a media file
Once you click on the "Media Library" you can locate specific media you would like to edit by searching the media item name and then selecting the edit button on the right of the screen:
OR if your results are in the grid format you can select the little pencil icon which is also where you can edit your media items
How to Fix a "Site Currently Unavailable" Error
To fix this you will need to edit the page and the only way to do that is through the content library.
So navigate to the content library and type in the name of the page, which can be found within the url.
Once you've searched for the page in the content library you can also confirm that it is the correct page by hovering your icon over the title link in search and then in the bottom left of the screen you should see the matching url.
Then you can go into the page to identify where the broken file link is, typically the culprit is a micro-content like a link collection list that was linking to that file. So for the example we will select the micro-content and click the gear icon to see if the broken file link is inside it.
You can identify which link is leading to a deleted file within the link collection by clicking on the link to pull up the dropdown window and if says "No results" then you know this is the broken link and you can remove it by selecting the remove button.
You know a link isn't linking to a deleted file when you see the "Media" appear within the dropdown as well as the media item information.
Once you save the fixed link collection, the page will be fixed and that error message will go away. This is why it is important to only permanently remove files that are not being used on the site.