External Digital Asset Management (DAM)
An external digital asset management (DAM) system stores the digital asset files (binary data for images, videos, etc.), while the asset object and certain metadata are stored within STEP, with other metadata residing in the DAM.
STEP can integrate with multiple external DAMs, and can do so at the same time, if needed, but there are two DAM integrations thoroughly documented in this section: the Content Hub DAM integration, and the Scene7 Adapter DAM integration.
The Content Hub DAM integration provides the integration necessary to display the assets stored outside of STEP within the workbench or the Web UI. URLs are used to retrieve the image versions, such as thumbnails and full-size images, and dynamically display them in STEP. For information on DAM systems, search the web.
The 'Scene7 Adapter' functionality provides the integration necessary to display the assets stored outside of STEP within the workbench or Web UI. Like the Content Hub DAM integration, URLs are also used for Scene7 to retrieve the image versions and display the cached thumbnails in STEP. 'Scene7 Adapter' does not define how assets are managed in the external DAM, nor does it define how asset placeholders are created in STEP. For information on DAM systems, search the web.
When more than one DAM is configured, it is good practice to uniquely identify assets across all DAMs to ensure the correct asset is retrieved by STEP. You can provide information about where the asset is stored by setting the External Identifier to include the identity of the DAM system that holds the asset.
Important: Current Scene7 Component DAM customers using STEP 10.3 and earlier versions can retain their Scene7 setup as-is. Additionally, Scene7 Component DAM customers upgrading to 11.0 can retain their Scene7 setup as-is. New DAM customers on STEP 10.3 or earlier versions will need to purchase Scene7. New DAM customers on 11.0 and beyond will need to purchase and implement the Content Hub component. Integrations with other DAMs are dependent on the API and a custom extension.
For details on setting up and using the Content Hub DAM integration, refer to the Integration with Content Hub DAM topic in this documentation here.