Table of Contents
How archives work in Fotoware Veloz
11. April 2025
Table of Contents
This article aims to explain how asset storage in a Fotoware Veloz (cloud) solution differs from that of an on-premises installation and the bearing that this has on the way archives are configured in Fotoware Veloz and on the process that users go through when uploading assets to the system and assigning assets to archives.
Because Fotoware Veloz uses cloud storage, users don't have access to a regular file system where they can create individual folders for storing separate collections of assets. Instead, you can think of asset storage in Fotoware Veloz as a completely flat structure where all assets uploaded to the system reside side by side.
The key to separating one collection, or Archive, from another is using metadata:
In the standard deployment of a Fotoware Veloz tenant/site, a unique metadata field (#800 labeled Archive) is used to designate the archive that an asset belongs to. So when users upload assets to Fotoware, by default, they must select the archive to which the uploaded assets should be added using a taxonomy tied to metadata field 800. The chosen tag will be written to all the assets. When the assets are committed to storage and indexed, they will appear in the correct archive since each archive is configured with a search filter that displays only assets with a particular Archive tag.
Fundamentally. the organization of assets in archives using metadata is based on one or more of the following features:
- A metadata field that works as the archive designator (Metadata field #800 - Archive by default)
- A search filter on each archive that filters content based on the individual archive tags
- A metadata set that exposes field 800 when users upload content and a taxonomy quicklist so they can choose the destination archive
- An action that administrative users can run that tags a selection of assets with a certain archive tag to make assets appear in the right archive.
The screenshot below shows the properties of an archive with an Autosearch filter set. This particular archive searches for the tag Photos in the archive field (#800) and will, therefore, only display assets tagged with Photos in field 800, while all other assets in the system are ignored and do not show.
When creating new archives, you should ensure each archive has a unique search filter. It's good practice to use the same name in the autosearch as the archive name so that users can easily find content in the expected archive when uploaded.
Important: An archive that does not have an autosearch filter set will display all the assets in the storage pool.
Setting up an archive without a search filter and giving only the system administrator access to it can be a practical way to give DAM managers a complete overview of all assets in the system where they can, for example, re-organize content. For example, if users come back to you asking where the file they uploaded went, you can easily find the assets in this master archive, see what's gone wrong, and easily make changes to the ingestion workflow to prevent similar future occurrences.
How to set the Archive tag
There are several ways in which the archive tag can be set:
Have users set the destination archive during upload
This requires giving users access to upload to one or more archives, assigning a metadata view to that archive, and ensuring that the metadata view includes the Archive field (#800). You can then connect a taxonomy to the Archive field so that users can choose the destination archive from a pre-populated list of destinations during upload. A tip in this regard is to make the Archive field required so that an archive has to be selected before users are allowed to submit files to the system.
Let users upload to a common repo and let a DAM manager assign the archive post-upload
This approach can be used if you only wish to require basic metadata from users during upload. Files go into an archive that only a DAM manager can browse post-upload. The DAM manager can then use workflows to assign an archive to a selection of assets by updating the tag using a pre-configured macro or by letting the manager choose entries from a taxonomy they maintain.