Media Collections

Media Collections provide a simple and dynamic way to create logical groupings of files and folders, regardless of their folder structure. A file or folder in any directory can be added to one or more media collections. Since they are logical groupings, the asset's actual location and URL remain the same, and there is no duplication.

You can easily add or remove assets from media collections and set the collection's permission level for users according to your business requirements. This makes it easier for the administrator to manage assets, share them with different users or user groups, and manage their permissions without having to delete, duplicate, or move them, which would otherwise break the asset's URL or result in a bloated asset library.

For example, you can create a media collection of the latest brand assets, logos, videos, decks, etc., that may be used by different teams across the organization or even external PR agencies. A marketing team can centrally manage and keep the collection up-to-date. Everyone else who needs access to these assets can get it from one central collection instead of several different files and folders.

Navigate to the media collections page by clicking "Media collections" in the menu bar. Once you are here, click on the "New" button in the top right corner. This would open a popup where you can enter the name of the media collection and click on "Submit." A new media collection will be created. A media collection's name should be unique across the organization account and can consist of alphanumeric characters, underscores, and hyphens.

Any Media Library Restricted Access user can create a new media collection.

In the ImageKit Media Library, select and right-click the files and folders you want to add to media collections and click on the "Add to media collections" option. You can only add assets if you have at least "contribute" permission to a media collection. A popup window would appear, allowing you to search for and select the media collections to which you wanted to add the assets. Only the media collections you can "contribute" to will appear in the list. After selecting the media collections, click on "Submit."

You can also create a new media collection through the option given in this popup.

If you add a folder and its subfolder or file to a media collection, both will be added. You can also set separate permission levels for them.

Note that you cannot upload files or folders directly to a media collection. You have to upload the asset to the Media Library and then add it to a collection.

A restricted access user only needs "Manage" permission on a collection to remove assets from it. There are two ways to remove an asset from media collections-

1. Remove multiple assets from media collection Navigate into the media collection from where you want to remove assets. Select and right-click to open the dropdown, then click on "Remove from media collection." A confirmation popup would open. Click "Submit" to remove the selected assets from the media collection.

2. Remove asset from multiple media media collections Select and right-click on the asset you want to remove from media collections. You can view the list of media collections to which the asset was added. For this, you should have the "Manage" permission. Remove the media collections from which you want to remove the assets and click "Submit."

The access and permissions of a folder cascade to its subfolders and files. If you remove an asset from a media collection, it may still be associated with media collections if its parent is added to them.

After you have created a media collection, you can rename it. Select the media collection you want to rename and right-click to open the dropdown menu. Click on the "Rename" option to open a popup where you can enter the new name for the selected media collection. On clicking "Submit", the media collection will be renamed. The new name should be unique and can consist of alphanumeric characters, underscores, and hyphens.

The assets added to a media collection or the users or user groups with whom it is shared are unaffected by renaming it.

Right-click after selecting the media collections you want to delete. Click on the "Delete" option in the dropdown menu. This would open a confirmation popup. Click on "Submit" to delete the media collections permanently. Deleting a media collection does not delete the files and folders that have been added to it. Once deleted, the access to assets given to users and user groups through the media collection is removed.

To find a media collection by its name, click on the search bar and start typing the collection name.

All media collections whose names either match exactly or begin with or contain the words given in the query will be returned. The search for the media collection's name is case-insensitive.

ImageKit allows you to download multiple media collections and all of their contents, including files, folders, and sub-folders, as a single zip file. The downloaded zip file preserves the folder structure of the media collections.

Right-click on the selected media collections and click on the "Download (as zip)" option. In the popup dialogue box, you may apply an optional transformation to all the images in the selected media collections. Static and video files are not modified.

You can wait for the download to begin or continue your work and navigate to the Downloads page later to view details and the status of your download requests.

Right-click on the media collection you want to share and click on the "Share" option in the dropdown menu. This would open a popup where you can take the following actions:

• View information about currently shared permission levels and access.
• Share the media collection with users and user groups and set their permission level.
• Update the permission level of existing users and user groups.
• Revoke access to the media collection for restricted media library users and user groups.

When a media collection is shared with a user, they will receive an email and a notification in their Notification Center to inform them of the operation.

A user with "Can view" or higher permissions to a media collection can view all assets in that media collection, even if they don't have "Can view" permission on those assets. However, they can only modify those assets if they have also been directly shared with the users with "Can contribute" or "Can manage" permission. Learn about sharing and collaboration to understand different permission levels.