You can use the Emarsys Media Database to host the images you use in your email campaigns, as well as manage other content files.
Do not store files containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the Media Database.
Opening the Media Database
The media database can be accessed via the Content menu, Media Database or from the Image Properties dialog of the email content editor.
Managing your media files
When you open the Media Database, all your media files are displayed in the list. At the top you have the controls for managing these assets, as well as your upload settings.
Creating a folder
Folder names can contain only standard Latin alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9) and the underscore and dash (_, -). Blank spaces are not allowed.
Thumbnails vs. list view
Supported file types
As well as a useful way to maintain your image library, you can also use the Media Database to host files of other types and reference them via their URLs in your emails, for example text files (.docx, .pdf, etc.), HTML files, or even video (if the file size is not too large).
However, you can only insert image files into your email campaign in the following formats, as they are supported by all standard email clients: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff.
The only file types that the Media Database will actively block are .exe files, since these are blocked by all email clients.
Upload settings
These are:
- Do not extract zip file – Keeps your zip file compressed after upload; otherwise, the files will be extracted and listed individually.
- Keep original file name – Keeps the original file name and does not assign an internal Emarsys name to it (see below).
- Replace existing files with the same name - Overwrites image files if the name is identical, allowing you to update multiple instances of the same image at one go.
When you replace an existing image with the same name in the Media Database which is being used in a campaign that has been already sent, then the image might change depending on the caching mechanism used by the contacts email provider. So it might happen that:
- Contacts who have already opened the email will still see the previous image for a while.
- Contacts who open the email on a new device or havent opened the email yet will see the new image.
- Always show upload settings - Displays these settings above the list of media files.
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Prepared for Retina screens - The image is uploaded with a
@2xpostfix in its name. - The original image is resized in both its height and width to its half. Make sure to upload images double the size of their intended display size on Retina displays because of their higher than usual pixel density.
Not all of these options are available for all accounts as they depend on the account settings. If you would like to have an option enabled, please contact Emarsys Support.
Uploading a file
Do not upload files containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to the Media Database.
The maximum permitted file sizes are:
- Image files - 1MB
- Documents - 8MB
- Other file formats - 4MB
The actual permitted size of the files may vary based on your account settings.
Naming image files
Image files have both a display name and an image file name.
- The display name is used in the Media Database list of files and folders for easy identification.
- The image file name is used in the path of the HTML tag that points to the image in the email itself.
You can choose whether to keep these the same or not when you upload a file, via the Keep original file name option in the Upload settings.
You can change this setting as often as you like but, once uploaded, the image properties cannot be changed. In other words, you cannot later decide to change an image display name if it was uploaded with this option disabled.
Keep original file name
If you select Keep original file name in the Upload settings, the display name and the file name of all images uploaded during this time will remain the same and you do not have the option to change them.
Use case
The advantage of using this setting is that you can reference the same image in recurring campaigns and then easily swap it for another image without having to edit the email content.
For example, you might want to display a product of the week in various campaigns. To do this, you can upload 'product-of-the-week.png' and use that in your emails. When you have a new product to display, you can upload a new file with exactly the same name as the old one, and the new image will be referenced in all your campaigns.
Notes:
- The URL of images loaded with this setting active will always contain full file path, including all folders, e.g.: http://suite16.emarsys.net/custloads/123456789/productsoftheweek/red-blouse.png
- If you have the setting Replace existing files with the same name enabled and activated, all you need to do is upload the new file.
- If you do not have this setting enabled, you must first delete the image of the old product and then upload the new one, since the Media Database does not allow the overwriting of image files as a safety precaution.
Don't keep original file name
If you do not select Keep original file name in the Upload settings, the original file name of all images uploaded during this time will be used in the list of media files, but a unique internal name will be assigned to the file itself (e.g. md_12345.jpeg).
Use case
The advantage of using this setting is that it allows you to change the display name without affecting the link to the file, even after you have used it in a campaign. It also means that you can use very long file names to differentiate between similar images (for example if you have sections with multiple images) without affecting the size of the campaign.
This setting means that you cannot replace images that are already being used in a campaign without editing the email content, as all file names are unique.
The URL of images loaded with this setting active will not contain any folders in the file path, e.g.: http://suite16.emarsys.net/custloads/123456789/md_122345.png.
Uploading a font file
It is highly not recommended to upload font files to the Media Database. Emarsys do not support uploaded font files. While some online web fonts have been known to work, Emarsys do not support them due to data protection concerns around personal data transfers outside the European Economic Area.
Resizing images
This creates a copy of the image with the new dimensions added to the display name, e.g.: HeroimageDesktop.jpg (650x320).
Adding files to emails
Deleting files
This will only remove the file from the list. It will still be stored on our server and will still be available if it has been included in any emails.