Assign previews to assets

If an asset does not have an automatically created preview, you can assign a preview image. Previews are shown in asset lists, tables, related assets widgets, and in the Asset Chooser.

Context

Any asset without an automatically generated preview.

Prerequisites

To manually assign a preview, an Assigned preview widget on the asset page is required. Automatically generated previews require a properly configured Preview widget.

Introduction

Asset previews help you to identify and select an asset from a list, in a widget, or in the Asset Chooser. Assets with a main image resource such as images, or products, have an automatically generated preview. censhare also creates previews automatically for assets with assigned image resources, for example, Slideshows and Layouts.

The previews of an asset can be customized. Your application administrator takes care of this. For example, Product asset previews can show additional information like the product name, key product properties and product item thumbnails.

Note: Automatically generated previews and customized previews are shown in the Preview widget. This widget is different from the Assigned preview widget. In the Assigned preview widget, you can manually assign a preview. Usually, you find either the Preview widget, or the Assigned preview widget, or none of them on an asset page.

In assets without automatic or customized previews, you can assign a preview image in the Assigned preview widget, if your workspace is configured accordingly. The Assigned preview widget is available on asset type pages to which you are allowed to assign a preview. Asset types without this widget are not supposed to have a preview. If you need a preview for an asset type that does not have the Assigned preview widget, ask your Application administrator to add it to the desired asset page.

Assign preview to an asset

To manually assign a preview:

Open the asset to which you want to assign a preview in a new page.
Select the Media tab. The Assigned preview widget is placed on this tab.
To assign an existing image asset, click PREVIEW.
In the Select source asset for preview dialog, select the desired asset.
To upload an image from your computer, drag it on the widget and drop it there.
To close the dialog, click OK.
The selected image is shown in the Assigned preview widget.

Widget actions

In the widget, the following actions are available.

Enlarge preview

To enlarge the assigned preview in a separate layer, click the enlarge icon.

Remove preview

To remove the assigned preview image, click

and select Remove preview. To confirm, click OK. If you want to change the preview image, you must remove the assigned image first and then assign a new image.

Configure widget

In the widget configuration, you can enter a new title or change the relation type of the preview image.

To open the configuration dialog, click

and select Configure widget:

In the Generic configuration area, enter a new title or description. For more information, see Generic widget configuration.
In the Relation area, you can change the relation type of the preview image. By default, images that you assign in the widget are assigned to the asset as Main picture.

Do not change the default setting if you are not sure what you are doing! An improper relation type can cause errors in your asset structures.

Remove widget

To remove the Assigned preview widget completely, click

and select Remove widget. To confirm, click OK.

Result

In asset lists (searches), widgets, and in the Asset Chooser, the asset is shown with a thumbnail of the assigned preview.