Assets and Digital Asset Management
What to know
AEM Assets is a DAM built on the content tree under /content/dam. Candidates must know renditions (original plus generated thumbnails/web renditions), metadata schemas, and the difference between properties metadata and XMP metadata. Understand folders vs collections (collections are virtual groupings that don't move assets), and smart collections driven by search.
Know processing profiles and metadata profiles applied to folders, and how they cascade to subfolders. Understand asset workflows like DAM Update Asset, and the role of Dynamic Media for smart imaging and crop presets. Know asset relationships (references) and the impact of deleting an asset that is referenced on a page.
Traps
- Deleting an asset referenced by a page can break the page; AEM may warn but the reference remains broken.
- Collections do not duplicate assets; removing from a collection doesn't delete the asset.
- Metadata profiles are applied to folders and inherited by descendants.
- Renditions are generated by workflows; the original is never overwritten by a rendition.
- Smart crops are stored as renditions and are non-destructive.
Rule of thumb
When asked "how do I apply the same metadata defaults to a whole upload batch," the answer is a metadata profile on the target folder, not per-asset editing.
Worked example: A marketing team uploads 500 images and needs a common copyright field. Create a metadata profile, assign it to the destination folder, and new uploads inherit the default values automatically.