File Management - DAM

[davezub]

I've been using Xara products since the 90's and have created tons of designs. I have a fairly good folder hierarchy structure for storage, but I'm looking for more file management, DAM features. There are a lot products in this space but I'm having issues finding ones that support .xar files. Eagle seems promising but does not support .xar files but the beta now supports a plugin architecture https://en.eagle.cool/. Hoping someone will develop something, but holding my breath as they have support for Affinity.

Wondering what Gary and other old timers like me are using to manage their digital assets.

Thanks.

[gwpriester]

I do my best to remember where I filed something. Windows File Explorer > Search has improved greatly over the years and if I can remember a file or image name, Search can find related files relatively fast.

[Acorn]

Xara Cloud has a sort of DAM approach.
You can store mixed digital assets in Obsidian very easily.
I generally use Everything for quick location of assets.

Acorn

[davezub]

Appreciate the replies will see where this all ends up. Thanks

[haakoo]

You can create custom thumbnails in eagle for xar files(using the clipboard/screenshots)
I also use xnviewmp which does support the xar thumbnails though.

[Jonopen]

Just to expand on haakoo's suggestion, alongside a combination of memory, consistent file and folder naming, I also use XnView MP to visually search .xar thumbnails.

Two features I find really useful are the built-in search which allows you to find files by applying conditions such as date range, size etc, and the fact it can also search through sub-folders recursively.

The results can then be viewed and browsed as thumbnails. From there you can open the folder or file in Windows Explorer or directly in your Xara app.


The second great feature is the ability to setup favourite folders so you go straight to a particular folder with a single click.

XnView does also have some other potentially useful organising tools, for example, star ranking, colour coding, categories etc, but I've not personally used them.

You may notice the screenshots are from the Mac version, but Xara thumbnails still display ok when viewing an archive of files on an external drive.

[Acorn]

@Dave, I was assuming you were after some mechanism in support of managing your digital assets, not just viewing a thumbnail.

You can simply leverage your XAR files through creating any off-page object with an added Link to file.
When saved, this file is added into the External Assets folder of the XAR file.

I usually link to a TXT file and so properties.txt is added into the External Assets folder.
I include simple meta-data:
---
TitleHeader:
Title:
TitleSlug:
TitleStub:
aliases:
Source:
Created:
published:
revision:
layout:
Theme:
version:
Status:
Author:
Occupation:
tags:
cssclasses:
Password:
assets:
comments:
---

If you click on this off-page object that holds this link you can click on the file's offered link and edit and populate these Properties. Lowercase entries indicate a multi-list structure.
I would actually then save it off as <XAR File Name>.md and relink the off-page object. I have Obsidian as my MarkDown Editor (and repository).

LOCAL

• ../MyFile.xar
• ../MyFile_xar_files/
  
  • properties.txt (redundant)
  • MyFiles.md
  • + [All other added external digital asset files (PDF, PNG, CSV, ...)]
  • Private/
    
    • [all files that are reference but not for Publish]

PUBLISHED

• index.html et al
• index_html_files/
  
  • XARA internal asset files
  • properties.txt (redundant)
  • MyFile.md
  • + [All other added external digital asset files (PDF, PNG, CSV, ...)]
  • Private/
    
    • [all files that are reference but not for Publish]

In doing this you now have a location to drop all your external digital assets.
Some are required by the .XAR document for Publish, others may be design detail or other source material you do not want necessarily others to access.
All material, .XAR plus Assets, will be Published so you must either partition out the sensitive stuff or similar in an Obsidian Vault or password protect a Private sub-folder under the Published External Assets Folder, i.e., index_html_files/Private/.

If you update the .md file as you go along, it becomes second nature.
You end up with everything stored locally and good for search at any time and a second copy published that could be used to recover a local crash.
The one thing not duplicated is your .XAR file; you could add it into the Private folder.

I use Notepad++ for file content searches.
I use Everything for filename searches and XAR previews.
I use Obsidian for finer DAM control, design notes and examples.

Acorn

[handrawn]

the External Assets folder of the XAR file

should you have need of such

if you don't have need for this a thumbnail may be all that is required

[Acorn]

should you have need of such
if you don't have need for this a thumbnail may be all that is required

As as XAR/WEB has its own Preview file (a.k.a., Thumbnail) embedded, why can you not just use View (Size) Icons in MS Explorer? The answer is MS Windows indexing is naff and slow, despite @Gary's assertion.
That's why I use 'Everything' instead.

You use "External Assets" every time you drop an MP3/4 or PDF into a Xara design.
Why not use that folder to work for your DAM needs?

When you are building sometime as complex as a website and have a client then versioning and prototyping is important.
You cannot afford to lose the client's source material or let it float about and end up in someone else's work.

Versioning is invariably essential in manuscripts and even sketching.
Overwrite it and it's gone. We still get people saving their design file as index.xar, wondering where the previous one went to.

Acorn

[handrawn]

We are playing semantics here maybe...

I have project/asset folders sure, but xar files are just one component, no different to any other file therein

My reading of the OP is that their situation is the same

asset folders do not, for me, belong to any program, they are just ...asset - to be used for what ever purpose arises

they are named and collated meaningfully