Media · Quillet

Upload files to the project's media library, file them in folders, preview them at full size, choose who can open each one, and see which documents use a file before you change or delete it.

Why every file lives once in a shared library

Pictures, PDFs and videos are used by many documents at once: one logo on every page, one brochure linked from three guides. Quillet keeps one copy of each file in one library, rather than a copy inside every document. Correct a file's description, and the correction reaches every place the file is used. And before somebody deletes a file, the CMS can always answer the question "who uses this?".

The library belongs to the whole project, not to one environment. A picture you upload while working in Staging is the same picture in Prod, so moving content between environments never leaves an image behind. Files and media explains this choice and what public and private mean for a reader.

What the media library shows and lets you change

The Media page

The Media tab says "Files shared by every environment." and shows how much of the project's storage is used. Above the files are these controls:

Upload files opens the upload dialog. Nothing else on the page takes a dropped file, so a file you drop by mistake goes nowhere.
Search by name filters by file name.
Type: All types, Images, Documents, Video, Audio or Fonts.
Show: All files, Public or Private.
Layout: Grid or List.

The panel on the left holds the folders, starting at All files, with New folder under them. A breadcrumb above the files shows where you are, and each part of it takes you back up to that level.

A file's sheet

Press a file to open its sheet. The sheet says "Name, description and visibility are shared by every use of this file, in every environment." Under that it holds:

Name and Description. The description is what a screen reader says for an image, wherever the image is used without a description of its own. Leave it empty for a decorative picture.
Visibility: Public or Private.
Details: the type, size and dimensions, and when and by whom the file was uploaded.
The file's address, with Copy URL and Copy as JSON.
Used by: every document, in every environment, that uses the file, such as prod · guides/style · en-US. Each one is a link.
Delete file.

Public and private

A public file can be opened by anyone who has its link. A picture on a public website needs exactly that.

A private file is "Opened through links that expire after a few hours." Use private files for material that only some readers should get, such as a price list for partners. Each time your site reads content that uses the file, it gets a fresh link from the CMS.

When you change a file's visibility, the dashboard asks first and shows the list of documents that use the file. Making a file private stops its links working straight away, but a copy already held in a browser or a CDN may stay readable for up to a year. Making it public lets anyone with the link open it, and a cached copy may outlive a later change back.

Preview

Every tile has a preview button in its corner. In List, the button sits at the end of the name. The picture at the top of a file's sheet opens the same preview. The preview shows the full image, the PDF, the video or audio player, or the opening of a text file, with Open in new tab and Download.

How to

Upload files

Open the folder the files belong in, or stay in All files.
Press Upload files.
Drop the files onto the dialog, or press Add files and choose them.
Check Destination, and choose Public or Private under Visibility. The choice applies to every file in this upload.
For each image, type a description that says what it shows. Leave it blank for decoration.
Press Upload. The button counts the files, such as Upload 3 files.
Watch the Uploads list. Each row says Uploading, then Uploaded, or why the file was refused. When a file's bytes are already in the project, its row says Already in this project: the existing file is used and no copy is made.

Make folders and file things in them

Press New folder under the folders, type a Name and press Create.
To move a file, drag it onto a folder in the panel or onto a part of the breadcrumb.
To rename, move or delete a folder, point at it in the panel, press its ⋯ menu and choose Rename, Move to… or Delete. You cannot delete a folder that still holds files or folders; the dialog names what is inside.

Look at a file before you use it

Press the preview button in the corner of the file's tile.
Press Open in new tab to see the file on its own, or Download to save a copy.
Close the preview with Escape.

Change a file's description or visibility

Press the file to open its sheet.
Change Description, or choose another Visibility.
Press Save. If you changed the visibility, a dialog opens, Make this file private? or Make this file public?, with the list of documents that use the file. Read the list, then confirm with Make private or Make public.

Delete a file

Open the file's sheet and check Used by.
If documents still use the file, change them first. While anything uses it, Delete file stays unavailable and gives the reason.
Press Delete file and confirm. The file's address stops working everywhere it was embedded.

Limits

The library belongs to one project, and files cannot be shared between projects.
A file's contents cannot be replaced. To change a picture, upload the new one, use it in the documents, then delete the old one.
Files have no history. The dashboard cannot bring back an earlier description or a deleted file.
There is no image editing, so crop or resize a picture before you upload it. Your site can ask the CMS for smaller widths of an image on its own.
A private file's links cannot be withdrawn one at a time; each one expires after a few hours. To stop them all at once, an engineer rotates the instance's signing secret, ASSET_SIGNING_SECRET, which retires every signed link. See Files and media.
New uploads are public unless you choose Private in the dialog, and that default cannot be changed.
The engineers set a largest file size for each instance and a storage quota for each project. A file over either limit is refused, with a sentence that says which one.
The engineers also set which file types the CMS accepts. An unrecognised file, a program renamed as a picture, and an SVG with a script in it are all refused.