Media library
The media library holds the images and videos your campaigns use. It belongs to the tenant rather than to a site, so everything in it is available to every site you run. Open it from Media library in the main navigation.
Each file in the library is an asset: the file itself, plus the name, description, alt text and keywords you give it. An asset keeps the same address for as long as it exists, so anything pointing at it carries on working when you replace the file underneath.
What the library holds
Images in PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, SVG and WEBP, and video in MP4 and WEBM.
The format is read from the content of the file, not from its name. A PNG renamed to .jpg is
stored and reported as a PNG, and a file in any other format is refused whatever its extension
claims.
Limits
| Limit | Default |
|---|---|
| Size of one image | 5 MB |
| Size of one video | 50 MB |
| Assets per tenant | 5,000 |
| Storage per tenant | 1 GB |
Who can do what
Anyone who can sign in to the admin panel can browse the library and use its assets in their work. Uploading, editing and deleting need System administrator, Administrator or Editor, held either globally through a group or on any single site.
Permission is granted per site, but it applies to the whole library, because the library belongs to the tenant rather than to any one site. An editor on a single site can change any asset, including one that another site is using.
Adding media
Upload opens the upload dialog. The picker that opens inside a campaign offers the same routes as tabs, so an image can be found or added without leaving what you are building.
Uploading files
Drag files onto the dialog, or browse for them. They collect in a queue, and each is checked as it joins. Anything in the wrong format, or over the size limit for its kind, stays in the queue marked with the reason and is skipped when the upload runs, so one bad file never holds up the rest. Remove files one at a time, or clear all the blocked ones at once.
Upload when the queue looks right, and leave the dialog open until it finishes.
Importing from a URL
Paste an address into Or paste an image URL and Mambo fetches the image itself rather than
asking your browser to. The address has to be a public https one, and up to three redirects are
followed. As with an upload, the format is read from the bytes, so what the site hosting the image
calls it has no bearing on what is stored.
Stock photos
The Stock photos tab searches a library of free photographs. Search by term, choose a category, narrow by orientation. Picking a photo applies it where you are working and saves a copy into your library at the same time, named from the photo's own tags, with the photographer's credit written into its alt text and description so the attribution stays with the asset.
Icons
The Icons tab searches an icon catalogue. Picking an icon saves it into your library as an ordinary asset, carrying over its name, keywords and licence credit, so it can be found and reused like anything else. If the catalogue cannot be reached the tab says so, and the other tabs carry on working.
Why a file is refused
| Reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| The format is not one the library accepts | Save the file as PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, SVG or WEBP, or as MP4 or WEBM for video |
| The file is over the size limit for its kind | Compress it, or reduce its dimensions |
| The address is not a valid URL | Check the address, including the https:// |
| The link did not return an image | Open the address in a browser. If it does not show an image on its own, Mambo cannot fetch one from it |
| The library is full | Delete assets you no longer need, or ask for the limit to be raised |
| The tenant is over its storage limit | Delete assets you no longer need, or upload a smaller file |
Describing an asset
Selecting an asset opens its details panel. Click any value under Edit to change it.
- Name. Required, up to 150 characters. What the asset is called everywhere in the admin panel, and one of the two things search looks at.
- Description. Up to 1,000 characters. The other thing search looks at.
- Alt text. Up to 500 characters. What a screen reader announces in place of the image, and what a browser shows when the image will not load. Describe what the image conveys rather than what it is a picture of.
- Keywords. Up to 20, each up to 50 characters. Trimmed and lowercased when saved, so
HeroandHEROare the same keyword rather than two.
The panel also lists what you cannot edit: who uploaded the asset, when it was created and last changed, its format, dimensions, orientation and size. Dimensions and orientation are missing for SVG, WEBP and video, whose size in pixels Mambo does not read.
Click the preview to see the asset full screen. The arrows at the top move to the next and previous asset without closing the panel.
Finding an asset
The library shows as a grid or as a table, and the toggle sits beside the search box. The table adds the format, dimensions, file size, when the asset was last changed and who uploaded it.
Search matches the name and the description. It does not match keywords, and it does not match the name of the file that was uploaded, so an asset nobody has named is found by its keywords rather than by typing what was on the file.
Four filters narrow the list, and they combine:
- Type, images or video.
- Format, one or more of the formats above. Choosing a type first shortens the list.
- Orientation, landscape, portrait or square. Only assets whose dimensions Mambo could read have an orientation, so SVG, WEBP and video never match this filter.
- Keywords, drawn from the 200 most used keywords in the library, each shown with the number of assets carrying it.
Whatever you have applied shows as a row of chips, which clear one at a time or all at once. The search and the filters are held in the page address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked or passed to a colleague.
Assets are listed newest first, and Load more brings in the next batch.
The asset's URL
Copy URL in the details panel gives the address of the file itself. It is served straight from storage rather than through the Mambo API, so it can be used anywhere, including outside Mambo.
The address carries a marker that changes every time you replace the file, so whatever is holding it picks up the new version instead of a stale copy. Browsers are still told they may keep their own copy for up to 15 minutes, so a replacement is not always visible everywhere at once.
Thumbnails are generated for PNG, JPEG and BMP only, at 200 pixels wide, and are never enlarged past the original. For every other format, SVG, WEBP, GIF and video included, the thumbnail address returns the full file and leaves the browser to scale it, which is why a page of those takes longer to load than a page of photographs.
Deleting
Delete a single asset from its details panel or from its row in the table, or tick several and use Delete selected. Either way you are asked to confirm.
Deleting is permanent and cannot be undone.
Using media in campaigns
Wherever a campaign asks for an image, the media library opens as a picker. That is the options of an image choice question, the rows of a matrix, the options of a ranking, the image on a question, image blocks and the theme's background images, and the social card image on a link distribution.
The picker has four tabs. Browse is the library itself, with the same search and filters, narrowed to images. Stock photos and Icons search the two outside sources and save what you pick into the library as they apply it. Upload is the upload dialog.
Clicking an image applies it immediately, so you can judge it in place. Cancel puts back whatever was there before; Done keeps what you have chosen.
A campaign stores a reference to the asset rather than a copy of the file. Replace the file on an asset and every campaign using it shows the new one, with nothing to republish.