What is it?
The Media Files feature in SDM helps you manage and link assets (e.g., images, files) to product rows during catalog enrichment. It simplifies the process of importing, reviewing, and syncing assets with Akeneo PIM or exporting them in output files.
- Drop media files or provide public URLs pointing to media files to enrich product information.
- Control and review imported media files, and add or remove them before exporting.
- Quickly identify format errors or missing assets.
- Use the SDM Akeneo Connector to sync and create new assets in your PIM.
More about Akeneo Assets
This feature does not support the creation of attributes type “media_link” in Akeneo. If mapped with a type “text” attribute it will be pushed as such.
How does it work?
Importing Media Files
During the import step, you can either upload media files or provide publicly accessible URLs pointing to media assets. This step is optional and can be skipped. SDM supports Akeneo attributes type “image” and “asset collection”. See list here.
The maximum media file size is 500 MB unless a lower maximum size has been set at the asset family level in the case of a sync via Akeneo connector.
We recommend uploading images in batches of 250 images at a time to ensure stable performance.
Automatic pairing
If the product file has a dedicated column with the media file names reported (same name + extension), they will be automatically paired with product rows. ex: image1.png;image3.png
Separator must be “;” if multiple assets are in the cell.
During the import step, if your SDM is connected to Akeneo, the interface will automatically detect and display errors when media files have unsupported formats (e.g., GIF, JPEG, JPG, PDF, PNG). It will also show an error if there are duplicate media files with the same name. Meaning if the format type is not accepted by the Asset manager.
Public media file URLs
In addition to uploading media files, you can now enrich product rows using public URLs that point directly to media assets. This offers greater flexibility by allowing you to reference already-hosted content.
Keep in mind:
- If the same URL is used multiple times within a job, the file is downloaded only once to avoid duplication.
- URL validation (e.g., accessibility, file size & file format checks) happens during data processing, not at the import step.
Managing Media
In the Normalisation module, you can manually add, remove, or correct media files linked to specific product rows. SDM allows bulk editing, where changes to media files in multiple rows are applied based on the first selected row.
Depending on your SDM configuration, the Normalisation can show errors if media are missing. If this is a required attribute, then you'll need to add a media before finalizing the step.
It is also possible to upload media from your computer directly using the UPLOAD NEW MEDIA button
Preview is not available yet for PDF & GIF (only extensions: JPG, PNG, JPEG).
Sync with Akeneo PIM
When connected to Akeneo PIM, SDM pushes media files based on mapped attributes and asset family configurations. Naming conventions and attribute types (e.g., “image” or “asset collection”) are automatically retrieved and matched to ensure proper sync. No other metadata is being pushed.
PIM Naming Convention and product linked rules
PIM pre-set rules are applied at push time. Naming conventions are also applied to the created assets. So if link rules are established in the naming convention and “abort_asset_creation_on_error” is set to “true”, then media that were previously linked to products at the SDM level can be automatically relinked after the push. More details here.
To avoid this, make sure your naming conventions are not mandatory and that “abort_asset_creation_on_error” is set to “false” when using SDM.
Updating an existing asset in PIM is not possible
In the context of a push toward the PIM Akeneo destination, the system will automatically add a UUID at the end of the asset code generated. The aim is to push a unique asset toward the PIM. So no updates are possible on existing assets via SDM for now.
All previously linked assets will remain associated with the product.
note: The media file is not renamed.
Output files
At the end of the workflow, after an Akeneo sync or not, several files are available:
- The media files not linked to a product - And so cannot be pushed to Akeneo PIM
- The media files linked to at least one product
Limitations
- The maximum media file size is 500 MB unless a lower maximum size has been set at the asset family level in the case of a sync via Akeneo connector. This limit is also applied to public URLs of media files.
- URLs must point to raw downloadable media files (not HTML pages or redirects).
- Authentication-protected URLs are not supported.
- Only HTTP and HTTPS protocols are supported for public media file URLs.
- Asset formats must still comply with PIM and SDM accepted formats.
- Supported extensions:
- gif
- jpeg
- jpg
- png
- svg
- webp