Creating Media

Learn how to work with different types of Media content on your Umbraco website.

Media in Umbraco is handled the same way as content. Instead of defining Document Types you define Media Types that acts as a base for media items. The following default Media Types are available:

Article - Used for uploading and storing documents.
Audio - used for uploading and storing digital audio files.
File - used for uploading and storing different types of files in the Media section.
Folder - a container for organizing media items in the media tree.
Image - used for uploading and storing images.
Vector Graphics (SVG) - used for uploading and storing Scalable Vector Graphics files which are text files containing source code to draw the desired image.
Video - used for uploading and storing video files.

This means you don't have to define your own Media Types to start using the Media section. You have already got the tools for organizing and uploading the media.

If you have upgraded from an older version than 8.14 then the new media types are not added automatically. You can add those types manually yourselves by following the steps below 'Creating a new Media Type'. On the default media types page, you will find an overview of all new media types.

Uploading Media

You can upload media in two different ways:

Add media through the Media section

From the Media section in the Umbraco backoffice, you can add new media items by following either of the approaches defined below:

Use the Create dialog to to create a new Media item in the Media section
- The Media item will be created based on the type you choose.
- Upload the image or file, give the Media item a name, and click Save.

Use the Drag and drop feature to add your files to the Media section.
- Umbraco will automatically detect the Media Type and create the Media item.
- You can drop entire folders structures to recreate that same structure in the Media section.

Add media through the Content section

New media items can be added to your site without interrupting the content creation-flow. This can be done following either of the two approaches outlined below.

Drag and drop the image(s) from your file explorer directly into the Media Picker property on the Content page.
- Images added this way is automatically added to the user's start node in the Media section of the Umbraco backoffice.

Select the "+" icon to open the "Select media" dialog where you can add image(s) from your file explorer directly or using drag and drop.

Creating a folder

It is always a good idea to start by creating a folder for your Media items. Make sure to name your folders in a way that makes it possible for editors to upload their media items in the right place.

To create a media folder, go to the Media section and click ... next to Media. Alternatively, you can right-click the Media node and choose Create. This will bring up the list of available media types. Select Folder, enter a name for the folder and click save.

Media Type properties

The Image Media Type has 5 properties (Upload Image, Width, Height, Size and Type) that is populated once the image is uploaded. These properties can be viewed in the Media section and accessed in your templates.

Except the Folder Media Type, the rest of the media types has 3 properties - Upload Image, Type, and Size.

Organizing and editing media items

The default view for the media section is a card view that let's you preview the different media files.

Click the items to select multiple media items and perform bulk operations like moving or deleting them. To edit properties on a media item, click the name of the item, which you will see once you hover over the item.

You can switch to a list view by clicking the view toggle next to the search field and selecting the listview.

Using media items in content

By adding a Media Picker property to a Document Type the editor will have the ability to select media items when creating content.

The Upload File property on the images use the Image Cropper Data Type. If crops are added to this you can adjust the individual crops on the media item and access them in templates. You can add crops by editing the Upload File property on the Image Media type in the Settings section.

Creating a Media Type

You can create your own Media Types and add tabs, properties, and control the structure of the Media tree as you would with Document Types. This means you can store information that is specific to the media on the item itself.

A Media Type is created in the Settings section using the Media Type editor.

Go to the Settings section. On the Media Types node click ... next to Media Types (or right click the Media Types node) to bring up the context menu. Here you can choose between creating a New Media Type or a Folder.

Having different folders for different media types makes it possible to restrict where media items can be created. Only allowing PDF uploads in a certain folder or employee images in another makes it easier for editors to keep the Media section organized.

Choose New Media Type. This will open the Media Type editor. It is similar to the editor used for creating Document Types. The difference is that Media Types define items for the Media section and you do not have the ability to assign a template for the Media Type.

Name the Media Type Employee Image. Choose an icon by clicking the icon to the left of the name.

Adding tabs/groups

Before we start adding properties to the Media Type we need to add a tab/group to put these in. To add a tab/group, Click on Add tab or Add group and call it Image.

For more information on adding a tab, see Using tabs article.

Adding properties

We need to add the same properties as on the default Image Media Type. These are:

umbracoFile
umbracoWidth
umbracoHeight
umbracoBytes
umbracoExtension

On the Image group, click Add property. Name it Upload image and change the alias to umbracoFile.

Click Add editor, search for cropper and choose Image cropper under Create new. This will create a new Image Cropper Data Type. The name of the new Data Type type is a bit long so rename it to Employee Image Cropper.

Add two new crops called Thumbnail (200px x 350px) and wideThumbnail (350px x 200px).

Name the remaining four properties Width, Height, Size and Type and give them the aliases as mentioned in the image below. They should all use the Label editor. As mentioned before these properties will automatically be populated once an image has been uploaded.

Defining a Media Type folder

Next up, we'll create a folder to hold the employee images. We could use the existing Folder Media Type but that would mean editors can upload employee images to any folder of that type. If we create a folder specifically for employee images there is only one place to put them thus making it easier to have an organized Media section.

Structure and inheritance

Go back to the Settings and create a new Media Type and name it Employee Images. Select the folder icon by clicking the icon to the left of the name.

We want the same basic functionality (same properties and tabs) as the Folder Media type and that can be achieved by clicking Compositions and selecting the Folder Media Type. Now, Employee images will inherit tabs and properties from the Folder Media Type.

Switch to a list view by clicking the List view tab and toggle the Enable list view option.

We need to allow the Employee Image Media Type in our new folder. Go to the Permissions tab. Click Add child under Employee Images and select Employee Image.

Finally, define where the folder can be created. We want to create the folder in the root of the Media section so select the Allow at root option at the top of the Permission tab.

Creating the folder and media items

Go to the Media section and click the menu icon next to Media and select the Employee images folder. Name it "Employee Images" and click Save.

There are four options to add a new media items to the folder, as you can see here:

Remember you can uncheck the Allow at root option on the Employee images Media Type to prevent editors from creating multiple folders of this type. This will not affect created folders, only disable the creation of new ones.

Cropping the images

If you select an image that has been uploaded to this folder you'll see the full image and the two crops we have defined below. Moving the pink focal point on the on the image will update the crops to focus accordingly. You can also edit the individual crops by selecting them and moving the image or adjust the slider to zoom.