Carson Gibbons
October 18, 2016
The Problem
I worked at a digital agency for several years with my co-founder of Cosmic. We built numerous web applications for a range of clients, usually starting with static PSD's that we would hand off to a front end developer for HTML / CSS application as well as responsiveness on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile.
At this stage in the process we were typically using stock photography or images pulled from Google or Pinterest, dependent on whether or not we had created mood boards prior to the development phase. At this point, the client would have finished the monumental "DropBox Website Folder." This folder would systematically lay out the format for the website based on sitemap or existing comps, coupled with the media, images and content the client would want to see present on launch day.
Far too often the digital team was unclear on which media file to place where, either due to client mislabeling, agency miscommunication or a simple lack of updates to the media files within the DropBox account. All too often all content and images would be accounted for, only to realize that the sitemap had grown because someone forgot (insert page title here).
The Situation
Legacy systems like WordPress make uploading media and images difficult and easy to mess up for a junior content editor. The curation and migration of content from a DropBox to a WordPress usually makes a lengthy stop on the agency and / or client's internal servers for additional review, editing and organization.
In today's digital age where teams are working on real-time applications that require publishing content at a moment's notice, this system is obviously bloated and flawed. What is stopping agencies from combining DropBox with their CMS? What prevents them from extending a link to a shared media folder within the actual Content Management System itself, rather than employing a third-party storage system to store files until they are ready to be mislabeled, mishandled and stored + published within another system?
The Solution
The answer is letting the same API that delivers your content to all web-connected devices also store the media you need to publish. Cosmic is an API-first content management platform that is powered by its JSON API, which delivers content globally to any web-connected device. This gives you the freedom to build your application using any programming language and allows for easier scaling within your development team. Read more about how The Cosmic Stack is simplifying the content management process through a content management API.
To begin storing and categorizing resources and media, set up a new bucket for your new web application and invite users to your bucket for content storage and curation. Here's how...
Create Your Free Account
Add a New Bucket
Add a New User
Adding a New User to Your Bucket
Unlocking editor access to the new user (which could be a client or the content team) is sufficient as that user can add and group media and shared resources within media folders for eventual publishing through the Cosmic API.
Adding Media Folders
Click "Add media folder"
Save your new media folder and begin adding files and media to your media folder so that your clients and team can access it later.
I created an example web application so I can demonstrate how I cataloged my example media within the Cosmic Dashboard. In my Global Media view, I can see all of the example images I have uploaded.
I have separated my media into three folders: Brand Standards | Marketing Banners | Internal Resources. I can filter between media folders at my leisure, using them as separate client content folders, internal team documents, shared resources, etc.
This is a quick example of a down and dirty trick with an API-first cloud-based Content Management Platform. When your team is ready to start development, assets have already been added to your bucket and you can immediately begin prototyping your application with the uploaded resources.
Cosmic is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic API, please reach out to us on Twitter or Slack.
Read More
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