Import assets | Kontent.ai Learn

{
  "id": "8d0baeb7-1165-5f13-b72e-b23fc39fc549",
  "file_name": "brno-cafe-1080px.jpg",
  "title": "Brno Cafe",
  "size": 481939,
  "image_width": 1920,
  "image_height": 1440,
  "type": "image/jpeg",
  "file_reference": {
    "id": "8660e19c-7bbd-48a3-bb51-721934c7756c",
    "type": "internal"
  },
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "language": {
        "id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
      },
      "description": "Cafe in Brno"
    },
    {
      "language": {
        "id": "d1f95fde-af02-b3b5-bd9e-f232311ccab8"
      },
      "description": "Café en Brno"
    }
  ],
  "external_id": "brno-cafe-image",
  "last_modified": "2021-04-10T09:44:39.0111761Z"
}

How importing assets work

Importing assets using the Management API is a 3-step process.

Upload a file to Kontent.ai.
Create a new asset using a reference to the uploaded file.
Link to the asset from a content item's language variant.

The result has the following structure:

1. Upload files

To upload a file via API, send a POST request to the <YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID>/files/<YOUR_FILE_NAME> endpoint with your project's environment ID and your file name filled in. For example, 975bf280-fd91-488c-994c-2f04416e5ee3/files/my%20file%232.png.

Set the Content-type header to the MIME type matching your file. For example, for a jpg image set the header to image/jpeg.
Set the Content-length header to a number matching the size of the file in bytes. For example, if the image is 12 kB, set the header to 12288.

Don't forget to set your Management API key in the request's authorization header (or the ManagementClient definition when using an SDK). You can only upload files from local storage. The Management API doesn't support uploading files from a URL.

This returns a file_reference object.

You'll use the file_reference object to create the actual asset in the next step.

2. Create assets

To create an asset using the uploaded file, it's best to perform an upsert operation. This way, you can send the request repeatedly to update your asset. This means sending a PUT request to the <YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID>/assets/external-id/<ASSET_EXTERNAL_ID> endpoint with your project's environment ID and an external ID of your choice for the asset filled in.

In the body of the request, specify these properties:

file_reference – use the file reference you obtained in the previous step to link the asset with your file.
(Optional) title – specify a title for the asset (displayed in the administration interface).
descriptions – specify an asset description for each language.
- language – can be specified by its codename or internal id.
- description – string with a description of the asset.

See our API reference for more details on upserting assets by external id. The response will include an asset object:

To verify the creation of the asset, you can view it in Kontent.ai:

3. Use assets in content items

The content of an item is stored in a specific language variant. Within the language variant, you can use the imported asset in asset and rich text elements. The asset might need to meet the limitations set for the item's content type.

Use assets in Asset elements

To use the imported asset in an asset element, you need to upsert a language variant by sending a PUT request to an endpoint specifying the content item (for example, /items/external-id/ext-cafe-brno) and the language of the variant (for example, /variants/codename/en-US). (This is the same item you worked with in Importing to Kontent.ai.) The request body must contain a single elements object. In it, you specify the content elements you want to update – in this case, only the photo asset element. The asset element takes an array of Reference objects, each containing either the internal ID or external ID of the asset.

The language variant of the item was updated and the Photo element now contains the imported asset. You can verify this by opening the item in Kontent.ai:

Use assets in rich text elements

You can also use assets as inline images in rich text elements. For this example, we created a new item of the Article content type (which contains a Rich text element) with the external ID new-cafes. To add your asset, you need to upsert a language variant by sending a PUT request to the /items/external-id/new-cafes/variants/codename/en-US endpoint, specifying the content item and the language of the variant. The request body must contain a single elements object. In it, you specify the content elements you want to update – in this case, only the body_copy rich text element. Use the <figure> HTML element to add an image using its external ID.

See the rich text model in our API Reference for more examples of links inside rich text elements.

// Using ES6 syntax
// This approach works when using Node.js.
import { ManagementClient } from '@kontent-ai/management-sdk';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs'

const client = new ManagementClient({
  environmentId: '<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID>',
  apiKey: '<YOUR_API_KEY>'
});

const data = readFileSync('./<YOUR_PATH>/brno-cafe-1080px.jpg');

const response = await client.uploadBinaryFile()
  .withData({
    binaryData: data,
    contentLength: data.byteLength,
    contentType: 'image/jpeg',
    filename: 'brno-cafe-1080px.jpg'
  })
  .toPromise();

// Tip: Find more about JS/TS SDKs at https://kontent.ai/learn/javascript
// Using ES6 syntax
import { ManagementClient } from '@kontent-ai/management-sdk';

const client = new ManagementClient({
  environmentId: '<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID>',
  apiKey: '<YOUR_API_KEY>'
});

// Uses the file reference object obtained in step 1
const response = await client.upsertAsset()
  .byAssetExternalId('brno-cafe-image')
  .withData(
    {
      file_reference: {
        id: '8660e19c-7bbd-48a3-bb51-721934c7756c',
        type: 'internal'
      },
      title: "Brno Cafe",
      descriptions: [
        {
          language: {
            codename: 'en-US'
          },
          description: 'Cafe in Brno'
        },
        {
          language: {
            codename: 'es-ES'
          },
          description: 'Café en Brno'
        }
      ]
    }
  )
  .toPromise();

// Tip: Find more about JS/TS SDKs at https://kontent.ai/learn/javascript
// Using ES6 syntax
import { ManagementClient } from '@kontent-ai/management-sdk';

const client = new ManagementClient({
  environmentId: '<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID>',
  apiKey: '<YOUR_API_KEY>'
});

const response = await client.upsertLanguageVariant()
  .byItemExternalId('ext-cafe-brno')
  .byLanguageCodename('en-US')
  .withElements([
    {
      element: {
        codename: 'photo'
      },
      value: [
        {
          external_id: "brno-cafe-image"
        }
      ]
    }
  ])
  .toPromise();

// Tip: Find more about JS/TS SDKs at https://kontent.ai/learn/javascript
// Using ES6 syntax
import { ManagementClient } from '@kontent-ai/management-sdk';

const client = new ManagementClient({
  environmentId: '<YOUR_ENVIRONMENT_ID>',
  apiKey: '<YOUR_API_KEY>'
});

const response = await client.upsertLanguageVariant()
  .byItemExternalId('new-cafes')
  .byLanguageCodename('en-US')
  .withElements([
    {
      element: {
        codename: 'body_copy'
      },
      value: "<p>...</p> <figure data-asset-external-id=\"brno-cafe-image\"></figure>"
    }
  ])
  .toPromise();