Upload digital objects¶

Link a single digital object to an archival description¶

A single digital object can be linked directly to an existing archival description in AtoM via the “Link digital object” option. Users can either upload a digital object, or link to an existing resource available on the web. Instructions on how to do both are included below.

To link a single digital object:

1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description in AtoM. You can do this by browsing or by searching for a specific archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Link digital object”.

3. AtoM will redirect you to the link digital object edit page. Users can either upload a digital object, or link to an existing digital object available on the internet.

4. To upload a digital object locally, cick the “Choose File” button to navigate to and select a file on your computer or device. Click “Open” once the item has been selected from the window that will appear.
5. To link to an object on the internet, enter the URL to the external object to which you wish to link.

Important

To link to a digital object via the web, you must enter a URL that ends with the file extension of the resource to which you are trying to link - for example, to link to an image, the URL should end with .jpg, .png, etc. You can usually get to this URL by clicking on the resource directly, or by right-clicking and selecting “View image” etc in your browser.

6. Click the “Create” button in the button block. When you return to the view page, the reference display copy will be displayed in the digital object field, above the other fields linked to that archival description.

   Note

   Users can view or play the reference display copy (depending on the type of digital object). Authenticated (i.e. logged-in) users can also download the master digital object.

7. Objects with multiple pages, such as multi-page TIFFs or PDF files, will by default be displayed with single-page reference display copies. To have them viewed with a pager to allow the user to browse through the pages, go to Admin > Settings > Global > Upload multi-page files as multiple descriptions and select “Yes”; this will also cause all pages of a multi- page object to appear individually as child records of the description to which the object was uploaded. (See: settings).

You can upload any file format, but only supported formats can be viewed or played directly in AtoM. For a list of formats, see File formats. Formats that are not supported can still be uploaded: clicking the object will download it to the user’s desktop where (assuming the user has the required software) it can be viewed or played.

See below for more information on making changes to your digital object.

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Upload multiple digital objects¶

In AtoM, there is a 1:1 relationship between archival descriptions and digital objects - that is, only one digital object may be associated with an archival description, and all digital objects require an associated description. However, to enable a rapid workflow where users can upload multiple digital objects without first having to create associated descriptions, AtoM includes an option to upload multiple digital objects at once, as children of a selected archival description. Users can choose what level of description is used when the placeholder descriptions are created; a title can also be added to each uploaded digital object, which will then be used as the title for the related description.

To upload multiple digital objects in AtoM:

1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description in AtoM. You can do this by browsing or by searching for a specific archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Import digital objects”.

3. Select a title for the objects - this will be used as the title for the associated archival description that will be created for each object uploaded. Each object will also have its own title field once selected, but if you do not wish to individually name each object, an automated title can be added to all objects using the title field at the top of the upload page. Currently the default is image 01, image 02, etc. (which will appear as a placeholder (i.e. image %dd%) in the “Title field”).

4. Choose a level of description. Unlike the Link a single digital object to an archival description option, which attaches the digital object directly to the archival description at that level, the “Import multiple objects” option requires the user to designate a level of description (e.g.: Fonds, Subfonds, Collection, Series, Subseries, File, Item, Record group, Part, etc). This level of description will be used for the new children that are generated as part of the upload.

5. Click the blue “Select files” link and select multiple files to upload.
6. Once selected, the page will show previews of all the objects. If you like, you can edit the title for each object under to the preview. Remember, the title you enter here will be the title used for the associated archival description that will be created for each digital object uploaded.

7. You can quit the upload process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; any digital objects already uploaded will not be saved. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Import” will also result in no new digital objects being uploaded.
8. Click the “Import” button in the button block when you are satisfied with your changes. When you return to the view page, you will see that the objects have all been attached to the archival description as child records of that description. If the digital object Carousel is enabled (see Default page elements for instructions on enabling or disabling the carousel), you will also see the thumbnails of your uploaded digital objects in the carousel.

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Upload PDF¶

A user can link a single PDF and import multiple PDFs into AtoM. A full-text search of the content of the PDF is available through the main search box. PDFs that have a text layer will work, including all OCR PDFs and born-digital PDFs that include a text layer (e.g., exported Word documents) will work. Search results will refer users to the PDF that contains the search term(s), but will not reveal the location of the term(s) within the PDF.

Currently, AtoM 2.x truncates PDF text after the first 65,535 bytes.

As mentioned above, it is possible to upload multi-page TIFFs or PDF files to be displayed with a page viewer and to upload each page as a child object of the parent. To enable this feature, see settings.

Otherwise, the process for uploading PDFs is the same as described above.

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Edit digital objects¶

Any digital object that has been uploaded and linked to an archival description can be edited at any time by an authenticated (i.e. logged-in) user. To do this:

1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description that has an existing digital object.
2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Edit digital object”.
3. You will be redirected to the digital object’s edit page. On this page, all representations (i.e. master representation, reference representation and thumbnail representation) of the digital object will be listed, along with information on their Filename, Filesize and Media Type.
4. The Media type is used by the Media type facet in the search/browse pages - in some cases, AtoM might not properly detect the media type, and you can adjust it here for better results. Values include: Audio, Image, Video, Text, and Other. For more information on filter facets in AtoM, see: Facet filters.

Edit reference and thumbnail representations¶

5. If you wish to use a different image as the thumbnail or reference version this is also performed from the Edit digital object screen. First click delete in Reference representation or Thumbnail area.

6. AtoM will ask the user to confirm that they would like to delete the thumbnail/reference image. After confirming, the Edit digital object screen will allow the user to upload a new reference representation by clicking Browse and selecting a file from their computer, or auto-generate a new representation from the master image.

Edit the filename of a linked digital object¶

For locally uploaded digital objects, you can edit the file name of the digital object after it has already been uploaded, using the “Rename” module. Once edited, AtoM will automatically update all related file paths to ensure that the link between the digital object and the associated archival description is maintained.

The Rename module used to edit the linked digital object filename can also be used to edit the title of the associated archival description, and its slug - detailed instructions on how to use it for these other purposes are included on the Archival Descriptions documentation page - see: Rename the title or slug of an archival description.

To change the filename of a linked digital object:

1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description with a linked digital object in AtoM. You can do this by browsing or by searching for a specific archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Scroll down to the button block at the bottom of the page, and click on the “More” button - a menu will open with further options. Click on “Rename” to open the Rename module.

3. AtoM will redirect you to the Rename module page. You will see 3 fields - one for the title of the description, one for the slug; the third field is for the filename of the digital object linked to the description.

4. To the right of the edit fields, there is a checkbox corresponding to each field. By default, the title and slug checkboxes will be checked, and the filename field will be unchecked. The checkbox associated with a field must be checked to enable editing. You can uncheck these fields at any time to disable them - doing so will undo any changes made and prevent the field from updating when the “Update” button is clicked. To edit the filename of the linked digital object, check the “Update filename” box. You also might wish to uncheck the Title and Slug boxes, to prevent any accidental edits.
5. Place your cursor in the filename field and make changes as necessary. For reference, the original value before your changes is displayed below the field.

6. If you do not wish to save your changes, you can click the “Cancel” button in the button block at the bottom of the Rename module page. Note that navigating away from the Rename page will also result in no changes being saved.
7. When you are finished making your edits, save your changes by clicking the “Update” button located in the button block at the bottom of the Rename module page. AtoM will redirect you to the view page for the related archival description. A notification banner at the top of the page will let you know that the description has been updated.

8. You can see the updated filename in the Digital object metadata area at the bottom of the record. If you are unhappy with the results, you can repeat steps 1-7 as necessary.

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Delete digital objects¶

To delete a digital object that has been uploaded and linked to an archival description:

1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description that has an existing digital object.
2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Edit digital object”. You will be redirected to the digital object’s edit page.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Delete”. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to “Delete” the digital object; click “Delete” once again. You will be redirected to the archival description’s view page.

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Digital object storage¶

In AtoM, administrators can track digital object storage per repository. Storage limits may be placed on individual repositories by in-house server capacity or on hosted server agreements.

If you are utilizing a multi-institutional / portal instance of AtoM, you will need to check with the site administrator to learn the digital object storage limitations.

For more information, see Managing digital object storage.

Files formats¶

A number of file formats are supported as digital objects in AtoM. Files in other formats can still be uploaded to AtoM; they just cannot be directly accessed or streamed within AtoM itself. In these cases the user must download the file from AtoM to his or her desktop and (assuming the user has the requisite software) access the content there.

The table below shows image, audio and video formats which can be viewed in AtoM:

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