SiteNow has support for images, documents, audio files, and content from external sources like YouTube, Vimeo, X (Twitter), Facebook, and the University of Iowa's UI Capture (Panopto) service. Collectively these are known as media items and that is how they are referred to throughout SiteNow. To learn more about the individual media types, click one of the links in the menu to learn more.

You can view all your website's media items on the Media Overview page (located at /admin/content/media). This page provides a sortable, filterable list of media items along with common actions for each item.

For documentation on the management of content items, see our content management page.

Replacing a File

When editing a media item you have the option to overwrite the existing file, indicated by the checked Overwrite original file checkbox. This will replace the existing file and use the same directory and filename (e.g. ../2020-09/filename.pdf). This can be useful if you have sent out hard-coded links in emails or other communications because the original file URL will remain the same, but the contents of the file will be replaced with the new upload.

If you uncheck Overwrite original file, this will upload the file as new, including a new file URL, and the media item will reference it instead of the old file. The old file will remain on the server temporarily but will no longer be tied to the media item. It will then be flagged for deletion and cleaned up during a garbage collection process that runs approximately every six hours. Once removed from the server, the old file's URL will return a HTTP status code of 404 (Page not found).

Regardless of whether Overwrite original file is checked or not, updating a file will update any content where the media item has been placed/referenced as long as it is not a hard-coded link (e.g. https://mysite.uiowa.edu/sites/mysite.uiowa.edu/files/2020-09/myfile.pdf). Anywhere you have referenced the media item directly through an autocomplete field will convert the link dynamically, so you don't have to worry about updating links to files.

Caching

When replacing certain media types like images and audio, the changes may not be immediately apparent. If previously downloaded, browsers will display a cached copy of the file for a period of time. People visiting your site for the first time should see the new file immediately. If you need to force browsers to download the new version of the file, you can uncheck the Overwrite original file checkbox when editing the media item.

Deleting Media

You can delete media items through the Media Overview page (admin/content/media) or by clicking the Delete tab next to the Edit and Usage tabs on a media item. Only select this option if your intention is to remove a media item forever, as there is no recovery option.

When you click the Delete button, a warning message will be displayed with a link to the Usages tab where you can find and clean up references to the media item. 

If you think you may need to upload the file again, but also do not want it on the site, we recommend that you download the file and/or save it to a shared file storage space for future review before deleting the file. You can always re-upload it in the future.

When you delete a media item, keep the following in mind.

  • Once you are able to delete the media item, editors won't be able to reference/place the media item anymore on the website.
  • The actual file on the server will still exist for about six hours until the garbage collection process runs.
  • There can be certain situations where the file on the server is not properly deleted. We can trigger site-wide cache clearing to free this up and/or investigate why the file was not released. Please contact us if you suspect that either of these are the case.

Usages

Sometimes while auditing a media item, you may want to find all places it is referenced or used. For this, you can click on the Usage tab next to the Edit and Delete tabs while viewing a media item. From here, you will find all pages that the media item is referenced from with various information on how it is used.

Each entry will link you directly to the content that the media item is referenced on. It is important to note however that the media item may be referenced in revisions that are not on the currently published version of that content.

Note: While this tool may find some or all references to the media item, it is not considered to be 100% accurate.