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A collection is a set of assets within Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Assets. Use collections to share assets between users.
- A collection can include assets from different locations.
- You can share collections with various users that are assigned different levels of privileges, including viewing, editing, and so on.
You can share multiple collections with a user. Each collection contains references to assets. The referential integrity of assets is maintained across collections.
Collections are of the following types, based on the way they collate assets:
- A collection that contains a static reference list of assets, folders, and other collections
- A Smart collection that dynamically includes assets based on a search criteria
Smart collections have a grey band across their thumbnail image in the Card view, which distinguishes them from collections that include a static list of asset references. The thumbnail images of static collections have a white band running across them in the Card view.


You can create a collection either with static references or based on a search criteria-based filter. You can also create a collection from a lightbox.
You can create a collection with static references, for example a collection with references to assets, folders, collections, spin sets, and image sets.
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Add members to the collection and assign appropriate permissions. You can optionally add a thumbnail image for the collection.
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To enable the members to share collections with other users, provide the dam-users group read permissions at the path home/users. Give permission to the users at /content/dam/collections location to allow the users to view the Collections in pop up lists. Alternatively, make the user a part of dam-users group.
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Click Create and then click OK to close the dialog. A collection with the specified title and properties is opened in the Collections console.
Note:
AEM Assets lets you create review tasks for a collection similar to the way you create review tasks for an assets folder.
To add assets to the collection, navigate to the Assets console. For details, see Adding assets to a collection.
You can drag assets from the Assets UI to a collection. You can also create a copy of a collection and drag the assets there.
A smart collection uses a search criteria to dynamically populate assets. To create a smart collection:
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In the Omni Search box, enter the search keywords and then select a search criteria from the Search panel. For example, to search for assets that include "Lake" in the title and were modified a month ago, enter "Lake" in the Omni Search box and then press Enter. Adjust the slider appropriately in the Last Modified criteria.
If you add custom search facets to the Search panel, select one or more options you configured for the search facets. For example, select Images for File Types to search for images.
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Note:
If you select Public, the smart collection becomes available to everyone with the Owner role after you create it.
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If you deselect the Public option, the DAM user group is no longer associated with the smart collection.
Note:
If you make a Smart collection public after upgrading from AEM 5.6.1 to AEM 6.2, it becomes available to everyone with the Owner role.
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Smart collections use a search query to populate assets. Therefore, static references to assets and folders are not applicable to them.
Smart collections are built by saving a search so you can alter their content by modifying the search parameters of the saved search.
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You can also view smart collections from the Saved Searches list in the Search panel.
You can edit the metadata of multiple collections simultaneously. This functionality helps you quickly replicate common metadata in multiple collections.
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To append the new metadata with the existing metadata, select Apend mode. If you do not select this option, the new metadata replaces the existing metadata in the fields. Click Submit.
Note:
The Append mode works only for fields that can contain multiple values. For fields that can contain only a single value, the new metadata is not appended to the existing value in the field even if you select Append mode.
The Search feature within Collections supports both Searching for Collections and Searching for assets within a Collection.
You can search collections from the Collections console. When you search with keywords in the Omni Search box, AEM Assets searches for collection names, metadata, and the tags added to the collections.

In the Collections console, click a collection to open it.
Within a collection, AEM Asset search is restricted to assets (and their tags and metadata) within the collection that you are viewing.

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Modify the collection settings in the Collection Settings page. For example, modify the collection title, descriptions, members, and permissions as discussed in Adding Collections.
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Note:
You can also detete Smart collections by deleting saved searches.
Downloading a collection will download the entire hierarchy of assets within the collection, including folders and child collections.
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In the Download dialog, click Download. If you want to download the renditions of the assets within the collection, select Renditions. Select the Email option to send an email notification to the owner of the collection.
When you select a collection to download, the complete folder hierarchy under the collection is downloaded. To include each collection you download (including assets in child collections nested under the parent collection) in an individual folder, select Create separate folder for each asset.
Note:
Smart collections cannot be nested. In other words, Smart collections cannot contain any other collection.
In the Assets UI, you can search or filter assets based on certain rules, search criteria, or custom search facets. If you save these as Saved Searches, you can access them later from the Saved Searches list in the Search panel. Creating a Saved Search also creates a Smart Collection.

Note:
You can share smart collections i the same way as you share static collections.
Editing saved searches is the same as editing smart collections. For details, see Editing a smart collection.
You can run a workflow for the assets within a collection. If the collection contains nested collections, the workflow also runs on the assets within the nested collections. However, if the collection and the nested collection contain duplicate assets, the workflow only runs once for such assets.