Introduction

Who is this migration guide for?

This step-by-step migration guide is for you if:

1. You are an integrator for an Akeneo PIM projectOR you belong to the IT department of a customer using Akeneo PIM.
2. AND You would like to migrate to a 4.0 a PIM project that uses the PAM to manage its digital assets. So if you are a PAM user, you can ask your IT department or your integrator to read it. 
    

Why is an asset migration required in the 4.0?

In the 4.0, we released a brand new asset manager, with a new flexible structure to model and enrich you assets.

This new structure is no longer compatible with the non-structured assets in our previous Product Asset Manager (PAM).

And the PAM disappears in 4.0, so if you want to continue to use assets in the 4.0, an asset migration is needed.

But don't worry this migration guide is here to explain, in details, how you can migrate your PAM assets to our new 4.0 Asset Manager and walk you through this migration step by step.

"Migrating the PAM assets": what does it mean?

Migrating the PAM assets means that the following asset information will be migrated from your existing PAM to the new 4.0 Asset Manager:

• For each asset, its asset properties (code, description, tags, end of use at)
• For each asset, its asset reference files / binaries (if the asset is localizable, one reference file per locale)
• For each asset, its asset variations files / binaries (one variation file per channel for each reference file)

And for each asset, its links to products and product models (the asset collection product attributes values) will be kept.

What about my connectors?

The existing PAM API endpoints have been deprecated in 3.2 and removed in 4.0.

So your connectors that previously imported or exported your PAM assets need to be updated to fit our new 4.0 asset structure.

Please note that our Akeneo Connectors (Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud) are compatible with the Asset Manager.

How can I migrate my PAM assets?

Your PIM is in 4.0 and you want to migrate your PAM assets?

To fit all your needs and use cases, we provide 3 strategies to migrate your PAM assets:

1. A fully-automatic migration
2. A family-by-family migration
3. A fully-manual migration

To sum up, for these 3 migration strategies, the migration steps are common but are more or less automated:

1. Export the PAM assets in CSV files
2. Create the asset families in the 4.0 Asset Manager
3. Import the PAM assets CSV files in the new 4.0 asset format
4. Migrate the former Akeneo PAM asset collection product attributes into new 4.0 Asset Manager collection product attributes and link them to the asset families

1-The fully-automatic migration

In this migration, you will have a single asset family to gather all your existing PAM assets.

Everything is automated, you just need to launch one single command and your PAM assets will be migrated in the 4.0 new Asset Manager:

• One asset family will be created automatically gathering all your assets.
• All your assets will be migrated and linked to the new asset family.
• All your existing PAM asset collection product attributes will be linked to the new asset family.
• And all your links between assets and products / product models will be kept.

If you want to try this migration, please follow this step-by-step fully-automatic migration guide.

2-The family-by-family migration

In this migration, you can have several asset families for your existing PAM assets.

You will need to manually define 2 things:

• For each asset, its asset family.
• For each asset collection product attribute, the linked asset family.

Other steps are automated, you just need to launch a few commands and your PAM assets will be migrated in the 4.0 new Asset Manager:

• The asset families will be automatically created in the PIM.
• All your assets will be migrated and linked to the asset family you defined.
• All your existing PAM asset collection product attributes will be linked to the asset family.
• And all your links between assets and products / product models will be kept.

You want to try this migration, please follow the step-by-step family-by-family migration guide.

3-The fully-manual migration

In this migration, you can have several asset families for your existing PAM assets.

You will structure, directly in the PIM, all the asset families you want with their attributes and you will be able to control each step of the migration.

You want to try this migration, please follow the step-by-step fully-manual migration guide.

What are the migration constraints?

No change on asset links to products

It means that with the asset migration:

• You can't modify the links between assets and products.
• You can't change the number of PAM asset collection product attributes (For example, if you had 3 PAM asset collection product attributes, you will have 3 asset collection product attributes in 4.0).
• You can't update the code of these asset collection product attributes.

Why? Because the links between assets and products are vital, they are exported to your sales channels. So we want to keep them as they must have the slightest impact on your channels.

FAQ

I have only one asset collection attribute in the PAM, how can I migrate my assets?

If you have only one PAM asset collection product attribute and all your assets have the same format (for example, you manage only images), we recommend you to use the fully-automatic migration to migrate your assets.

They will be migrated to a single new asset family. 
 

I have several asset collection attributes in the PAM and each asset collection contains a type of assets (images, PDF...), how can I migrate my assets?

In this case, we recommend you to use the family-by-family migration.

Several families will be created automatically and you will have to define to which family your assets will belong. 
 

I don't have a lot of time to spend on a migration

If you want to go fast in this asset migration, you can first use the fully-automatic migration to test if it fits your needs.

And if it doesn't fit your needs, you can take a look at the other migration strategies: family-by-family migration or fully-manual migration guide. 
 

I want to control each step of the migration

Please follow the step-by-step fully-manual migration guide. 
 

I would like to migrate my asset connectors

The existing PAM API endpoints have been deprecated in 3.2 and removed in 4.0.

So your connectors that previously imported or exported your PAM assets need to be updated to fit our new 4.0 asset structure.

If you use an Akeneo premium connector (with Magento or Salesforce Ecommerce cloud), they will be soon compatible with the new Asset Manager.

What about my PAM categories?

If you use categories in the PAM, they will be migrated.

The categories which have assets classified will be the only ones migrated.

In the new asset family created, categories attribute will be a text or a multiple option attribute:

• If you have less than 100 categories for this family, it will be a multiple options attribute. You can use it as a filter to search your assets.
• If you have more than 100 categories for this family, it will be a text attribute (categories are separated by a comma). You can use the full text search to search assets in it.

If you have several new asset families, categories won't be shared between the different families.

What about my PAM tags?

If you use tags in the PAM, they will be migrated.

In the new asset family created, tags attribute will be a text or a multiple options attribute:

• If you have less than 100 tags for this family, it will be a multiple options attribute. You can use it as a filter to search your assets.
• If you have more than 100 tags for this family, it will be a text attribute (tags are separated by a comma). You can use the full text search to search assets in it.

If you have several new asset families, tags won't be shared between the different families.

I used artificial transformations in the PAM

In the new Asset Manager, transformations are no longer mandatory (and are also more powerful).

So if you don't want to use transformations, you don't have to set a transformation.

But as transformations were mandatory in the PAM, during the migration, we migrated your assets variations files. If you don't use them, you can remove them (refer to this step in each migration strategy).