Organizations often reuse previously approved content across many channels. With Content Modules, you can create groups of text, images, and other data that have passed review and quickly select content for reuse in new materials. You can also add new assets to Content Modules.
The Content Module object stores the metadata fields for the object, including the Product, Country, custom fields, and IDs. The content module can contain several Content Module Assets. The Content Module Asset object stores the material included in the Content Module. Content Module Assets include:
- Text Assets, selected from the claims library
- Supporting component assets within the Vault Library
- Additional text items, such as headers, copy text, and titles
- Rulesets, collections of business rules that provide instructions on how to use Content Module Assets
Creating Content Modules
Navigate to Business Admin > Objects > Content Modules to create a Content Module. After creating a Content Module, you can create and add Content Module Assets. To add Content Module Assets, click on the Content Module to open the Content Module object record detail page. Then, click + Claim, + Image, + Data, + Text, or + Rules to add that asset type. You can search and filter for assets in the dialog.
Once you populate a Content Module with assets, you can reorder assets by clicking or dragging and dropping the cards.
You can also click on an asset to view the Content Module Asset record. Click the asset to open it in quick view, which displays a thumbnail from the viewable rendition. You can edit Content Module Asset fields while in quick view. Vault displays if a Content Module Asset record includes incomplete required fields.
To remove an asset, click . When you’re finished, click Save or Save + Create. You can re-enter Edit mode by clicking and selecting Edit content or Edit details.
You may need to create several Content Modules with the same assets. We recommend entering a detailed description for each module to avoid confusion.
Important: Vault does not support object types for the Content Module object. Enabling object types for the Content Module object will greatly impact performance.
Relating Content Modules
Using the join objects Content Module Country and Content Module Product, you can relate Content Modules to multiple products and countries. You can also relate modules using the Modular Content document panel.
You can also navigate to Admin > Settings > Application Settings and, under Join Object Records, select the Enable Content Module Country Join Object Record Creation SDK and Enable Content Module Product Join Object Record Creation SDK checkboxes to enable automatic join record creation.
Content Module Rulesets
Rulesets are collections of business rules that can be used across multiple Content Modules. To create a custom Content Module Ruleset, navigate to Business Admin > Objects > Content Module Rulesets.
Reviewing & Approving Content Modules
When you’ve finished creating your Content Module, you can send the module for approval through the Content Module Approval workflow. To send the module for approval, click the Actions menu, select Start Approval, and assign users as Content Module Reviewer and Editor. Once the module is approved, you can begin using it in your materials.
Creating Approval Documents
When configured, Vault generates an Approval Document as part of the Content Module approval process. The Approval Document summarizes the claims and assets in Content Modules into a single readable document and allows reviewers to approve groups of text, image, and data components at once rather than individually. To configure the Approval Document, you’ll need to add the Generate Approval Document user action to the Content Module Lifecycle. We recommend adding the user action to the In Review state and using the Generate Approval Document label.
By default, Vault assigns the Approval Document to the Content Module Approval Document Lifecycle. You can assign the Approval Document to alternate or multiple lifecycles by editing the Approval Document subtype. If the Approval Document belongs to two (2) or more lifecycles, Vault sends it through the first lifecycle alphabetically.
Using the Modular Content Panel
The Modular Content document panel displays any Content Modules and Content Module Assets in a document. The panel also displays links to Text Assets and to any manually created link annotations that contain assets from Content Module Assets after the Enhanced Suggested Links action runs. Click to open the Modular Content document panel.
Note: Vault only displays the Modular Content panel on documents using the Source Content Module field.
Adding & Viewing Content Modules
The panel displays Content Modules added during document creation and those added manually. Click to show or hide linked and unlinked Assets.
To add Content Modules manually, click the plus (+) icon in the Modular Content panel.
You can also identify Content Modules when first uploading a document to Vault by selecting the modules in the Source Content Module field.
Vault displays active links in blue text and inactive links in gray. You can hover over an active module or asset link to view the hovercard. Vault displays document-linked Content Module Assets with the thumbnail of the document in the hovercard. Clicking an active link opens Annotate mode and jumps to the link’s location in the document.
Click next to a Content Module or Content Module Asset within the panel to open the record in a mini-viewer window.
You can use Link Annotations to manually link to Content Module Assets within the Modular Content document info panel. If you create a manual link annotation to either a Text Asset or a Content Module Asset document, Vault displays the asset as an active link in the panel. Click the asset to navigate to the annotation within the document.
When a Content Module Asset is linked to multiple matches, Vault displays a square number icon next to the asset in the Modular Content panel. The icon represents the number of annotations linked to the asset to a maximum of five (5). You can click the asset link or the icon to open Annotate mode and view the asset matches.
Vault displays the icon when a Content Module Asset is linked to a pending Suggested Link annotation. You can click the asset link or icon to enter Annotate mode and navigate to the pending Suggested Link annotation. Accepting the Suggested Link annotation removes the icon next to the Content Module Asset. If you reject the Suggested Link annotation, Vault removes the icon and displays an inactive asset link.
If a Content Module Asset is linked to multiple annotations and at least one annotation is a pending Suggested Link, Vault displays the icon. You can click the icon or the Content Module Asset to open a modal and enter Annotate mode. From there, you can navigate to the annotations. Accepting the pending Suggested Link converts the icon to the standard multiple link icon upon refresh. You can view up to five (5) asset matches. Rejecting the Suggested Link annotation will convert the icon to a multiple icon upon refresh.
Adding Asset Links
If Vault cannot identify an Asset, you can click to manually add a link to a document or Text Asset, then select an area on the document to create a manual link annotation to the Text Asset or document identified in the Content Module Asset. You can also add a link to an image asset. The link type depends on the Content Module Asset Type.
Rules
The Modular Content panel also displays Content Module Rulesets under the Rules tab.
Downloading Content Modules
In the Modular Content document panel, click to download Content Modules in a ZIP file. You can also enable the Download Content Modules action on one or more states in the Content Module Lifecycle and perform this action on individual Content Module records. You may need to update Content Module object permissions to allow users to download individual Content Module records. Vault notifies you when the Content Modules are available to download. The process may take several minutes to complete.
When you download Content Modules, Vault generates a read-only Excel file containing the Content Module manifest. Each Content Module in the export has its own tab in the spreadsheet. These tabs contain all standard and system-managed fields on the Content Modules, such as Products, Countries, and Content Module Assets.
You cannot download Content Modules if the total ZIP file size exceeds 100 GB in size.
If you do not have the correct permissions to view Content Modules and Content Module Assets, you cannot view the downloaded files or the contents of the manifest.
Related Permissions
You must have the Annotate document role permission to create annotations. To create link annotations, you also need the Edit Relationships document role permission.
You must have the Object: Content Module: Read and Object: Content Module Asset: Read permissions to view module and asset records. To download Content Modules, you must have these permissions along with Object: Text Assets: Read, Object: Content Module Rulesets: Read, and Object: Ruleset Rules: Read. You must also have View Document, View Content, and Download Source permissions on documents linked within image and data Content Module Asset Types.