Getting started
Welcome to the VLIZ DAMS, the Digital Asset Management System for the Flanders Marine Institute. This page walks through the basics: what the system does, how to log in, and what the main building blocks are.
What is the VLIZ DAMS?
The DAMS is where VLIZ stores, describes, and shares its digital media: photos, maps, publications, audio/video, and archival material. Behind the scenes it is built on the Elody platform and exposes:
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| Asset management | Upload, version, and serve media files |
| Cataloguing | Describe assets via albums, media, archival collections |
| Vocabularies | Link to controlled lists from the VLIZ vocab server (marine regions, partners, projects, events) |
| Search & filter | Faceted search across all entities |
| API access | REST + GraphQL access for integrations |
Authentication
Login goes through Keycloak (auth.inuits.io, realm vliz) with Marinepass as the federated identity provider. In practice:
- Visit one of the environments listed on the home page.
- Click Log in.
- You are redirected to Marinepass via Keycloak; sign in with your VLIZ credentials.
Building blocks at a glance
| Entity | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Album | Groups related media (e.g. Koksijde 2014, Coastal monitoring 2023) |
| Media | A single asset record (a photo, video, audio file). One media entity can wrap multiple mediafiles (e.g. an original + derivatives). |
| Mediafile | The actual binary plus its file-level metadata (filename, copyright, owner, license) |
| Map | Geographic / cartographic asset — has projection, scale, bounding box |
| Publication | Document-style content (reports, articles) |
| ArchivalCollection | A long-running collection (often linked to a creator/archive) |
| CollectionPart | A subdivision of an archival collection |
| Vocabulary entities | Keyword, Language, Context, MarineRegion, AssetCategory, Confidentiality, License, Event, Project, Partner, Person |
The full field-level reference lives under Data model → Entity reference.