Naming Conventions

A best practices guide towards implementing a system for adding names, tags and descriptions to digital assets within the Cornell University DAM. The DAM uses a folder structure, which should be very familiar to all users.

Project Name

Using consistent project names are a way to track all elements that are associated with that project, whether it's photography, video, marketing campaign, or a one-page flyer. The project name should be applied to the folder and all assets within that folder. Project names should include each of the following elements:

1. Your college/unit: A shorthand for the asset's owner, such as CALS, AAD, CVM, etc.
2. Date: YYYYMMDD, either the date of the event or the date the image was created
3. Subject: Commencement, Slope Day, Lab Research, Faculty portrait, etc.
4. Detail: If needed, this can either be descriptive (Photographers initials) or numerical (01, 02, 03 for frame number)

Examples:

• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day
• CALS_20250501_Dairy-Barn
• CCE_20250628_4-H_RJ

File Names

File names should mirror the project name. Using the above examples, within the AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day folder, there would be still photos, video clips, and the completed video:

• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day_001.tif
• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day_026.tif
• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day_035.tif
• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day_02.mov
• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day_04.mov
• AAP_20250328_Dragon-Day.prpoj

Punctuation

• Between each element, use underscores. Do not add spaces. Within an element, use hyphens.
• Keep file name shorter than 50 characters
• Use periods only in the file extension (.jpg, .tif, mv4, etc.)
• Use only alphanumeric characters (A-Z), digits (0-9), hyphens, and underscores.

There are certain characters that are not accepted in file names. This means that users cannot manually rename these files with those characters or rename the files with API. The invalid characters are:

' (apostrophe)
double (or more) spaces
< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
“ (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)

Other Best Practices

• Be descriptive: Names should let the user know enough about the content before opening the file. Use common or agreed terms to describe the contents.
• Be clear: Be careful with abbreviations or acronyms that may not be clear to others. Use terms that are understood by all users.
• Dates: For file names with dates to sort correctly, use year-month-date (YYYYMMDD).
• Numbers: For names with numbers to sort correctly, always use a minimum of three digits. For example, "001, 002, 010" will sort in order, whereas 1, 2, 10 will sort as 1, 10, 2.
• Write it down: Make a list of agreed names, abbreviations, and acronyms for best practices and workflow. This can serve as both a reference or training material.
• Be consistent.