The current API(s) of the DAM module are not satisfying. One the one hand, a lot of work went into "trying to keep things open so we can expand later on", and the other, contradicting work tied the implementations with JCR too much. It's time to untangle it and clean it up. We need to be able to easily support external assets.

With MGNLDAM-249, we merged the then-split dam modules. It uses to be "dam module" and "dam app". The split ended up being almost virtual, with classes added to one or the other only to avoid cyclic dependencies, rather than properly splitting concerns.

We'll now be re-splitting them in a more granular fashion, which should also help supporting external assets and untangling some of the unwanted cyclic dependencies and complexity in the code. Here's the original proposal:

dam-api
dam-jcr (provides a JCR-based AssetProvider, essentially implementing dam-api)
dam-app (the app and choose dialog to navigate assets)
dam-templating (components specific to templating with dam assets)

Additionally, we'll have

dam-core (glue that ties and provides an assetprovider registry, the download servlet, linking, ...)
dam-bundle (zip/tgz)
optionally a dam-compatibility module that helps migrating the changed APIs

Main Concept page :
http://wiki.magnolia-cms.com/display/DEV/DAM+Module+App