Automatically tag and classify images using Amazon's AI-powered Rekognition service — triggered directly from a dotCMS workflow action.
What it does
The AWS Rekognition integration in dotCMS provides AI-powered automatic image tagging through workflow automation. When an image passes through a workflow action configured with the Rekognition actionlet, AWS analyzes the image and automatically generates relevant tags based on detected objects, scenes, and activities.
It works with any content type that has a Binary field for images and a Tag field for storing results. Built into dotCMS core — no plugin installation required.
Use cases
E-commerce catalog automation — Automatically tag product images with objects, colors, and materials at publish time, eliminating manual metadata entry and making inventory instantly searchable.
Media archive searchability — Retroactively tag years of unclassified image assets so editors can find what they need by visual attributes instead of browsing folders.
Personalization and targeting — Feed AI-generated image tags into dotCMS's content targeting engine to serve contextually relevant visuals to visitors without any manual categorization.
Content moderation and compliance — Use confidence thresholds to flag images that don't meet visual standards before they publish, keeping brand and regulatory guardrails in place at scale.
Cross-site asset reuse — Apply independent Rekognition tagging per site so a single image can be discovered and reused across multiple properties through its auto-generated tags.
Key capabilities
Automatic object and scene detection in images
AI-generated tags added directly to content
Workflow-based image analysis automation
Configurable confidence thresholds and label limits
Per-site AWS credential configuration via the Apps tool
Automatic duplicate-tagging prevention with TAGGED_BY_AWS tracking
How to set it up
Prerequisites
AWS account with billing enabled. IAM user with AmazonRekognitionReadOnlyAccess policy. Content type with both a Binary field (for images) and a Tag field (for generated tags).
Create a dedicated IAM user in AWS with AmazonRekognitionReadOnlyAccess permissions and generate an access key pair.
In dotCMS, go to Settings → Apps → Amazon Rekognition and enter your AWS Access Key, Secret Key, Max Labels (default 15), and Min Confidence (default 75).
Create a workflow action with the Auto Tag Images - AWS sub-action, placed after a Save sub-action.
Assign the workflow scheme to your content type under Content Types → Workflow tab.
Upload an image and trigger the workflow action — tags are generated automatically and appear in the Tag field.