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The Mediathek now uses jQuery for all javascript related actions. The concept of loading an iframe for inline entry creation is still the same. On the PHP side it now uses the section and entry managers that Symphony offers for being able to handle the custom item captions and the filtered datasource output. There is no longer a dependency on an upload field in the media section which allows the user to create something like a reference manager (which then would not offer preview and dropping but could make use of the caption feature).

I have a small question: How does the new Mediathek plugin react if I have two file uploads in one grouping? For instance, if I had an image and a video both uploading to the same (or separate) field in another section?

At the moment the Mediathek field can handle two cases:

  1. A single upload field with different media types: In this case the Mediathek field will show a thumbnail preview for images and a file icon for other mime types.
  2. Multiple upload fields: The Mediathek field will use the last upload field as a reference.

The first case is the one that is expected to be the standard. I couldn’t find a good solution for the second so it’s more like a fallback than anything else. The problem with multiple upload fields is that it would be possible to handle the preview by giving a next/previous navigation but that there is no good way to select a file if you are dropping an item into a textarea. If someone had an idea for a good workflow for this, I’d be glad implement it.

For instance, if I had an image and a video both uploading to the same (or separate) field in another section?

Do you think of uploading multiple files to a single upload field similar to the workflow in Symphony 1.7? I’m not aware of a field that allows this kind of multiple upload at the moment.

Absolutely beautiful Nils! This one is definitely going to be in my core extension list. Thank you so much! WOW!

Mediathinks I have to look into this extension :-)

Mediathinks I have to look into this extension :-)

HAH!

@Nils: I mean more having two upload fields, one for the video and one for the image. But that there are more than one upload fields instead of the standard one. However, if I’m understanding correctly, you said it’s possible in the first part of your answer.

As for a functionality suggestion, what about dragging the previews themselves?

Mediathinks I have to look into this extension :-)

lol This made me laugh this morning …

Actually I never thought about how you English speaking folks might pronounce the word “Mediathek”. Might sound a bit hard in English.

Actually I never thought about how you English speaking folks might pronounce the word “Mediathek”. Might sound a bit hard in English.

Mee-dee-ya-tek :-)

This is bloody marvellous! Will be giving this a go very soon. You may have solved the recurring problematic discussion of providing an interface as an easy way to add images to blog posts.

Mee-dee-ya-tek

Was that a cat or a cow?!
To be serious, that sounds just fine :o)

I’ve started from scratch rethinking the features and the user interface of the extension.

Two things I like to add, that did not make into the extension yet:

  1. integration with a simple XHTML editor (dragging and dropping images) and
  2. a thumbnail overview for the media section instead of Symphony’s standard table view.

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to add these features soon but it’s planed for the long run. If anybody has ideas, likes to fork the extension or is eager to join the development, I’d be happy. I’m not a programmer (actually I’m an art historian working at an university) so developing things takes much longer for me as it’s not my day to day business.

actually I’m an art historian working at an university

pretty good going for an art historian!

Of all the art historians I know you’re probably the third best at Symphony development. And believe me, some of those historians are shit hot at it ;-)

Nick, how many art historians do you know actually? ;)

Think of programming as an art and of Symphony’s “well documented” core and extension API as a … “field of research” and you have a link to my work … Okay, no, just kidding.

Oh, uuuh, one now.

Back to the topic:

If some of you tried out the beta I’d be glad to get some feedback like:

  1. It’s working!
  2. It’s working but not as expected!
  3. It’s not working!

Case 1 is just fine (yeah!), in case of 2 or 3 please post a report at github.com/nilshoerrmann/mediathek/issues. Thanks!

If someone did an upgrade from version 1 to version 2, I’d be interested if everything works fine - it should but I’m not sure as the database structure changed a lot and one never knows …

I did an upgrade, and it seemed to work just fine. I say seemed, since it was on a site currently under development, and the number of images in my Mediathek sections wasn’t that big. And for me, it’s case 1: It works!

About my thoughts on search: I don’t know if it is even possible, but if would love at least one of the following:

  1. Filter on tags. As it is now, filtering on tags is hard coded in the Mediathek section. Nicer would be if you could do that in real time in the section where you’ve got your Mediathek field. I’m thinking that down the road, where you might have hundreds of images in a Mediathek section, finding the right one might turn up hard.
  2. Text search on defined fields. In the Mediathek section, let the user define what sections should be search when entering something in the search box.
  1. Filter on tags. As it is now, filtering on tags is hard coded in the Mediathek section. Nicer would be if you could do that in real time in the section where you’ve got your Mediathek field. I’m thinking that down the road, where you might have hundreds of images in a Mediathek section, finding the right one might turn up hard.
  2. Text search on defined fields. In the Mediathek section, let the user define what sections should be search when entering something in the search box.

Thanks for your feedback. Concerning the search issue:

I like your idea but I think the field-wide tag filter serves a different purpose. So maybe both things have to complete each other and stand side by side. Searching is not an easy task because each field can use it’s own schema for saving data. So maybe we should wait until a more profund solution for searching is found for the whole system.

Nils, installed this fresh on 2.0.6 and everything seems to be working beautifully. Haven’t put it through much (i.e. tried intentionally to break it), but if I get time I’ll do so and report back.

Finally got a chance to try this out today, looks (and works) beautifully! I do have a few suggestions though that, for me at least, would help clarify the workflow and make this more useful:

  1. More of a distinction between items that are selected and items in the Edit pane. I find it a little confusing figuring out what’s selected versus what’s available and I think client will definitely be confused. Perhaps the Edit pane could appear above the Selected list instead of replacing it?
  2. Make it clear how to remove and add items from/to the selected list—perhaps a magnifying glass for the zoom instead of the +, then use the cross for adding and a - for removing?
  3. For integration with the WYMEditor a way to edit the created links and for images to generate a JIT-enabled URL.

This is really great work and I think it’ll be an integral part of my Symphony ext. library.

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