Symphony.

When I get my head around this a little more, I may just do that.

Even though Huib (creativedutchmen) is doing a great job on his uploadmany field type (I already have uses in mind for it!), it isn’t as flexible imho as this extension. The ability to add single files into section entries on the fly, with meta information is a must for the future of Symphony as a content management system. There’s been lots of talk about the lack of support for multiple file uploads on the forum already, and with Symphony maturing so well, now is the time to crack it properly! Nils Subsection Manager is awesome for this kind of thing, but without multiple file uploads, it is still falling short. I’m sure he’s thought about this though…

I’m just not very good at PHP…

Even though Huib (creativedutchmen) is doing a great job on his uploadmany field type (I already have uses in mind for it!), it isn’t as flexible imho as this extension.

Just out of curiosity: what kind of usercases do you see for this extension that the upload_many field will not be able to do?

The upload_many field is far from finished, so if I missed something I might be able to include it.

The Mass Upload Utility allows you to import files from folders in the workspace. You don’t have to use the include Flash Uploader, so it’s possible to upload images via FTP first and import later.

And conceptually it’s possible (with some modifications) to use the extension with other upload fields than the standard one.

The Mass Upload Utility allows you to import files from folders in the workspace. You don’t have to use the include Flash Uploader, so it’s possible to upload images via FTP first and import later.

True. However, this is not really something I would like to explain to my clients ;)

And conceptually it’s possible (with some modifications) to use the extension with other upload fields than the standard one.

Well, if you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty, this is also possible with the upload_many field. Because of the current implementation (where the files are uploaded before they are imported) it isn’t as easy as I’d like (I wanted it to be as easy as extending another class), but I’m working on a way to work with other base classes.

But indeed, this is something that needs a bit more work.

Hi Huib!

Your extension is a field type that, I’m guessing, adds multiple files to the same field, so as the standard file upload has one file reference, yours has x number of references. This is perfect for an entry that needs multiple files linked to one entry, so one title, one description(content text) and then multiple images via the same field.

Upload Many Use Case:

User creates a ‘Gallery’ section, with a Title, Description and Upload Many field. User creates an entry, writes a Title, and Description, and chooses all the images for the gallery in the Upload Many field. Result: A simple gallery that can use JIT for thumbnails (frontend) and stores basic info for each file like size and mime-type and date.

Mass Uploader Use Case:

User creates two sections; Gallery and Images. Gallery has a Title, Description and Subsection Manager. Images has a File Upload Field, a Title, Keywords, etc etc. User Mass uploads images into the Images section setting standard data for each field he/she chooses. User goes through Images and edits data for image specifics. User creates and entry in Gallery and chooses all relevant images from Images section.

Combined Use Case:

User creates two sections; Gallery and Images. Gallery has a Title, Description and Subsection Manager. Images has a Upload Many Field, a Title, Keywords, etc etc. User Mass uploads images into the Images section setting standard data for each field he/she chooses and different images for the same entry (i.e. different views of a product). User goes through Images and edits data for image specifics. User creates and entry in Gallery and chooses all relevant images from Images section.

The latter case will need modification of the Mass Upload extension to use different File Upload types, which shouldn’t be too hard to do.

I think what I meant to say was there is a major difference with the way these two extensions work, one is a field, one is a function to populate sections. Both just as valid, I think I was a bit quick to say that upload_many isn’t as flexible, sorry for that!

People always beat me to it while I’m writing, and it’s usually @klaftertief of @phoque!

Thanks for explaining!

Your extension is a field type that, I’m guessing, adds multiple files to the same field

Nope, it works the same as the mass upload utility. It creates x entries within that section.

This is mainly because if I didn’t, I would have to write my own datasources( for the sorting, filtering, pagination, etc). As this is quite a job, and because this is already taken care of in the subsection manager, I thought this would be the best way to do it.

So to summarize: the only difference between the mass upload utility and the uploadmany field is that the uploadmany field is integrated in the normal section/workflow, where the mass upload utility is located in another page.

Ahhhh, now I get it! So if you uploaded 4 images, it would be as though the section had 4 file upload fields in it… Ok, that works well…

And makes my intended use case (the latter one) a little easier ;o)

What I really want to see is the ability to pull IPTC meta info from images into the database for output in the xml, like the size etc is currently done, this would have to be an upload field specifically for images. @alpacaa made an IPTC/Exif extension to do this on the fly a while back.

the only difference between the mass upload utility and the uploadmany field is that the uploadmany field is integrated in the normal section/workflow, where the mass upload utility is located in another page

Not entirely true. The Mass Uploader creates a seperate entry for each image, Upload Many cretaes more images in each seperate entry.

The Mass Upload Utility allows you to import files from folders in the workspace. You don’t have to use the include Flash Uploader, so it’s possible to upload images via FTP first and import later.

True. However, this is not really something I would like to explain to my clients ;)

Yep. But sometimes you are in the luxury position to have a tech savvy client. And sometimes you are the one who hast to create some hundred entries in an image section. (And when you have to import 900,000 images you have to work a bit more.)

(And when you have to import 900,000 images you have to work a bit more.)

Yes. yes I do…

Because of having to figure out workflows for stuff of this magnitude, I have never completed a full Symphony site yet lol. I’m really going to put everything on hold to start delving into this ‘mass upload and content population’ problem. Because I do work for more creative people, and large asset management, I really need to find a solution…

We are all getting there with it though, I’m really enjoying these discussions! ;o)

Ahhhh, now I get it! So if you uploaded 4 images, it would be as though the section had 4 file upload fields in it… Ok, that works well…

No, that is exactly not what it does..;)

It creates a new entry for each image uploaded, as if you have a single upload field ton entry, and press save 100 times.

Okay….

I can see where you’re heading with this, but I don’t know how this would be useful, it’s the one thing I think is a flaw in the current Mass Uploader.

It’s already confused me as it is a ‘field type’ not a function, so I naturally assumed it would work like a field and store data in one entry. I think that functions like this (and the XML Importer, which is a mass-data uploader of sorts) should be kept very seperate from actual sections, which is why I like the way the current Mass Uploader works. But that’s just my opinion ;o)

How would this work from a front-end submission perspective?

It’s already confused me as it is a ‘field type’ not a function, so I naturally assumed it would work like a field and store data in one entry.

Which is what I initially wanted it to do.

However, I soon realised that would be very time-consuming, and it would require me to duplicate a lot of the subsection managers’ code.

but I don’t know how this would be useful

It does the same as the mass upload utility, the only difference is that the destination is determined by the place you click on the “add many” button. Which makes it quite a lot easier to use for clients. (I have a lot of projects where I have about 200+ sections, and I would like my clients to upload images in one of them).

I’m moving this conversation to the relevant thread here

Updated for Symphony version 2.2.1

http://github.com/scottkf/massuploadutility

If you use an older version of Symphony, don't update or you'll break it!

Minor fixes:

• incorporated klaft and designermonkey's changes
• bugfixes for interacting with Symphony in 2.2.1

No new features yet. Incorporating this into standard workflow would require some rethinking, or some thinking, if anyone has any thoughts on this let me know, or if something's broken.

[Redacted]

@creativedutchmen

Intergrating this into the normal workflow wouldnt require much effort, I'll try this afternoon. For example, if you're on a section with an upload field, you can add a a button and a popup will show up, or slide in.

But this still leaves the issue of dealing with other upload fields and changing individual entries.

Intergrating this into the normal workflow wouldnt require much effort, I'll try this afternoon. For example, if you're on a section with an upload field, you can add a a button and a popup will show up, or slide in.

I would be really curious to see what this work look like. Sounds good though!

At this moment I am too busy with other projects to actually work on the concept, but maybe we should join forces and create one super-awesome mass-uploader?

I think that'd be great actually, because that would be one extension I'm sure everyone would love.

I took this afternoon to somewhat integrate the workflow into a section. The source is available @github, under a branch called workflow . If you're in a section's index (/publish/) and the section contains a supported field, currently only the default upload field, a button will appear like so:

When you click it, you will be redirected to the MUU page and continue the process as before, but it'll remember which section you were working on, and redirect you back after a successful import.

The next step is to integrate it with jQuery so you never have to leave the index page.

As an aside, the reason it only works with the default upload field is because I had to replicate a lot of the logic in field.upload.php originally because I couldn't come up with a way to use the Field's public functions to insert an entry. Since all the upload fields should? have a common set of exposed functions, it should be possible to support further fields. If anyone can shed some insight on this it would be much easier than simple trial and error. If I knew for sure all the upload fields shared some common traits, I could use the public functions of the Field, it will take some digging.

Edit: The reason why it only supports the default upload field is because I can't use the is_uploaded_file() function that the upload fields would naturally use because the files weren't technically uploaded. Does anyone know if it's possible to get around this without hacking the core?

Edit #2: In order for this to work I have to drop uploadify and use HTML5's ability to upload multiple files. Newer versions of this will not work without it.