The document discusses the Drupal 7 Media Module and its associated features, advantages, and challenges, highlighting the need for improved media management in Drupal. It outlines the installation, configuration, and functionality of media-related modules, such as the Media Gallery and Media Front, as well as problems related to user interface and media organization. Key improvements include a media library for managing content and new options for viewing and editing media items, but there are issues with display settings and integration that require attention.

1. Drupal 7 Media Modules (Media, Media Gallery, etc.) Grigory NAUMOVETS Kiev, Ukraine

2. Outline [why] Do we need more modules to manage media? Media module: features, advantages, problems 1.x and 2.x branches Media Gallery module: features, advantages, problems Other media-related modules: MediaElement, Media Browser Plus, MediaFront Conclusions

3. Site content Text content Nodes Comments Blocks Views etc. Media (file) content Managed files (have their own File ID in the system) Unmanaged files (are not known to the system – just linked from somewhere)

4. Managed files in Drupal 7 Drupal 7 has database tables ‘ file_managed ’ and ‘ file_usage ’ keeping track of managed files: file ID, name, URI, size, type, user and module responsible for this file, etc. But there is no user interface to manage these ‘managed files’!

5. [Text] Content administration /admin/content – [node] content administration Also, we can administer comments, blocks, views, etc… but how can we administer MEDIA???

6. Filefield <- media file Regular File upload widget: How can we use one file in many nodes? We can only duplicate it – WTF??? We want to: Re-use one file in many fields Organize media (tags, directories, etc.)

7. List of f ile u ploading and m anaging modules groups.drupal.org/node/20291 Database File manager, FileDepot, File Framework, Filemanager, File maintenance, WebFM, Upload paths, Filefield paths, etc. etc. etc. Many of these are obsolete/abandoned/rarely used No full-featured solution yet

8. Media module Available only for Drupal 7 Reported installs: >39,000 (Feb. 2012) Branches: 7.x-1.x – recommended (features freezed, bugfixes only) 7.x-2.x – unstable (with new improvements) Requirements: Javascript must be enabled CTools Media 7.x-2.x relies on Views and File entity (fieldable files); 7.x-1.x has File entity included inside Media module development was sponsored by: Acquia, Advomatic, and Palantir.net

9. Installing Media module… Now we have: New field type: Multimedia asset New widget: Media File Selector Media Library

10. We also have… Content types »… » Manage display New display formatter: Media

11. File display format should be defined for the appropriate file type (“bundle”) – Image, Audio, Video, Other /admin/config/media/file-types

12. Configuring file display for each file type admin/config/media/file-types/manage/video/file-display File view modes – ‘Default’, ‘Link’, ‘Preview’, ‘Small’, ‘Large’, ‘Original’, etc.; you need to save settings separately for each mode Display precedence order is important – e.g. when you need to display videos from YouTube, ‘YouTube Video’ display should go before ‘MediaElement Video’ etc.

13. Media Library: now media content can be managed like node content /admin/content – Node content administration /admin/content/media – Media content administration new tab for Media administration

14. Media administration /admin/content/media We can choose LIST view or THUMBNAIL view

15. Media items in the list have their own URLs and can be viewed/edited like nodes /media/45/edit edit Media item /media/45 view Media item

16. Viewing Media items like nodes /media/[fid] Media item URL [fid] is File ID from ‘file_managed’ table

17. So, Media module does not create a ‘Media Library’ table in the database It uses the tables that Drupal 7 already has: ‘file_managed’ and ‘file_usage’ But it adds new fields to define new properties of media files: ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ field_data_media_title, field_data_media_description field_revision_media_title, field_revision_media_description

18. Editing Media items ‘ Title ’ and ‘ Description ’ of items in Media Library are DIFFERENT from ‘ Title ’ and ‘ Alternate text ’ properties of images in Image field and ‘ Description ’ property of files in File field They are NOT shown when displaying images or file attachments in the usual way Modules displaying media should be able to handle media titles and descriptions (e.g. Media Gallery)

19. Under the hood: Media title and description These are different values kept in different database tables than ‘File description’ and ‘Image title’ properties available for File/Image fields

20. Adding files to Media Library via Upload With Plupload plugin, we can upload multiple files by drag-n-dropping them here

21. Adding media from web hhh via media_vimeo.module via media_youtube.module With some additional modules, we can add to the Media Library media from YouTube, Vimeo, and other supported providers

22. Adding media from Remote URL Remote stream wrapper module: now we can add remote media to the Media Library without copying the files to our server via remote_stream_wrapper.module

23. Importing files to Media Library from another directory In this way, we can import files bigger than maximum size allowed for PHP upload (upload files by FTP to some directory, then import to Media Library)

24. Using media from Media Library in File/Image fields Now we have a new widget type: Media file selector

25. Media file selector widget Selecting media from Library

26. However, some things are missing… With regular Image widget, we have “ Alternate text ” and “ Title ” that we can display near/over the image

27. What we see with the regular Image widget Image Title displayed in a lightbox view

28. With Media File selector widget We can edit ‘ Title ’ and ‘ Description ’ of this item in Media Library, but we cannot display them in the same way as we display “Alternate text” and “Title” image properties It’s really a disappointment    Same problem with ‘ File description ’ for File fields    “ Alternate text ” and “ Title ” image properties are no longer available. WTF???

29. Referencing media from Library inline in textarea fields TinyMCE, CKEditor: enable ‘Media browser’ plugin or add ‘Media’ button File display modes (Configuration » Media » File types » Manage file display)

30. Media input filter should be enabled to convert media tags into markup Media tags look like that: [[{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;media&quot;,&quot;view_mode&quot;:&quot;media_preview&quot;,&quot;fid&quot;:&quot;44&quot;,&quot;attributes&quot;:{&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;class&quot;:&quot;media-image&quot;,&quot;height&quot;:&quot;180&quot;,&quot;typeof&quot;:&quot;foaf:Image&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:&quot;180&quot;}}]]

31. Removing media from a node Removing a media file from a node does not delete it from the Media Library

32. Removing files from Media Library … /admin/content/media You cannot delete a media file which is in use somewhere until you remove it from all the nodes Sometimes it’s kind of frustrating…

33. Media Gallery module Depends on Media module Understands ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ attributes of media files Can display images and videos in the same gallery Developed by the engineering team at Acquia

34. Viewing all galleries

35. We can have images and videos in the same gallery Media Title displayed on hover These are videos

36. Images and videos can be displayed inline or in a pop-up colorbox Media Gallery can display both Title and Description of media items Media Gallery calls Colorbox library independently of Colorbox module Integration with Colorbox module (to use its features and settings) requires some patching

37. It’s easy to add, reorder, and edit media in the gallery Edit or Remove Reorder items by dragging the handle to a new position Add media with Media File selector

38. Editing gallery settings It’s easy to set for each specific gallery the number of rows and columns, media display inline or in a pop-up box, etc.

39. Displaying LOCAL video files (not from YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) For this, you may need to install and configure some media player - e.g. MediaElement player (Drupal module integrating MediaElement.js library) May not work in a pop-up box

40. Configuring file display settings for Video admin/config/media/file-types/ manage/video/file-display

41. Media Gallery problems: Theme-dependent Theme-dependent problems (e.g. for Adaptivetheme and related themes) Broken display of “All Galleries” page (may need some css tweaking) Drag handles not displayed: how can you reorder items now? (may need some patching)

42. Media Gallery problems: Colorbox Colorbox-related problems: Clicking on the colorbox (not on the arrows) does not work as expected: it leads to “View Detail page” instead of showing the next item in the gallery (may need some css patching) Media Gallery work with Colorbox directly; integration with Colorbox module (to use all its features and settings) may require some patching

43. Media Gallery problems: Taxonomy Strange things with Taxonomy: Media Gallery creates ‘Gallery collections’ vocabulary with ‘Galleries’ term in it, but they are not visible and not editable in admin/structure/taxonomy interface Conflicts with i18n_taxonomy reported

44. So, Media Gallery still needs some File tools

45. … more than you could expect from a module creating quite a lot of tables in the database

46. Problems with Media Organize Media (with lots of items in Media Library, you need to structurize it somehow via folders, tags, etc. – like you do with your boomarks or email) Handling media attributes (Media’s ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ vs Image’s “Title’ and “Alt text’ and File’s ‘Description’)

47. Media Browser Plus module Works with Media 7.x-1.x and 7.x-2.x branches UI and functional improvements (multiple selection, media search, etc.) Organizing Media: folders, tags, etc.

48. Media 7.x-2.x branch ‘ Media’ is now called ‘Files’: /admin/content/file instead of /admin/content/media

49. Media 7.x-2.x branch: core File field instead of Media field And it’s not just name change: now we are supposed to work with the core File field instead of ‘Multimedia asset’ fields (which are deprecated)

50. Media 7.x-2.x branch One more change: Integration with Views . Now we have ‘View Library’ selection mode

51. Media 7.x-2.x branch And this ‘MediaBrowser’ view is editable

52. MediaFront module Integration of OSM media player Plays both local and remote (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) video Integration with Views: can create video galleries displayed as playlists in media player’s window Detailed video tutorial: http://youtu.be/k7tbGXjMRWQ

53. MediaFront: a video gallery displayed as a playlist

54. How to re-use files in file fields without Media File selector? FileField Sources module/widget

55. References James Gollan’s presentation http://youtu.be/8pHoGZBv47c Drupalcon Chicago presentation http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/media http://www.slideshare.net/JacobSingh/multimedia-handing-in-drupal-7-done-better-with-the-media-module

56. Questions? Contact info: http://drupal.ua/users/GN [email_address]