By chrisada on
What is (or will be) the recommended method for including images within nodes? By this I mean to have the image displayed and not a link to download it. Checking the CVS, I'm can't see this capability in core or any file handling modules (upload, filestore, filestore2, image)
I know node_image offers this and it had worked _really_ great for me, but this module does not seem to be getting updated. Am I missing something or been looking at the wrong places?
I think this feature is essential for blogs and news articles.
Comments
image module an overkill
I forgot to say that I think using image module to store pictures as image nodes _and then_ include it into nodes via some module is too complicated for this kind of task.
I think in many cases users don't have the need to assign taxonomy terms to images, to have it in gallery, or even to reuse it. They just want to have it in the nodes there and then.
re: image module an overkill
I agree 100% that the image module is an overkill. It also can be difficult to install, compared to most Drupal modules.
Organizers' Collaborative -- Free Software for Activist Groups
http://organizenow.net and http://organizersdb.org
Filemanager / attachment
I'm not sure the upload module has this functionality yet, but I imagine it will. If not check out my filemanager and attachment modules. What you would do is attach the image file... cut and paste the url into your image tag then just flag the attachment as hidden.
Craig
Like a cool breeze.....yes
I've been strugling with the image module across several installations from Drupal4blog to current CVS (as of today)and every point in between. The OSs range from Linux RH 7 to FC, Suse and other Unix in form of BSD etc. The intial post made alot of sense in the need to simplify the image "stuff" with DP. Its just spread over ... just too many things stepping on each other to accomplish one task. (my opinion) I never focused on your mod till I read this.. It makes a whole lot of sense.. Thanks.
Ha ..no wonder I haven't focused on it..
It looks like its new as of yesterday..It must have been in CVS and .. who know.. thanks again.
too many steps
Thanks Craig. I am not looking for a quick fix now, but a long term solution. I would continue to use 4.4 until node_image is updated to CVS or other module comes out with similar functionality. IMO images should be treated differently from any other file types, because there is hardly any circumstances where you would want to 'attach' it rather than 'display' it immediately.
And I would imagine people need to have images in a node (post) MUCH MORE ofen than they need to attach files. Cutting down the steps will save lots of time and frustrations.
Chris
P.S. just for comparison, this is what I do now with node_image
This sounds like many steps but it's actually very quick and intuitive, and I don't have to enter _any_ code manually.
I totally agree with you 100
I totally agree with you 100 percent.
I frequently attach a quick and dirty image (or two) to each blog entry as a norm.
I just installed Drupal for the first time today (v4.5). Wow, I'm very impressed! For the last few years, I've been using a homegrown blog system (that included an easy way to attach quick images to each entry), but it just doesn't look and function as clean as Drupal.
I tried installing the image module and the img_assist module, but no matter how I try and attach an image to an entry, there's just too many steps involved.
After reading your post, I'm wondering if I should downgrade Drupal to 4.4 so I can use the node_image module, because your step by step is exactly what I'm looking for.
I understand that the developers are looking for a good design model (Taxonomy, image categories, etc), but many people are just looking for a quick and dirty way to include their images with an entry. I don't plan on using the same image for other posts, content types, etc.
you could
but you will be missing out on many great things that only arrive in 4.5.
What I do now is to use the upload.module that comes as default. I attach the image and flag the attachment as hidden, then entered the img tag manually. It's not the best, but of all the alternatives I have tried, this is the quickest. Other methods require that I publish a post once, and come back to insert images. The module writer seemed to think this is natural, it is not!
image_module is not upgraded partly because there are other modules that has overlapping functionality. I really hope it can be resolved somehow, I miss using it a lot.
Movable Type as quick and dirty solution
I have Movable Type installed (a leftover from before migrating anvandbart.se to Drupal) and are using it to upload images. It has a simple but excellent form for creating inline or pop-up images, thumbnails, rescaling etc. It gives html-code that I then cut-and-paste into my text in Drupal.
Since MT just puts the images in a folder on my server, I recon that the images will not break in the future, when I eventualy uninstall MT.
The image module just puts
The image module just puts the images and thumbnails in a folder on your server, then has a database pointer to the file location.
-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
3 methods, are they working for you?
I was trying to use the new modules for image inclusions, img_assist and attached_node and image_filter. Apparently when I upgraded from 4.3 to 4.5 my administrator permissions had the "filter" module unchecked. When I checked this, all of a sudden I am able to use some of these new modules.
I haven't had time today to test them, but as you might have experience with them I am wondering which of these works best for others. please share!
-rc
Organizers' Collaborative -- Free Software for Activist Groups
http://organizenow.net and http://organizersdb.org
The image module just so simple
I think that a sustainable solutions must bee some thing like image node. A simple clear solution, no ad on to the server (as the gallery needs).
I have used image_node for all my drupal installation and are realy missing it in 4.5, Specially, when I am not the only one that creates nodes.
Try inline module
Inline module lets you include files uploaded with your node.
Just upload the files (images or othe files). Don't check 'list' checkbox, so they won't appear at the end of the node.
Specify where you want in the body [inline x=text] where 'x' is the number of the file uploaded (1 is the first and so on) and 'text' is the ALT text.
Image will be included as they were uploaded; any other file will be included with a link.
Very simple way, and it's working fine on 4.5 and CVS.
Matteo
sample page?
I suspect that the "inline" approach has a key problem, in that it only works for nodes that display the "upload..." link at the bottom. Because the "inline" approach depends on upload.module. What if I want to have a page that doesn't have an upload... link on it?
I would like to see a page which uses inline.module. please give a URL.
Otherwise, it's going to have to be another approach.
-rc
Organizers' Collaborative -- Free Software for Activist Groups
http://organizenow.net and http://organizersdb.org
Yes, it depends on upload.module
You're right; but, you only see 'upload' link when you edit a node.
There are some advatages with this approach:
- images are linked to node. If you delete a node, you delete them automatically
- you can use multiple images
- I'm using standard upload mechanism
- it is integrated with node_access system, so if you use rules to hide a node, you also hide the related images (you need to use private download method).
the approach is very simple:
you upload the images
you put the tag into the body
submit
that's all !!
I ca nsend you some screenshots of my new Drupal site (actually I'm testing it, it's not in production) during node edit. Please let me know where...
P.S. Try to use Flexinode module, there you can upload images as well, but only one a time, unles you specify multiple image fields....
Matteo
with inline.module, do I
with inline.module, do I still need to
- upload my file(s)
- save the node once
- come back to edit it (insert inline tag now)
??
Or can I upload and insert the inline tag, then publish only once.
It makes a different, but I've seen peoples on drupal.org who think the former method is ok. I don't think it is. There might be some fundamental thing that dictates it is the case, but usability is much worse than node_image in Drupal 4.4.
You can do everithing in one shot
With inline module, you can upload and put inline tag inside body at the same time. Due to upload module structure, you won't see the image since you save the first time, but this is tolerated by inline.module, because if it does not find the image, it simply does not print anything.
Probably inline module is not the best way, but in my case (I'm working on a site that has public and private content) is perfect, because you have control over the files you upload (you know which node references which files).
I decided to write it after trying all the other modules.
If you will try it, please let me have your impressions...
Matteo
even better
the uploaded file is available for previewing even before you save the node. the upload.module provides a temporary URL for previewing.
would be wonderful
It will be really great if one can avoid typing code as much as possible, even if it's as simple as you have made it. So I'm wondering if the following is possible/reasonable?
Why don't have a button (or text link) for each uploaded file, which when clicked will insert the img tag or whichever tag is appropriate at the cursor location in the content textarea. This is one neat trick that I liked so much in node_image.module, which was last updated for Drupal 4.4.
image assistant?
Doesn't image assistant already do this?
Although it could be good to add a blog it link to images in their galleries so you can right a blog about one of your pics.
It doesn't exactly.
It doesn't exactly. img_assist tries to do more, and it is not simple enough. I hardly need to see preview of images I am posting in nodes, I've already seen them on my machine. Same goes for resizing & thumbnailing.
AND, you have to save your post once, before editing it again, to include images with img_assist.
Good idea...
I like the idea, but inline module should be integrated into upload module, since at the moment the logic of presentation of the files is in upload module, while the filter is in inline.module.
From my point of view I don't see reasons why the two modules could not be merged in one....
Matteo
Thanks!
Matteo, thanks for the comments in this thread. I just spent the whole holiday weekend trying to figure out how to get image.module and then node_image.module to do what I wanted, and here it was with inline and upload. Had one last bit of trouble because the "title" filter was being applied instead of my "inline" filter, but that was a five minute problem to find. (Because the documentation for that is right on the page. :) )
Anyway, thanks, now it is working just how I wanted it to.
restrict image dimensions?
Using the inline module is there an easy way to specify a maximum image dimension? Ie., if a site lets any user add inline images, and someone adds a 800x600 inline image to a node, it could throw off the layout of the site.
It would be nice to allow just uniform sized images to posts. Take this site for example: http://english.ohmynews.com/ with each news article there is a thumbnail. However, restricting to an exact dimension would inhibit users from posting images at all because they would have to edit the image before posting, and it just makes more work. But, if there was a way to restrict image width to 300px or below using the inline module, it would give some freedom without making it too much of a pain for users to comply.
Maybe this is something that would be better to set w/ the upload module. I see you can restrict the file size. Maybe adding someting to the upload module that lets you say, if the file is an image, check to see if the width is below X and then allow it. Can this be done w/ just the upload module or does imagemagick need to be used to read the image width/height?
Hmm, just answered own
Hmm, just answered own question - well a simple but limited solution: in the css recommended in the install or readme file (recommended to add to style.css) that comes w/ the inline module, add width: 150px; or some other limit...this will set the width of the image to 150 and the height will automatically adjust. So, this works as long as someone does not post an image that has a total width below the width you set in the css. Pretty nice, and much easier for on-the-fly posting than image module, when all you want is a little image w/ the node.
Probably we can do it withour change to upload
Sorry for the delay, but was on vacation !
I took a look at image.module code and saw that it uses getimagesize() function which is PHP native to determine width and height of an image.
Based on this, here is what we can do:
- Add settings to inline.module to specify max width and height for images
- use uploiad normally (the image will not be resized)
- inline module will take care of serving the image by generating an <img tag with style="width: XXXpx; height: YYYpx;", by calculating new dimensions based on actula dimensions and aspect ratio.
In this case, we don't manipulate the image, but give a common feel to images.
Does it sound reasonable ???
Before working at the code, let me have your impressions
Matteo
It sounds neat and quick
It sounds neat and quick which is what many people want:
3 steps, write, upload pic, submit
and everything, picture and blog all appear together.
On a related question, doesn't flexnode do that already, couldn't people just use that
Not the same approach
Yes, flexinode is very powerful, but lets you create structured data.
You can create an image field, and display it, but what if you want more images to be shown in a post ??
In my opinion is perfect if you have to create a specific node type (for example: Artist, where you need to store its photo, description, discography, etc.)
I'm personal in love with it, but it still not totally integrated into Drupal core.
Of course if it fits your necessities, you can prefer it....
Matteo
Every Node type needs image capability
I must disagree with the notion of using flexinode just to get content on the site with an image. A fundamental need is for EVERY type of node to have the ability to include an image.
Whether you are writing a casual blog, an intense story, or a convoluted documentation item in the book module, you may have the need for an imbedded image.
- gil -
In this method would it give
In this method would it give the user the option to set the image size, or would it be the case that a default size is set by the administrator?
Setting the size in the css by just putting in a width does automatically adjust the height of the image...but w/ this method you have to set it in the CSS which does not give the user privilege to make a larger or smaller image than what you set, but it does keep uniformity by making all images the same width and does not distort the image. But, then if the image is 1meg and you only allow for 150px wide images (as set by css) it's a waste as the entire 1meg image will be loaded but shown only at 150px, and (on second thought) does this also cause some type of distortion, actually?
It could partially solve some of the problems
In my mind, I would give administrators the possibility to set the maximum width and height.
This approach (rather than modifying manually CSS style) would solve the distorsion problem, because width and height would be adjusted time by time, so you can maintain aspect ratio.
On the other hand, I agree with you: nothing can be done to avoid waste of space, because image would not be resized (and so reduced by size also).
To do it, upload module must be revised in order to resize the image, but this sounds more difficult.
I will try to work on a new inline.module version to try out the proposed change during these days and let you know when it is ready.
Matteo
Inline.module upgraded to resize images
Hi all,
as promised, I upgraded the module that now can resize displayed images (logically, not phisically).
There's now a settings page (/admin/settings/inline) were you can set maximum widt and heigt.
Images will be displayed with new width and height, calculated maintaining the same aspect ratio, but phisiically remain te same.
This is however useful in ordr to maintain a common look&feel of displayed images.
I also upgraded install.txt and changelog.txt in order to reflect the changes.
Hope it helps,
Matteo
Thanks
I am liking this a lot.
May I suggest linking to an external inline.css file instead of having users add them manually? An example is on line 20 of codefilter.module. (somehow I can't include it here because it is a 'suspicious input data' :P )
This way it is modular, and when people switch theme the module still works as expected.
Again a good idea...
Thanks for the idea.... I'll put in the todo list after Christmas.
Please be sure to download the latest file from CVS since I corrected a serious bug
Matteo
instructions for non-techie please?
Hi -- I am not a drupal developer, nor an installer or site developer. I just want to create a news story and have an image displayed within the entry. I have no idea if there is some image module installed.
One thing I don't understand: Isn't this supposed to be a great piece of software for blogging? If so, is this whole idea of an image inside of an entry considered an "advanced feature" requiring special knowhow? That doesn't make any sense to me.
Here is my image:
http://www.deanport.com/dem/dvd2.gif
Here is the site where I want to create a news item and have that image appear within the news story: http://www.DemSpeak.com
How do I do it?
Thank you,
rh+
too bad
As far as I can tell, the site you mentioned does not provide any means to include image. Image inclusion is possible with Drupal, but it is also the site administrator's choice whether to allow the feature or not. In this case, looks like the answer is no.
Upload and Inline configured and working fine now
The site that Richard was asking about is a fairly new site. I am administering it and have read through the thread. I have enabled the upload module, and then added and enabled the inline module.
The combination works very nicely.
Aldon
Hey thanks chris ! and
Hey thanks chris ! and thanks Aldon .
rh+
Photo Placement
Just placed a nice image into a blog entry using Drupal 4.5. The following code contains a CSS inline style for placement. This image is placed on the left (float: left) with margins as indicated.
The image must be placed in its own folder. In this case just create an "images" folder in the Drupal root directory and FTP that picture to that directory. In place of the relative link for the image you could use:
This is the actual code that is placed along with the text in the blog by just using the text box. Make sure that "Full HTML" is checked.
htmlarea with upload
I'm trying to find a very simple way to do this as well. Htmlarea with image module almost does the trick, but getting upload working is a pain. I'm trying to find the simplest option for users and what I've come up with is disable htmlarea's image upload- have users use upload.module, once image is attached cut and past image url shown into the image address via htmlarea image insert function. From here you can see the image as it will appear and even resize.
Why is getting uploading to
Why is getting uploading to work a pain? I know that you need to apply the patch so what it will return to the popup instead of the submitted page.
--
Gordon Heydon
Heydon Consulting
--
Gordon Heydon
i'm surprised at how ugly these solutions are
first let me say that i'm new to drupal (and cms in general), but have immersed myself pretty deeply over the last couple of weeks. i am consitently amazed at how well built, modular, and flexible the system is, sometimes i'm actually in awe.
i came here searching for reasons why image.module is not working for me on my freebsd box (the dreaded renaming problem that has appeared elsewhere in this forum), and i stumbled onto this thread - so it sounds like the image module is actually not even the right solution. while i haven't yet tried the suggestions mentioned here, all of them sound a bit klugey and unintuitive. it just seems inconsistent with the way the rest of the application is set up to work, which is very smoothly.
shouldn't uploading multiple images for inclusion in post be reeeaallly easy to do in this day and age? all i want to do is setup a photoblog, where i upload a few images with a quick description all in one shot. no multiple submits, no workarounds, and no html or special tags. are there any plans to make working with images more natural? imo, a photoblog module would be heartily welcomed by the community - or at least a section in the handbook that describes how to achieve this easily.
thanks to the developers for a great application.
srs
There are different approaches to image posting
You're right, but I'm convinced that there are different approaches based on user's needs:
Photoblogs or image gallery
-----------------------------------------------------
What you need is only to upload an image and a description, and catalog the information. For this, image.module is fine
Content Management
-----------------------------------------------------
You need to catalog images and structured data in a categorized way.
Example: A biography, where you store an image and personal data.
Flexinode.module is perfect and lets you upload images also
Web Publishing
-----------------------------------------------------
You need to catalog texts with images and files inside.
For these needs, inline.module is the easiest way to accomplish
I'm convinced that only one method cannot exist, expacially when, in a powerful system as Drupal, you can also protect some of the data based on roles or terms; most of thr CMS I've seen, for example store all images together on a common area.
However you're absolutely right, these part must be made simpler, in order to appreciate better Drupal functionalities.
I understand that Drupal 4.6 will take care of this... we'll see.
Matteo
Matteo
you're mostly right
i agree that there are definitely different needs for different users, but it seems like the more complex CMS or cataloging needs are met with the various existing modules, and the more simple photoblog need for casual image uploading has been overlooked. the image.module (besides that fact that it's extremely difficult to install properly) doesn't accomplish this simpler task well, because in order to upload a few images (like "my day at the park" or "my son's birthday party") requires several iterations of uploading images one at a time, and then returning to post a story (or page?) to include the images. this really takes all the fun out of it, and makes flickr or snapfish look much more appealing - when i'd actually prefer to use my own site.
i'll also be looking forward to 4.6...
there is a new image
there is a new image handling only module under development. It only does image handling. A seperate gallery type module is also under discussions. Having the stand alone image module will allow for more flexibility with various custom solutions. The install process is already much easier on the times I tried it so that's one hurdle out of the way.
-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
this is really great news
i'm glad to hear that this is being worked on. a couple of things: one from a usage perspective - in an ideal world, such a module would integrate itself into the other node creation modules that allow attachments in such a way that adding images is not a separate workflow process. in other words, i can imagine how nice it would be for a checkbox to appear on the node submission (or editing) page once the module is enabled that says "attachments are images" or something similar. checking the box would trigger the image module to create thumbnails upon submit, and would set a flag for the node to display the thumbs inline when the post is viewed. adding images to a blog entry would be a dream come true.
maybe i'm thinking too narrowly here, but it would be nice if a generalized, flexible solution could also provide this level of convenience. it also seems that certain modules (like taxonomy_access) have successfully augmented the functionality of existing modules in a similar transparent way.
the other thing is - i'd love to check this new development module out if it's in cvs. is it the cvs version of image.module or is it called something else? i don't mind the pain that can come with dev software, i'm a fairly experienced php developer, and i would be happy to provide feedback if it was wanted.
thanks,
srs
walkah did the work. I
walkah did the work. I merely tested it on a Windows IIS platform as I seem to be in the minority in using that as my prefered server platform (then agin, it does pay my bills :) )
You can check it out here.
http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/contributions/sandbox/walkah/image/
Send him feed back. Due to a work project I haven't had time to play with it in the last 2 weeks, but at last test I made, the GD2 library worked well on 4.5. I did not have the time to sort through the image magick issues and provide feedback. I hope to in January.
-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
how to apply the patch to htmlarea?
Hi Gordon,
I think that HTML area is the solution for easy image upload for non coders/developers . Since I'm not a developer as well ;-) I did not get it how to apply the patch and use your imagemodule.
(At the moment the html open a new drupal image page in the popup window..)
I read INSTALL README and docs but I did not understand how to apply the patch and make image upload works....
Can you please explin text by step?
Thank you Gordon!
(I think there is another little bug, since when you editing already posted stories html area does not showup)
........................
quacklin
------------------
"...I Think This is the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship."
------------------------------------
take a look at
take a look at http://drupal.org/node/323 which explains how to use patch and diff.
--
Gordon Heydon
Heydon Consulting
--
Gordon Heydon
diff and patch made simple :-)
hello gordon,
and thank you for the node URL .
Unfortunately this looks too tech for me; nevertheless I like to try and mess up things ;-)
I have run the pacth and I had:
patch < ./htmlarea/patch/node.patch
patching file node.module
Hunk #3 FAILED at 1384.
Hunk #4 succeeded at 1505 (offset 6 lines).
1 out of 4 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file node.module.rej
then I have download
wget http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/*checkout*/drupal/contributions/sandbox/go...
and rename the file as image.module
------------------------------------------------------
unfortunatelly i have the same error, the upload window in html area open the image gallery drupal page, plus images does not shoup anymore when I upload them. (I have moved back to ORI files and everything fine as before now)
Did I make something wrong?
Thanx for your help!
.........................
quacklin
------------------
"...I Think This is the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship."
------------------------------------
patch out of date.
I found that the version of the patch in stable was out of date. I have updated it and commited it to cvs. in the next day or so the tar ball for 4.5 should be updated with the latest version. replace the original version of the node.module file and redo what you did, and you should be right.
--
Gordon Heydon
Heydon Consulting
--
Gordon Heydon
Thanks Gordon!
I really think this will be my solutions for displaying images inline.
Great module ,
.........................
quacklin
------------------
"...I Think This is the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship."
------------------------------------
State of things with 4.6.2?
Maybe another dumbo newbie question. Its been a long day.
This thread gives some ideas, but again I cannot quite figure out how to get images into stories/pages. Just place them somewhere inline as part of the text.
I installed 'image' and 'node_image'. But somehow...
Sure I can create image nodes with 'image' and then? I don't want a gallery. The wrong module?
'node_image' keeps bouncing 404/page not found errors at me. I have created folders as requested in administer/settings/node_image. The have full 777 rights.
What am I missing? What needs to be done?
Very much missing a working example... Sigh.
Martin
-----
Drupal 4.6.2, MySQL 4.0.23a, on Slackware 10.1
Inline
Hey Martin-
try the "inline" module at: http://drupal.org/project/inline - this is the best module for what it seems like you need.
Once it's installed and enabled, you can upload an image in the process of creating a node. To have it display in the content, just type [inline:1].
The module comes with a description on how to add a style to your main CSS file while can control the display of the image in lots of fun ways (wrap right, wrap left, padding, etc, etc.).
Hope this helps!
-------------------------------------------------
Tony Wright
www.craftytraveler.com
Travel Guides for Destinations Around the World!
and
img_assist does something similier and different depending on your needs.
-sp
---------
Test sites and good habits: Drupal Best Practices Guide.
Misc Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
methodology for inserting images
It would certainly be helpful to see some recommendations or suggestions on how to insert images on nodes (and position them as desired). I have a simple requirement to place images on story nodes but have found very little information on the various methods to do it. I have repeatedly searched the archives read the documentation and found nothing that explains whether the new image module with image_assist or the inline and upload module are better or whether one should attempt to resort to html code.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Even pointing me to any existing documentation/examples.
stevek
there isn't
There isn't a best answer for everyone. There is a 'best for you' and only you can determine that. The only way to do this is to install and test them yourself to see if they work the way you expect or desire.
-sp
---------
Test sites and good habits: Drupal Best Practices Guide.
Misc Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
Thanks for replies!
thanks for the suggestions, I will give 'inline' and 'img_assist' a go and post my results to this thread. them a try and let you. Because, like sjklein, I think in the docu those initial, really simple steps plus examples are missing. A bit more 'taking by the hand' is needed.
I am facing a full working week with drupal as my main tool - see what happens.
I would still be grateful if someone could give a hint how to use the image nodes created with the 'image' module. How do I get them on a page?
Martin
Drupal 4.6.2, MySQL 4.0.23a, on Slackware 10.1
How do you guys delete
How do you guys delete images you no longer want?
Via the control panel or delete via ftp?