The 2026 Drupal Business Survey is open. Your response will help shape the future of the Drupal business ecosystem.Now that media entities have been replaced by file entities and the Styles module is no longer necessary, how does one manage the display of files? Or is Styles still necessary and i've simply misunderstood effulgentsia's point?
I've attached two screen captures. The first displays the "Manage File Styles" options available to the user at admin/config/media/file-types/manage/image/file-display. These would seem to me be the means by which a user manages the display of file entities (without Styles). The second screen capture however, displays the four display types available to me after i've created a file field with media file selector—"generic file," "table of files," "URL to file" and "large filetype icon." Of course, none of these allow the user to see an image or any actual media.
So how does one manage the display of media without Styles?
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| file_field_with_media_file_selector_display_formats.png | 197.59 KB | stephen Piscura | |
| media_file_types_manage_file_display.png | 107.71 KB | stephen Piscura |
Comments
Comment #1
jrsinclair commentedI would really like to know the answer to this question too. I really think that the Media module makes Drupal 7 rock, but this particular aspect is really confusing me.
Comment #2
stephen Piscura commentedReally? No one else is running into this same issue? I must be missing something obvious...
Comment #3
maristgeek commentedSubscribe....
Comment #4
RobW commented#1026790: Allow view modes to be dynamically defined., specifically comment #17 and below should have what you're looking for.
Right now there are two display workflows, without styles using view modes, and with styles using file styles. Maintainers have commented that although it's no longer a dependency, styles is currently the preferred method of managing media display.
[edit] If you're only using images,
as stated here: #1213234-1: Use Image formatter on media fields
Comment #5
dave reidComment #6
marvil07 commentedAfter taking a look to the code at 7.x-1.x, I see that actually all is in place. If you want to change how the field is rendered it's necessary to use the "Media" formatter and change the formatter settings to set the file view mode you would like to use. Sadly if I am correct there is a bug somewhere: #1266786-1: 'media' formatter settings do not show up on display fields page and video is hidden on node detail page
Quoting my workaround on the mentioned issue:
Comment #7
tsvenson commentedClosing due to no activity for a long time. Feel free to reopen with updated info if issue still remains.
Comment #8
jinhcc commentedAny idea how to solve this? The actual image or video cannot be displayed using the file entity. The current suggested solution, if I am not wrong, is to use back the Multimedia asset field type. But it is going to be deprecated, isn't it contradicting to go back to use multimedia asset field type? Is there a way to see the actual media using file field type?
Comment #9
Chaulky commentedI'm also beating my head against this wall. I'd rather not start out using Styles/File Styles if it's going away soon. I'm following the latest "best practices" I've been able to find which suggest using the "File" field type instead of the deprecated "Media Asset" field type. Unfortunately the "Media" formatter mentioned in #6 is only available for the deprecated "Media Asset" field type, when really we need it for the "File" field type.
Comment #10
gollyg commentedI think the patch at http://drupal.org/node/1390878 should fix the issue for you.
Comment #11
dave reidYes it should.