Add support to insert image nodes into panels

Ack! Sorry I missed this! I've put it back at/near the top of my list...

Tag -- can we convince image.module to take this feature on?

i'm really reluctant to add features to the 5 code base that aren't added to 6 first... and since pannels 2 for d6 doesn't exist yet it's a bit of a quandry.

wait, so even if i did want to add this... what would i have to do to distribute it with the image module and have panels load it up?

*gets excited*

There are two ways to alert Panels to the presence of your plugin. The latter's a little more complicated, but they're complications that make for nice organization, so it's my preferred method. The difference between the two is in where you put your 'plugin declaration function' - see http://doxy.samboyer.org/panels2/panels_api_plugins_content_types.html. That'll also be a handy reference for writing the rest of the content type. And in terms of forwards-compatibility with D6, very little is likely to change (at least at first) when it comes to how plugins operate. There's a decent chance it'll Just Work.

In either case, Panels' plugin system uses a specific naming scheme when it goes hunting for plugins to process. The quick & dirtier-method for getting Panels' attention is by using functions of the form $module_name . '_' . $plugin_type, so in this case, image_panels_content_types(). OG Panels (bundled with og now) does it this way, see line 560ish.

The more structured way of going about it is to implement hook_panels_include_directory(). Annoyingly enough, for some reason the panels2 doxy docs haven't properly included the docs I've written on that hook invocation, so I can't link you straight to it, but it's all written in starting around line 1330 of includes/plugins.inc. When you invoke that hook, you define some subdirectories within your own module's directories for panels to look in for a specific type of plugin. Once you've done that, Panels will check any *.inc files you put in there for plugin data as part of its normal routine. You still have to create a plugin declaration function, but the naming schema does change slightly - it becomes $module_name . '_' . $filename . '_' $plugin_type.

In both cases, the functions have to return plugin definition arrays.

If you do end up doing this, I'd love some feedback on the documentation for these various pieces...not many folks have used it yet, and I'm sure there are many improvements that can be made. I've got thick skin, so don't hold back.

Just a few changes and this works right out-of-the-box from Image module.

* Changed title *

okay committed this to the 5.x-2.x branch... i'm always complaining about maintainers who let the perfect become the enemy of the good (*cough* *dww* *cough* ;)) so hopefully this'll give people still on 5.x another reason to upgrade to the 5.x-2.x branch.