By eglue on

We got a client that publishes a magazine online. Their existing content is all over the place and we're looking for a CMS system (hopefully Drupal) that could fit the bill.

Most of the "pages" have several photos spaced into the content with text flowing around the photos. Uploading photos one by one, through browse field is not going to cut it. We need a multi-file drag and drop tool that makes available photos right in a WYSIWYG system. The content creators are just that, content creators, writers and Photoshop slinging designers, no one at this organization can do coding. So the system has to be really simplified.

... what are we looking at? Though road or is it doable with a certain collection of modules? Or wha?

Thanks for the help in advance. If I come to answer my question, I'll post it. Just feeling the pressure of a looming deadline.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

Not a standard Drupal feature so I would suggest searching Google for "Drag and Drop photos to the browser"

yuriy.babenko’s picture

yuriy.babenko commented

I haven't seen anything like a "multi file drag and drop" uploader. Uploading files one by one (the normal way) should suffice, IMO.

To get the functionality you want, you would probably have to develop and integrate a Java Applet of some sort.

---
Yuriy Babenko
www.yubastudios.com

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Yuriy Babenko | Technical Consultant & Senior Developer
http://yuriybabenko.com

eglue’s picture

eglue commented

Have any of you guys seen the Facebook Java applet? It basically pulls up a hierarchical directory of your computer's HD (after you give it permission to do so) and you can check mark all the "photos" you want to upload.

Something like that seems to be likely thing to do, more so that a cross browser drag and drop applet. Drag and drop functionality apparently require ActiveX and some of you have said, that alone is a full-time headache.

I continue my search...

yuriy.babenko’s picture

yuriy.babenko commented

Yep, the facebook photo uploader is exactly what I had in mind when I was talking about the Java Applet.

Maybe if you ask nicely Facebook will share it with you ;)...
---
Yuriy Babenko
www.yubastudios.com

---
Yuriy Babenko | Technical Consultant & Senior Developer
http://yuriybabenko.com

spiffyd’s picture

spiffyd commented

Found the Facebook java image uploader... it's made by Aurigma.

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploader/OnlineDemo.aspx

See the basic demo

yelvington’s picture

yelvington commented

Depending on whether you have to hit unreasonable arbitrary requirements, this can be easy or hell on earth.

IMCE combined with one of the supported rich text editors gives you drag/drop positioning of images.

If you must have drag/drop upload, then you're in a bit of a pickle. IMCE requires you to pick each image and upload it individually.

Image Publishing lets you use iPhoto, Gallery Remote, Windows Web Publishing Wizard, Digikam, etc., to do bulk uploads, and I think you can persuade IMCE to look at the results, but I have not created that particular setup.

dman’s picture

dman commented

That can't happen, and it's not going to happen without installing some sort of extra software on the client.

The reasons are clear - it's not because browser-WYSIWYG wouldn't like to, but because browser-javascript is PROHIBITED from sucking files off your computer. Imagine if it wasn't! The same for browser-sandboxed Java.
Although the upload mechanism can automate many of of the steps, the bit where YOU navigate your filesystem and choose a file to GIVE to the browser has to be done by you. For security reasons.
And drag & drop from the OS is not supported by HTML elements.

The only way this security can be breached is by ActiveX or other deliberately insecure browser plugins. I'm guessing you are looking at Mac users, so no help there.
Or possibly be java applets with special lowered security rights (which can be done in the browser or something). I have seen a multi-file drag&drop file uploader in Drupal modules somewhere - but the rest of the interface was as clunky as only Java can be. And you do NOT want to write a WYSIWYG in Java. (I have. It Sucked)

For very good security reasons - scripts running on a web page do not have access to your file system. You must choose and 'submit' them individually to the server before the server can start using them

Oh, and you'll be needing to tell your designers - "WYSIWYG : that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" ;-)

and P.P.S. - You'll need to get a real process in place, because even though a WYSIWYG may allow dynamic resizing in the editor, that's not file resizing, so your 'designers' may find themselves embedding 2MB originals into HTML.

Sorry, your solution is going to involve some training, not coding.

.dan.
How to troubleshoot Drupal | http://www.coders.co.nz/

.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards

spiffyd’s picture

spiffyd commented

Look no further:

http://zgrossbart.blogspot.com/2007/11/drag-and-drop-file-uploading-made...

deciphered’s picture

deciphered
Primary language English
Location Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
commented

I've recently committed a module, aptly named Drag'n'Drop Uploads that adds this functionality natively in Apple Safari 4+, Google Chrome 2+ and Mozilla Firefox 3.6+.

It's available for Drupal 6 and 7, has support for the Drupal core upload module and the FileField and ImageField modules, plus support for CCK Formatters for output.

Cheers,
Deciphered.

dreadfulcode’s picture

dreadfulcode commented

Wow. What a find--- thanks for this awesome contribution.