Been doing a lot of research into file management and image handling for D5, in depth for Upload + Upload Path + Inline, Image/ImageAssist and some for Imagefield, and just started playing with Asset. Looks like an excellent combination if it all works - CCK link to existing files (Yay +1 over Imagefield!), automatic creation of Image nodes, but only for images "deserving" such status (Yay +1 over having to use Image nodes for all images!), embedding tags inline with content (Yay over both those two and much more flexible than Inline) I'm assuming good Views/Imagecache integration (+1 over Image Assist)

So THANK YOU so much for all your work for the community, and if you can work toward getting the image-handling part to include all the functionality of the current can-of-worms in this area, I for one would like to see you elevated to the Core pantheon :)

However one gap jumped right out at me, minor nit-pick I know. Image Import (part of Image) lets you batch import from a folder to create Image nodes, and while you're there with the list of eligible files, lets you not only set the title and body content of the soon-to-be created nodes, but lets you tag them with your Taxonomy terms at the same time.

To my mind when creating a batch of Image nodes at a time, tagging them all is essential to making them manageable later on.

Did I miss something in my initial playing around?

If the answer is No, then consider this a feature request.

And I'm sure there are ways to batch tag a bunch of just-created nodes with a given term, but I don't know about them - any ideas?

Comments

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

delete

dman’s picture

dman commented

I guess 'delete' means you found an answer. 'twould be nice if you described it.
For those who found this page through the title search. I'd suggest http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_multi_edit to apply terms to nodes in bulk

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

No, I didn't mean "delete this feature request", I just posted a follow-up comment that turned out to be so idiotic I didn't want anyone to read it, and I didn't see another way to delete it.

When I have non-idiotic information I'm happy to share it - only problem is maybe I know so little I don't yet know how idiotic it is :)

Thanks for the pointer, looks like it's good for applying multiple terms to selected nodes.

I had checked out this one http://drupal.org/project/taxonomy_node_operations

but it seems yours (TME) does everything TNO does in the content management screen but with a nicer interface, and the new tab screen looks like it would great for applying different terms to different nodes on an ad-hoc basis - nice work!

I also found this one, looks more involved, haven't had time to try it yet: http://drupal.org/project/views_bulk_operations

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

Now I honestly think I'm going nuts.

When I went to actually use the Asset import, there's no reference to creating Image nodes at all!

I had in the meantime disabled Image Assist (seems that Asset took over that interface in the node editing screens anyway) but even if I enable it still nothing, only offering to import the existing files as Asset records.

Maybe I hit Image Import and thought I was looking at Asset Import? But then why did I think there was no reference to Taxonomy.

Tell me I'm not insane please. . .

dman’s picture

dman commented

Sorry, I cannot speak for asset module. I know what it's trying to do (which is good), I can't say whether it got there well enough yet (because it didn't when I last tried it).
Good luck

FTR, views_bulk_operations is probably out of scope for you, especially as there is no useful metadata to index on.
node_operations is closer to it, but I haven't tried it, and AFAIK is about automation more that ad-hoc classification.

I personally am not happy with the TME 'tab' screen and prefer the content operations interface (there's a new option in the 'actions' select when viewing the content list and checkboxes) but both aspects have their place.

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented
Title: Batch tag Image nodes with taxonomy terms (a la Image Import) » Add option to batch create Image nodes (a la Image Import)

OK, I finally figured out where I got the idea that this is the/an intended function of this module: its documentation in the Handbook has screenshots that must have come from Image Import!!!

http://drupal.org/node/210530 2nd to 4th screenshots

Perhaps the module was originally intended to do this? If so that's exactly what I need - I want (a subset of) my images to be available BOTH as Image nodes and in Asset, without creating duplicate sets of files on the server.

Obviously whether it does the bulk term tagging as Image Import does is secondary.

Such a relief to know I'm not insane (at least in this case)

(OT) @dman - yes, it's TME's "content operations" items that make TNO redundant, the tab screen is added functionality not found in TNO, and for my current use case isn't needed; but as I said looks great for speeding up ad-hoc tagging of a bunch of nodes with different sets of terms.

VBO is obviously much more generally useful, but regarding the "no meta data" for my use case, I imagine it should be possible to build a view "show all image nodes with no taxonomy terms assigned" or if that's difficult, then I know I could just "show all image nodes most recent at the top", and use that View immediately after creating the new batch of nodes.

Of course since Asset import doesn't even create Image nodes, and Image Import does take care of the tagging, the whole use case is moot anyway - but thanks for helping to add to the knowledge base :)

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented

There's no such thing as an "asset node". Assets are added either in-line (with or without using TinyMCE) or as a cck field. So what you're like is for asset import to create nodes with an asset added as a cck field?

If you need image nodes, then you should use the image and image import modules.

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

Wim,

Thanks for confirming this was not your intention, and sorry to load up the queue, but I've really been putting Assets through its paces.

May I suggest that the handbook documentation screenshots for Asset Import be updated so as not to imply that Image nodes are created? Maybe I'm the only one misled, but perhaps just the only one that's mentioned it.

Also the descriptive text that shows on the admin modules list mentions images specifically rather than files generally - not quite as confusing as the handbook screenshots but together. . .

I now realize that Image Import is the way to go to create image nodes.

However I do think if Asset Import could optionally do the same as II without requiring two separate steps, it would be a great step forward in Drupal image handling. I would then be able to choose which of my image Assets "deserve" treatment as full nodes, and be able to reference them in CCK fields as well without having to upload them twice, with the resulting waste of time, disk space and management overhead.

Obviously it's your module so I understand if this outside the scope you intend, but I'd greatly appreciate your leaving it as an outstanding feature request (outstanding not = excellent but meaning still open for consideration)

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented
Title: Add option to batch create Image nodes (a la Image Import) » Add option to batch create nodes

Hi Hans, thanks for pointing out that the module's description was still referring to "images", I fixed this on dev. I do think the documentation is pretty consistent in referring to "files" instead of "nodes".

I see the value in batch creating ndoes with the files attached as asset, however the difficulty lies in that asset does not only handle images: it handles all types of files. Ideally you would be able to choose the default formatters for each type, for instance which imagecache preset should be used for the image, whether the audio player should be displayer or just a link to the mp3 and what the size of the flash player should be... So I'm leaving this ticket active but it's not something that's going to be fixed any time soon by me.

HansBKK’s picture

HansBKK commented

Thanks for considering the ideas Wim, it's true in my current stage of development I'm just trying to sort out what combination of modules to use for images, and in my initial looking at Asset thought maybe I'd found the "one module to rule them all".

The essential functionality I was after here was the ability to have the same set of files in the filesystem (without creating duplicates) available both to Image family modules (IOW as Image nodes) AND as Assets (or Imagefields)

I've found so far there's no easy or safe way to do this, so I'll just live with the file duplication.

PS I'd still recommend replacing the misleading screenshots in the handbook page http://drupal.org/node/210530

In particular these:

http://drupal.org/files/asset-import-one.png
http://drupal.org/files/asset-import-three.png
http://drupal.org/files/asset-import-four.png

I'd be happy to do it myself if I knew how

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)