You can probably imagine that I was disappointed when I saw this module. Image Assist is undergoing a major rewrite currently, including Views support, ImageCache support, Inline API, and Wysiwyg API integration, and we rather could have used your skills in these efforts. This module does nothing else than increasing the confusion for new Drupal users, making the evaluation and decision for a particular module even harder than it was already. So while you probably solved your particular use-case, you did not do a favor to thousands of Drupal users.

Honestly, I like what I see on http://demo.coredesigns.co.uk/?q=imagebrowser/view/browser&app=FCKEditor. However, I already know that this module will face exactly the same issues and problems like the developers of Image Assist, IMCE, and Asset are dealing with already. Those developers have committed to work towards joining forces instead of duplicating efforts. It would be great if you would jump on that band wagon, too.

Comments

jdelaune’s picture

jdelaune commented

I'm more than happy to join forces and work on a new module that sorts all the issues out. I didn't know Image Assist was undergoing a major rewrite.

What issues are they facing?

Well you know how to contact me if you want my support. Thanks

pkej’s picture

pkej commented

My view is that Image Browser has the cleanest interface. It is easy for the novice. Just tell them to upload/import images and then image assist does the rest.

Those others are okay, but the screenshot made me jump in the chair. So easy, so clean.

Now, how about tinymce support ;)

Serioulsy, Starnox, look into the wysiwygapi to see if there is anything there which will help integrate your browser with all the Wysiwyg editors.

zach harkey’s picture

zach harkey commented

I've struggled with IMCE and Image Assist for years and even financially sponsored features along the way. As far as I'm concerned this module just pantsed them both.

I just want something to work... like this. Thanks for contributing it. At this point I don't think it's possible to confuse people more than they already are.

jdelaune’s picture

jdelaune commented

Thanks guys, I will continue to work on Image Browser until all these APIs and technologies mature more. Spent a night in #IRC to get some guru direction.

I will certainly look into WYSIWYG API integration and will contribute any patches back in getting it to work with Image Browser.

Thanks for your support.

sun’s picture

sun
Primary language German
Location Karlsruhe
commented

The problem is not only increased confusion, but also wasting of human resources. As mentioned in my initial post, ImageBrowser will have to solve the very same issues like Image Assist or IMCE or Asset. That's a huge waste of time, and in the end, none of the existing modules will mature to a level they have to.

Now you start to look into Wysiwyg API. That's fine, but you'll quickly realize that you will have to rewrite the whole module to make it compatible to all client-side editors. In the same time, Image Assist will have advanced on that, have a completely rewritten plugin architecture and user interface, and most likely already work with developers of IMCE/Asset to merge even more features.

jdelaune’s picture

jdelaune commented

sun you make it seems like some sort of competition. I've said before if you want my input in any way then feel free to contact me, that offer is still very much open. I created ImageBrowser to solve my issues, and thought I would upload it for others if they ran into the same issue. It takes a very different approach to Image Assist and IMCE in the way it targets nodes and integrates with Image and ImageCache. It's obviously simple and yet elegant. I've taken many great modules like Image, ImageCache and FCKeditor and simply joined them together with a nice clean interface that gets the job done.

If Image Assist, IMCE and Asset all come together at the end of the day and it doesn't turn into a massive bloated module then I will gladly switch to using it. However that's not the case at the present time and I needed a quick solution.

It's not a competition on who can make the best module, this is open source... it's not like either of us are making any money from this. I needed a simple solution and nothing out there did it for me hence why I created ImageBrowser. If it only helps me than it accomplishes what it was created for. If it helps others then great. Feel free to take anything you think is of value from it for your collaboration together with IMCE and Asset.

pkej’s picture

pkej commented

I like the simplicity of this module, I don't remember how ImageAssist is or works, but I tried IMCE just a couple of days ago and was not impressed.

I agree that there is a lot of different editors, each needs their own integration. Why don't we just have one editor? The call for unifying the image browsers into the same module is the same as unifiying into one editor. There are at least four or five different editors.

Anyway, if the wysiwyg interface could provide an api for plugging in different extensions, like image browser (and god I hope someone will make a nice node linker/browser soon) into all of the available editors, then fantastic, then we can use those parts we like best.

I've loved TinyMCE for a while, but since I tried to make this Image Browser work, and thus had to try out FCKeditor, I found that it fits my usage much better. I might still use Image Assist, (IMCE is out of the question), if I can't make Image Browser work in a subdirectory. The point is that the different editors gives me choice.

sun’s picture

sun
Primary language German
Location Karlsruhe
commented
Title: Image Assist » Image Assist / IMCE / Asset

Just to clarify: I am definitely not talking about competition. Whether or not having competition is a good thing, is a whole other story. I am trying to decrease duplication and confusion about contributed modules by joining forces to build better solutions. Proper and fully-fledged image handling as well as client-side editor integration are two of the major shortcomings in Drupal. Yet another quick "solution" surely won't be the answer to those topics.

pkej’s picture

pkej commented

Sun, I agree with you on the analysis of image handling and client-side editing in Drupal, it has been a disgrace for several years, I first touched Drupal in 2005, but knew about the drop long before that.

From a webdeveloper perspective Drupal is the best thing ever, except for its editor support, and specifically its image support in the editors. I started out using TinyTinyMCE module for version 5.x because it integrated with IMCE and Image Assist.

I tried out Imce just a few days ago, and it still has a clunky, overly complex (yet powerless) interface. Put it beside Image Browser, and you can see the definiton of opposites. I would have used IMCE if it tried to show at least just the preview of images, instead of the full size, as it is it is browsing files, not image objects.

Image Assist is much like Image Browser, I like how the title and body are used as caption automatically, I like it just as well as Image Browser, and for the linking and captioning I will probably use it. I don't know why I haven't used Image Assist in a while.

I'm not going to install Asset just to test it, I installed Image Assist since sun is discussing in this thread.

I will try out both Image Assist and Image Browser with a multilanguage site later. Yes, photos are not locale dependent (except when photos are of for example a sign in a specific language, or have other context where you need to be of a specific culture to understand it), but its caption is language dependent.

And that's where image nodes fails, they can't seem to link to the same image, though the title might be different. I will have to look into imagefield, at least it is possible to synchronize fields across translations. It seems both Image Assist and Image Browser are using image nodes, so neither might fit my use.

I have to run some more tests. And we're back to Sun's comment, the state of image handling in Drupal is outrageous. I can't even create a multilanguage image node which makes sense. And I really hope one of your two modules can be used for browsing imagefield images, if that is what I need to use.

After seeing Image Assist in use (again), I can agree to a certain degree with sun that things can be pooled. Personally I like the UI of Image Browser, especially the listing of all the sizes in a table in the window to select which size you want. But, the functionality of Image Assist is much more mature, I like the fact that it takes the title and body and inserts them as a caption for the image. That's good. In my setup I'd usually change the name of the body field to copyright, Title to Caption and then add more cck fields for other info.

So, there are good things in both approaches, and both modules seem much more mature and usable out of the box than say IMCE.

Both are sufficiently similar to the other, so pooling could be a nice option, and from what I understand of this thread it seems that Starnox is up to it, and Sun, you're asking for it. My previous comments might have stirred the waters, and I humbly beg both of you forgivness for that, and I hope that you will find a way to cooperate which fills both of your needs.

Then I can post issues to one queue only, as I now will pester both projects for my pet peeves.

Best regards,
Paul

jdelaune’s picture

jdelaune commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Happy to merge in the future. No activity for over a week so I'm closing this.