Scald FAQ

Scald is too heavy, isn't it?

Scald is modular, thus it contains many sub modules. If you don't want a feature, just disable a sub module and replace it with your drop in.

Look at the size (as of Oct 1st 2013):

So, no, it is not at all as heavy as you may think.

I think Media is the de-facto standard solution

A solution used by more than 100 K websites can't be wrong. But we believe we need another solution because Media's approach is not extensible. Media implies a media is a file, Scald does not. Scald believes file is just a special case for a media entity. Both of those approaches are not compatible and we can't fix Media. The Scald team thought carefully about many different possibilities before deciding to port Scald to Drupal 7 (to be based on File Entity or Scald's own entity, which is known as "atom"). Media Atom entity is not File entity for a number of reasons:

• We don't want every managed file to be a Media Atom entity.
• Multiple Media Atom entities (with different title, caption...) can be referenced to the same File entity (or any resource).
• One Media Atom entity can have multiple revisions, each referenced to a different File entity (or any resource).
• Media Atom may not always have a filesize or mimetype like a traditional file, but each "transcoded" Media Atom might be a file.

We believe Scald is a better match for more advanced uses. Scald also has many features that Media does not, such as great WYSIWYG integration, friendly library, advanced/granular permission system, etc.

Scald gets used much less than Media because a lot of people still think Media is the standard solution, or they simply are not aware of Scald.

PS: for Drupal 8, after the Media sprint at Drupalcon Prague 2013, a new module Media Entity was born with an approach similar to Scald's. Because Drupal 8 contains many big changes, people start from scratch instead of porting a Drupal 7 module.

Scald may disappear one day

While it is not yet used widely many big sites do currently use Scald instead of Media. For example: NASA.gov, USGS.gov, Radio France (national public radio), ARTE (Franco-German TV network), Le Figaro (the biggest media in France), Africa 24 (TV network) and a lot of other media, government or private websites all used Scald. You can learn more about it on Scald representations at https://drupal.org/node/2101885 or this slide (Drupalcon Prague 2013).

The Scald issue queue is quite active. Therefore this module won't go anywhere in the foreseeable future. Let's use it!

How about performance?

Scald is optimized for performance and uses its own caching system that works well with other caching layers (core filter cache etc.). As of today (Oct 2013), there are:

• 800,000 atoms on franceinfo.fr
• 300,000 atoms on franceinter.fr

(images, videos and audios)

Because Scald works at the entity and field level, the render and text format filter can be cached without bypassing the access control level. It is more D8-friendly than most of other media-related modules.

If a module works at the filter system, it either bypass the access control check for embedded entities, or bypass the filter caching system. Yet, the filter caching system is really useful and essential for big media sites: in a page with a node + 50 comments without cache, it might takes seconds for a HTML corrector filter (like HTML Purifier or HtmLawed...) to filter the texts in every page view.

View mode, context - What is the difference between them?

Nothing. They are the same.

The "display context" concept was introduce by Scald in Drupal 6 because at that time there was:

- No entity: so there was no "view mode" for entity
- No CCK field for entity: so contexts were managed in a separate page, different from the Field UI managing page.

The port of Scald to Drupal 7 still left "context settings" and "view modes settings" at two different places, but we are planning to unify them. If you are familiar with File Entity, then they are "Manage file display" and "Manage display" tabs.

Besides, Scald atoms mean entities. The term "atom" was invented because "entity" didn't exist at that time.

OK, I'm convinced. How to test Scald?

You can set up your own website and test Scald in less than 60 seconds using the Scald Galaxy distribution. It is bundled with a lot of modules, preconfigured to demonstrate Scald features.