Drupal 7 Media Modules

(Media, Media Gallery, etc.)

Grigory NAUMOVETS

Kiev, Ukraine

2

Outline• [why] Do we need more modules to manage

media?

• Media module:

– features, advantages, problems

– 1.x and 2.x branches

• Media Gallery module:

– features, advantages, problems

• Other media-related modules: MediaElement, Media Browser Plus, MediaFront

• Conclusions

3

Site content

• Text content

– Nodes

– Comments

– Blocks

– Views

– etc.

• Media (file) content

– Managed files (have their own File ID in the system)

– Unmanaged files (are not known to the system – just linked from somewhere)

4

Managed files in Drupal 7

• Drupal 7 has database tables ‘file_managed’ and ‘file_usage’ keeping track of managed files: file ID, name, URI, size, type, user and module responsible for this file, etc.

• But there is no user interface to manage these ‘managed files’!

5

[Text] Content administration/admin/content – [node] content administrationAlso, we can administer comments, blocks, views, etc…

but how can we administer MEDIA???

6

Filefield <- media file

• Regular File upload widget:How can we use one file in many nodes?We can only duplicate it – WTF???

We want to:– Re-use one file in many fields

– Organize media (tags, directories, etc.)

7

List of file uploading and managing modules

groups.drupal.org/node/20291

• Database File manager, FileDepot, File Framework, Filemanager, File maintenance, WebFM, Upload paths, Filefield paths, etc. etc. etc.

• Many of these are obsolete/abandoned/rarely used

• No full-featured solution yet

8

Media module• Available only for Drupal 7• Reported installs: >39,000 (Feb. 2012)• Branches:

– 7.x-1.x – recommended (features freezed, bugfixes only)– 7.x-2.x – unstable (with new improvements)

• Requirements:– Javascript must be enabled– CTools– Media 7.x-2.x relies on Views and File entity (fieldable

files); 7.x-1.x has File entity included inside

• Media module development was sponsored by: Acquia, Advomatic, and Palantir.net

9

Installing Media module…Now we have:

New field type: Multimedia asset

New widget: Media File Selector

Media Library

10

We also have…

Content types »…» Manage display

New display formatter: Media

11

File display format should be defined for the appropriate file type (“bundle”) – Image, Audio, Video, Other

/admin/config/media/file-types

12

Configuring file display for each file typeadmin/config/media/file-types/manage/video/file-display

File view modes – ‘Default’, ‘Link’, ‘Preview’, ‘Small’, ‘Large’, ‘Original’, etc.;you need to save settings separately for each mode

Display precedence order is important – e.g. when you need to display videos from YouTube, ‘YouTube Video’ display should go before ‘MediaElement Video’ etc.

13

Media Library: now media content can be managed like node content

/admin/content – Node content administration

/admin/content/media – Media content administration

new tab for Media administration

14

Media administration/admin/content/media We can choose

LIST view or THUMBNAIL view

15

Media items in the list have their own URLs

and can be viewed/edited like nodes

/media/45/editedit Media item

/media/45view Media item

16

Viewing Media items like nodes

/media/[fid]Media item URL

[fid]is File ID from

‘file_managed’ table

17

So, Media module does not create a ‘Media Library’ table in the database

• It uses the tables that Drupal 7 already has: ‘file_managed’ and ‘file_usage’

• But it adds new fields to define new properties of media files: ‘Title’ and ‘Description’

field_data_media_title, field_data_media_descriptionfield_revision_media_title, field_revision_media_description

18

Editing Media items

‘Title’ and ‘Description’ of items in Media Library

are DIFFERENT from ‘Title’ and ‘Alternate text’ properties of images in Image field and ‘Description’ property of files in File field

They are NOT shown when displaying images or file attachments in the usual way

Modules displaying media should be able to handle media titles and descriptions (e.g. Media Gallery)

19

Under the hood: Media title and description

• These are different values kept in different database tables than ‘File description’ and ‘Image title’ properties available for File/Image fields

20

Adding files to Media Library via UploadWith Plupload plugin, we can upload multiple files by drag-n-dropping them here

21

Adding media from web

• hhh

via media_vimeo.module

via media_youtube.module

• With some additional modules, we can add to the Media Library media from YouTube, Vimeo, and other supported providers

22

Adding media from Remote URL

• Remote stream wrapper module: now we can add remote media to the Media Library without copying the files to our server

via remote_stream_wrapper.module

23

Importing files to Media Library from another directory

• In this way, we can import files bigger than maximum size allowed for PHP upload

(upload files by FTP to some directory, then import to Media Library)

24

Using media from Media Libraryin File/Image fields

• Now we have a new widget type:Media file selector

25

Media file selector widget• Selecting media from Library

26

With regular Image widget, we have “Alternate text” and “Title” that we can display near/over the image

However, some things are missing…

27

What we see with the regular Image widget

Image Title displayed in a lightbox view

28

With Media File selector widget

• We can edit ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ of this item in Media Library, but we cannot display them in the same way as we display “Alternate text” and “Title” image properties

• It’s really a disappointment • Same problem with ‘File description’ for File fields

“Alternate text” and “Title” image properties are no longer available. WTF???

29

Referencing media from Libraryinline in textarea fields

• TinyMCE, CKEditor: enable ‘Media browser’ plugin or add ‘Media’ button

File display modes

(Configuration » Media » File types » Manage file display)

30

Media input filter should be enabledto convert media tags into markup

Media tags look like that:[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_preview","fid":"44","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"180","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"180"}}]]

31

Removing media from a node

• Removing a media file from a node does not delete it from the Media Library

32

Removing files from Media Library…/admin/content/media

• You cannot delete a media file which is in use somewhereuntil you remove it from all the nodes

• Sometimes it’s kind of frustrating…

33

Media Gallery module

• Depends on Media module

• Understands ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ attributes of media files

• Can display images and videos in the same gallery

• Developed by the engineering team at Acquia

34

Viewing all galleries

35

We can have images and videos in the same gallery

Media Title displayed on hover

These are videos

36

Images and videos can be displayed inline or in a pop-up colorbox

• Media Gallery can display both Title and Description of media items

• Media Gallery calls Colorbox library independently of Colorbox module

• Integration with Colorbox module (to use its features and settings) requires some patching

37

Edit or Remove

It’s easy to add, reorder, and edit media in the gallery

Reorder items by dragging the handle to a new position

Add media with Media File selector

38

Editing gallery settings

It’s easy to set for each specific gallery the number of rows and columns, media display inline or in a pop-up box, etc.

39

Displaying LOCAL video files(not from YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)

• For this, you may need to install and configure some media player

- e.g. MediaElement player(Drupal module integrating MediaElement.js library)

• May not work in a pop-up box

40

Configuring file display settings for Video

admin/config/media/file-types/manage/video/file-display

41

Media Gallery problems: Theme-dependent

• Theme-dependent problems (e.g. for Adaptivetheme and related themes)

– Broken display of “All Galleries” page(may need some css tweaking)

– Drag handles not displayed: how can you reorder items now?(may need some patching)

42

Media Gallery problems: Colorbox

• Colorbox-related problems:

– Clicking on the colorbox (not on the arrows) does not work as expected: it leads to “View Detail page” instead of showing the next item in the gallery (may need some css patching)

– Media Gallery work with Colorbox directly; integration with Colorbox module (to use all its features and settings) may require some patching

43

Media Gallery problems: Taxonomy

• Strange things with Taxonomy:

– Media Gallery creates ‘Gallery collections’ vocabulary with‘Galleries’ term in it,but they are not visible and not editable inadmin/structure/taxonomy interface

• Conflicts with i18n_taxonomy reported

44

So, Media Gallery still needs some

File tools

45

…more than you could expect from a module creating quite a lot of tables in the database

46

Problems with Media• Organize Media

(with lots of items in Media Library, you need to structurize it somehow via folders, tags, etc. – like you do with your boomarks or email)

• Handling media attributes(Media’s ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ vs Image’s “Title’ and “Alt text’ andFile’s ‘Description’)

47

Media Browser Plus module• Works with Media 7.x-1.x and 7.x-2.x branches• UI and functional improvements (multiple selection,

media search, etc.)• Organizing Media: folders, tags, etc.

48

Media 7.x-2.x branch

• ‘Media’ is now called ‘Files’: /admin/content/file instead of /admin/content/media

49

Media 7.x-2.x branch: core File field instead of Media field

• And it’s not just name change:now we are supposed to work with the core File field instead of ‘Multimedia asset’ fields (which are deprecated)

50

Media 7.x-2.x branch

• One more change: Integration with Views.Now we have ‘View Library’ selection mode

51

Media 7.x-2.x branch

And this ‘MediaBrowser’ view is editable

52

MediaFront module

• Integration of OSM media player

• Plays both local and remote (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) video

• Integration with Views:can create video galleries displayed as playlists in media player’s window

• Detailed video tutorial:http://youtu.be/k7tbGXjMRWQ

53

MediaFront:a video gallery displayed as a playlist

54

How to re-use files in file fields without Media File selector?

• FileField Sources module/widget

55

References

• James Gollan’s presentationhttp://youtu.be/8pHoGZBv47c

• Drupalcon Chicago presentationhttp://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/mediahttp://www.slideshare.net/JacobSingh/multimedia-handing-in-drupal-7-done-better-with-the-media-module

56

Questions?

• Contact info:

– http://drupal.ua/users/GN

– gnaumovets@gmail.com