How do you use Media in Pages?

[KentT]

1. How do you set the allowed dimensions of the pictures?  All I am uploading are being resized to thumbnail size, and I can't find the setting that controls this in the ACP.

2.  Once uploaded, how do I insert them in an Article using the Page Builder?  When I click on the Insert Other Media option, it shows only Post Attachments, Gallery Images and File Download categories -- and I can't see the pictures.

3.  What is the purpose of the single image that can be uploaded at the bottom of the editor screen in the records view?

[TAMAN]

1. im unsure about this, I dont think there is a setting for that, and it should not resize i guess, :/

2. Pages Media is not user attachments, so you need to paste the image link by clicking on insert image from URL 

3. This is the record image.

[opentype]

Your questions are too vague to answer correctly. What pictures are you talking about? Uploaded how and where exactly?

[TAMAN]

12 minutes ago, opentype said:

Your questions are too vague to answer correctly. What pictures are you talking about? Uploaded how and where exactly?

I think hes talking about Media folder, Pages > Media

[opentype]

I see. 

That section is more for developers. You upload content there and then you get a tag like {media="someimage.png"} you can put in templates. 

If you want to add images to articles, do it the regular way, just as in the forums. Use the attach function at the bottom of the editor window. From there you can directly place the attached image in the article. 

There is also the default Record Image field for every database. That’s like the teaser image which represents the article in different views and is also used for social media sharing. 

More image fields can be added to any database if you need them. They too are not available to be placed inside the article. They are placed above or below the article. 

[KentT]

Thanks for the replies.  Yes, I was talking about the Media function in Pages, that is why I capitalized them. I'm trying to clean up almost 1500 posts (that contain about 7500 images) that IPS services converted in from Wordpress, and it is proving to be quite time-consuming.

Continuing on with my original three questions: 

1.  So, there's no place to set the dimensions of pictures uploaded to the Media function, other than perhaps in custom code somewhere. 

2.  If I use that Record Image field, I can see the pictures that I have uploaded to Media, but not the pictures from Post Attachments, Gallery Images and File Download categories.  It seems that if I am to upload the pictures to the article using the WYSIWG editor, that I should be able to specify one of those to become the Record Image - yet, I have no easy way to access them because that dialogue used to specify the Record Image only shows pictures that have been uploaded to the Media function in the ACP, not the ones uploaded using the WYSIWG editor

3.  Since I didn't see the pictures displayed anywhere else - such as in the record list generated - I had no clue as to their use, and it is not described in the Guides. 

But, if I do specify a Record Image, it is automatically being inserted in the top left corner of the content display, without me telling it to -- often duplicating the picture that's already in the body of the page content.  I like the ability to specify the picture associated with the record when sharing it to Facebook, for example (I wish we could do that with forum posts or gallery albums), but I don't want duplicate pictures. 

So, I guess I am limited to using the Insert from URL to handle a large number of pictures, and FTP them to the server file system to organize them into folders.  This is a real PITA and quite time-consuming.  Plus, if I open the page in the WYSIWYG editor it screws up the relative URLs of the embedded pictures since I am using multiple levels of categories as part of the friendly URLs.  I've changed the settings so Admins can see/edit source to clean the mess up, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of WYSIWYG.

And that brings up a whole new question.

4. Is there a way to use the lightbox with pictures that are being stored in the file system on the server and embedded from URLs?  That would make the photo handling appear consistent to the users.  What kind of HREF link should I specify to call or use the lightbox?

This whole photo handling issue appears quite inconsistent across the suite, and makes it counter-intuitive. It certainly makes Pages seem like an afterthought. I like the idea of being able to arrange uploaded media into folders -- for example, I have over 2000 pictures that I have posted in the forums.  I wish I could organize them into folders... The same goes for the gallery, though the numbers I've used are smaller -- why aren't the gallery pictures organized into albums, categories or folders for reuse? Those categories and albums have already been specified. 

Again, thanks for educating the IPS newbie...

[opentype]

I have never done the WordPress to Pages conversion. How are the images converted over? Are they stored as attachments or where do they appear?

Using FTP and “Image from URL” sounds terrible. I really wouldn’t do that for thousands of images. Use the core functions and that will also add the lightbox automatically. 

The Record Image will appear in the blog listing mode and the record view by default, yes. That’s just what WordPress is doing with the so-called Featured Image. If you don’t want that you need to customize the article template. You can create as many templates as you want and assign them to any Pages database however you like. That’s actually a quite powerful feature. 

[KentT]

The images did not convert at all -- all I have are the original references in the HTML.  I FTPed them up to the server (along with the directory structure they were organized and stored in) so that they will display initially in the record views.  Many are thumbnails with an HREF larger view if you click on them.  That HREF still works well, and the thumbnails will display correctly initially, but if I open the record in the WYSIWG editor the original reference to the thumbnail gets screwed up. 

If I use the core functions and upload them again, not only would it be very time consuming, but I'd then have almost 10,000 unorganized images in My Attachments.  That would make reuse almost impossible due to the difficulty of finding them...

Geez, what a convoluted mess...

BTW, the Record Image does not appear in the record lists underneath categories -- and it is being embedded in top left corner of the body text of the article/post -- not only duplicating the pic, but really screwing up the layout.  All this is being displayed with Taman's Magnum theme and single-column template -- but I think I verified that IPS default theme displays the record list the same way. The "main page" that I created is using only the default "Insert Database" and "Database Filter" blocks. 

Perhaps I need to have someone create custom block(s) for me -- because anything beyond crude use of HTML is beyond me...

[opentype]

39 minutes ago, KentT said:

The images did not convert at all -- all I have are the original references in the HTML. 

I see. Maybe you want to clarify with IPS support if that is the intended behaviour. If they were in the WordPress system before (not just linked external images), I would also expect them to convert to IPS Suite images in one way or another. 

39 minutes ago, KentT said:

… but I think I verified that IPS default theme displays the record list the same way.

That is correct. Stripping the 3 lines that output the image is pretty easy though. 

[KentT]

IPS Services told me up front that they could not convert the pictures.  They actually suggested that I copy/paste the Wordpress posts into the IPS GUI rather than converting them. But that would not have handled the pictures at all....  So, I knew some cleanup would be required, I just didn't know the specifics.  I'm learning...

So, is there no way to call the lightbox in an HREF link, or via a function somehow?   

[opentype]

Add this to the link wrapping the image:

 data-ipsLightbox  data-ipsLightbox-group="Something"

 

[KentT]

Will try that later, when I have time to wrestle with it again.

Thanks again!

 

[KentT]

Wanted to follow up and say that this is working well to display the lightbox, thanks again @opentype

[KentT]

Bringing this question/issue back to the top. How is the Pages Media function supposed to work?

 I'm proceeding with integrating the Wordpress content, and satisfied overall with how that is working, and displaying.  But, I still have questions about the whole Media section of Pages.  I've uploaded some pictures there, because I've discovered that the Facebook share only picks up the Record Image for a record when you share it.  (Else it defaults to whatever default image you have specified in the ACP.)  However, I cannot use/link those images uploaded to the Pages Media folder(s) when I create or edit a record -- all I can do is upload a picture for the Record Image.  

Then, when I go the Pages Media section, the pictures I have uploaded as Record Images when I was creating/editing records do not appear.   

This is confusing to say the least, and I've yet to understand why I can create folders and upload and organize media if I can't access it through the GUI to use it... And, where did the images that I uploaded as Record Images when creating/editing records go?