since the feature we recommended wasn’t included in the latest update, we thought we might have been unprecise in our explanation. Therefore we made an graphic explanation how we imaged it.
At first we we wished for a possibility to add a picture which is already on the server with his URL. This might be realized through a box below the upload-button. The pictures would otherwise be handled normal.
In the backend should, independent how it was uploaded, the URL of the picture should be shown below it and a possibility to edit it directly be given. This would make double entries easy.
I hope you understand that this would ease the implementation of pictures and avoid pointless work since the Media Browser doesn’t save the last used path.
Your feature request for inserting an image from url is still on our wishlist, though the way I have it in mind is different from your example in that I’m not sure about making the url editable once an image is in place. Instead I was thinking of a third button next to Choose and Upload where you can enter the url in a popup.
The reason it’s not in the last release is that we haven’t gotten to building it yet. Things have been a bit slow here the past couple of months due to illness and the rest of the team having to work on higher priority projects for their other clients (they’re all independent developers with their own businesses, not fulltime modmore employees).
When we make progress on your feature request and have confirmation of what version it will be available in, we’ll let you know here. I’m hopeful we can look at it for the next feature release as we also have some other ideas to enhance the image input type, but I can’t promise when it will be available. We shift features back and forth all the time and unexpected things do happen.
we understand delays of either kind completly, but we wait already eight months for the implementation which is quite some time. While we port reviews we have to do about 12 clicks for one picture and some have 50 and more. At the review i work now i got a total of 624 clicks, since we have to do:
52 x “insert entry”
52 x “choose”
52 x in the Folder of the product-type
52 x in the folder of the product
52 x the picture.
x2 since we got the tumbnail and the regular picture - only because ModX can’t remember the last used path and the missing possibility to C&P the URL of the picture. Of course we
understand that not many websites use as many pictures as tech sites, but expecially those need an feature like that.
Drag and Drop wouldn’t be a solution since there would be chaos in the one used folder.
We would be very happy if you would try to implement the feature soon or at least try to give it an higher priority. I am sure also several other customers would be happy since you
would be only ones who provide such an feature.
I understand you might be frustrated it’s taking so long. It’s definitely on the list of things we’ll add, but that’s all I have for you right now, because I don’t want to promise you something until I’m 100% sure I can live up to any promise I make.
This is not an ideal situation or how I want to run modmore, but given the recent months that’s how it is until we get everything back on track, which will take time. I really want to guarantee you it will be in 1.6 or ready by a certain date, but right now I simply can’t make promises like that.
What I can do, and promise I will, is to keep you up to date when we make progress on your request.
If you need a temporary workaround until then, you can use a simple text input where you paste in your links, but you’d miss the image preview in the back-end.
Hi @mkramer, I’ve just had a play with this and it looks like we’ll have this included in ContentBlocks 1.6. 1.5 is currently in prerelease so 1.6 is at least a few weeks out, but at least you know it’s being worked on
@mhamstra First of all: Thanks for the update 1.6. As always, everything works perfectly. I’ve tested the new feature and I have a question about the relative path information you can put in: Isn’t it actually redundant to copy a picture that already exists on your own server? Instead of copying the image why not just parsing the path?
The primary reason is to ensure that every image inserts in ContentBlocks receives the same treatment when it comes to allowed file names/extensions, making placeholders for sizes available, and other handling. There’s not a lot of magical stuff happening right now, but when we add things like image cropping it’s important images have been processed the same when added.
This way the image is also always in the configured media source… someone might pass a local file link, but expect the image to be hosted from amazon s3 when inserted because that is the configured media source for ContentBlocks.
It’s a trade-off between potentially duplicating local files and having inconsistent behaviour between different images depending on how they were added. If needed maybe we can make it smarter where it checks the image location with the configured media source, and only copy it when those are different…
@mhamstra I see the dilemma. The idea to check whether the given relative path is the same as configured in the ContentBlocks management tool sounds great. That would ensure that both aspects of the argument are forfilled.
@mhamstra Hi Mark - to avoid any misunderstanding - the question was: Will your idea be implemented in the future or is it which would be a perfect solution just hypothetical?
It was just an idea, not something that is implemented.
I’m not sure if we will add it, as there does not seem to be a lot of demand for it, compared to other image features like cropping, image settings etc. Those are a higher priority with a much larger impact to what people can do with ContentBlocks that we get requests for on a regular basis.
Your feedback and feature requests for ContentBlocks are definitely welcome (keep it coming!), but I don’t think we’ll work on this particular request in the near future.
got it. Indeed, there won’t be a lot of demand for this type of feature, especially for new users who haven’t used MODX before. However, although the improvement of inserting an image URL works like a charm the idea isn’t fleshed out to its fullest.
The motivation behind this whole idea was the problem to transfer MODX content from typical or MIGX template variables to ContentBlocks with an existing (image) folder structure on your server. ContentBlocks is way better than everything else out there but if you have built a website with a lot pages you find yourself in a difficult situation: on the one hand, you really want to switch. You want to use ContentBlocks. On the other hand, you get somewhat stuck with your running system considering the unspeakable mouse clicking odyssey, you have to go through when you abandon your old approach of content management.
Now, most of those clicks can’t be prevented and there is no way to cut them down. Considering images and the media manager of MODX: with your idea in combination with the improvements that are already published you could address those doubts people have when they are eyeing at ContentBlocks but still hesitating at the same time because of the expenditure of time regarding the image management in resources. I truly believe that this would be additional strong reason for every MODX user to purchase ContentBlocks regardless of whether they want to build something new or enhance their existing websites.
Even if here unfortunately no response from you have received, I would like to give just a note: If the topic is supposedly not so important, why has my thread with over 1.2k the most views of all posts in this category in the forum? Does not make sense. Apparently there are enough people who would like such a function.
Mario, the more requests we get for a feature, the bigger priority it becomes, and the sooner we start working on it. It’s as simple as that.
According to my notes, you’re the only person that has requested the insert from url to be adjusted so far. If there are hundreds of people browsing this topic that want to see the same, they should either comment or email support@modmore.com to let their requests be heard as well.
Yours has been heard, loud and clear. It’s under consideration and in our tracker.
