Extend Joomla Media Manager with Image Uploader

Hi everyone!

This post is about a way to extend the Media Manager component in Joomla. The Media Manager allows users to upload files to the server and manage them. It works fine except for one limitation - it allows for uploading only one file at once. Now I'll show how you can easily add 'multiupload' feature (and some other cool features :) ) to the Media
Manager using Image Uploader.

First of all, you need to download the archive attached in this post. It's a Joomla plugin I've made to help integrate Image Uploader. Go to the Joomla Administrator and install this plugin. Then open Plugin Manager and enable System - Image Uploader.


Ok, let's look at the plugin options. Open Image Uploader plugin properties. There are four options.

• License key:
  Image Uploader is a commercial component so you need a license to use it. There two options you can do if you don't have it now. In case you are testing it on localhost Image Uploader can work without a license key, otherwise you can get an evaluation key after registering and downloading the uploader at www.aurigma.com.
  
• Width and Height:
  It is simply the width and the height of the Image Uploader control on the web page.
  
• Folder Upload:
  It is the most interesting option. Briefly, it allows you to upload not only separate files, but entire folders with subfolders. Now just keep in mind this option, you'll see it in action a bit later.

Open the Media Manager. It should look like on the screenshot below on the right side. On the left you can see how Media Manager looks without Image Uploader.


Now click Add files... button and add some images. The images should appear in the Upload Pane (the area below buttons). Also you can add a folder with images by pressing Add folder... button. Note, that due to the Media Manager restrictions the file and folder names must only contain alphanumeric characters, underscores and hyphens. Click Send button to upload.

Is it working for you? Hope so :) Now I'll explain the Upload Folder feature. Let's make some preparations. Create test folder folder1 on your local drive and place some images into it. Then create subfolder subfolder1 in the folder1 and place images into it. Click Add folder... button in Image Uploader, pick folder1 folder and press Send. Do you see how the folder uploaded?! It preserves the entire folder structure! I.e. subfolder1 is placed in folder1 and the images that should be in the folder1 or subfolder1 are in the right places.

However, you can disable this behaviour in the plugin preferenses. And it will upload images without creating folders.

That's all, thanks for reading.

P.S.
Try to drag and drop images from Windows Explorer or other file manager to the Upload Pane. You will be surprised :) - the files will be added to the Upload Pane.

Edited by moderator Sunday, September 4, 2011 10:04:10 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hello Spirit!

The 20 files problem is because of the max_file_uploads options in the php.ini.

According to your second problem, can you please try the latest plugin version from here and if the same error occurs, then provide us more details about error. Where does the empty screen appears (admin or front-end)? What joomla version you using.

Looking forward for your reply. Thanks!

Edited by user Tuesday, July 13, 2010 2:09:01 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified