One image manager for all Tinys

1 Description

In ELBA2, the forum uses a modified image manager that reduces the complexity of the default image manager in TinyMCE. It would be highly appreciated to re-use this image manager in test and survey, too.

2 Status

3 Additional Information

4 Current Implementation

4.1 Version 1:

Implemented for 4.2 according to ELBA 2 requirements.

4.2 Version 2:

Replaces version 1 as decided by Jour Fixe at February 06, 2012.

5 Discussion

HL, JK: 28.1.11: Have you already asked Michael Jansen and Helmut Schottmüller if there are technical implications? Is a decision still outstanding? (see also ELBA2 open discussions 3.1)

JF 7 Feb 2010: Michael Jansen should get in contact with Helmut on this issue. Currently there are no new decisions, the issue is still open.

JF 28 Mar 2011: Our preference is to use the new image manager (if possible) in the whole ILIAS system. We also prefer to have the features "margin", "alignment", "constrain proportion" and "external images" also in the new editor, border should always been set to 0px internally. Michael still needs to figure out whether a migration of existing content (esp. test questions) could lead to any data loss. He also needs to estimate the effort for the implementation.

MJ 01 Feb 2012: Because the implementation of the desired options is currently not commissioned, I want to reintegrate the ibrowser plugin for the standard ILIAS 4.2.x and the trunk. The current implementation of the reduced image manager is not very usable without these options (border, margin, alignment, etc.). The reduced image manager was adopted into ILIAS 4.2.x by the elba 2 feature merge, so the ibrowser plugin of helmut is currently not available in forum.

Matthias Kunkel, 01 Feb 2012: Please add this suggestion to the next Jour Fixe agenda (4.2 related...). Thanks.

JF 6 Feb 2012: We agree to re-instantiate the old version and to wait for funding for the implementation of the envisaged reduced version of the image manager.

MJ 13 Feb 2012: Implemented!

Matthias Kunkel, 25 May 2012: Because several users want to have the ELBA image manager in forums we decided to offer an option in the client.ini where an administrator can decide if iBrowser or ELBA image manager is used. This is an intermediate solution until there is funding to implement this feature as described originally.

HL, 6.7.2012: Funding by Universität Bern. (Ideal wäre wenn bei der Umsetzung, dass beide Bedürfnisse: Einfachheit und Funktionalität, beachtet würden. Dh. wer nur ein Bild hochladen will, soll möglichst nur einen Uploadmöglichkeit erhalten, wer mehr benötigt, soll die Möglichkeit haben, weitere Optionen einzuschalten. Kann vor der Umsetzung ein Mockup gezeichnet und diskutiert werden?)

JF 9 Jul 2012: For 4.3 we would accept the solution as written in the discussion posting "JF 28 Mar 2011" as a usability fix. If this list of features should be changed, please list them here and put the issue on the JF agenda again.

MJ 09 July 2012: Corresponding to the current implementation (see: screenshot) we will add margin, border and alignment as additional rows. Constrain proportions makes only sense if a file is already uploaded first so we can determine the current proportion.
 
Any objections?

HJ 23 Juli 2012: And "External images?"

HL 23 Jul 2012.
I asked Yvonne, and she told me that wordpress has a good solution. We tested it. Wordpress does really have nice User-interaction design => Einfach und Funktionell:
 
1.png: ein Overlay wird geöffnet, mit zwei Reiter: "Vom Computer" und "Von URL". Zusätzlich mit der Möglichkeit, über einen Button die Grafik vom Computer auszuwählen.
2.png: Sobald die Grafik hochgeladen ist, soll man mit dem Button "Alle Änderungen speichern" das Bild speichern können, oder man kann zusätzliche Beschreibungen, Beschriftungen sowie margin, border und alignement hinzufügen.
3.png: Wenn der zweite Reiter ausgewählt wird, kann man die URL eintippen, und weitere Angaben hinzufügen
 
Diese Wordpresslösung erfüllt die beiden Bedürfnisse Einfachheit und Funktionalität, so dass kein Mockup gezeichnet werden muss.

MJ 25 Jul 2012: I agree with this solution. We could implement a similar view with two tabs and integrate the missing options (margin, border, alignment, proportions) and external images. But this would look more like a tinymce plugin popup (not as "sexy" as the wordpress overlay with this nicely styled elements ;-)).

HJ 26. Jul 2012: Thumbs up. We do support this.

Matthias Kunkel, 30 JUL 2012: I guess we need also "Constrain Proportions" because often an image is not available in the needed size (and you do not want to force users to transform the image with Photoshop before, do you?). "Constrain Proportions" should be default behaviour. If a user changes one value of the image's size, ILIAS determines the other value accordingly. We could discuss if we also want "unsynchronised" height and width (I do not need it in daily business...).
 
The implementation and its behaviour could be similar to the image upload in the page editor where you upload your file and stay in the dialogue until you made all necessary changes (e.g. width), saved them and returned to the page itself.
 
BTW one thing I am missing in the entire discussion: the re-use of images that are already in an ILIAS media pool ;-) Or am I the only one who uses this great tool???

MJ 30 Jul 2012:
 
Concerning "Constrain Proportions"
OK

 
"And one thing I am missing in the entire discussion: the re-use of images that are already in an ILIAS media pool ;-) Or am I the only one who uses this great tool???"
In my opinion this is another topic, maybe for ILIAS 4.4 :-).

JF 10 Jan 2011: We highly appreciate that the TinyMCE will now be implemented as already decided in the Jour Fixe of January 10, 2011.

MJ 09 Aug 2012: Screenshot from my local developer installation: Insert an image from URL
In this case we do not have any information about the width and height of the image included from another server. So I will not add the "Constrain Proportion"-Setting here (because we have no initial width and height here).

MJ 09 Aug 2012: Screenshot from my local developer installation: Insert an image from local filesystem (pre upload)

MJ 09 Aug 2012: After uploading the image from local filesystem, we are able to determine width and height. Then we can add the additional settings (border, vertical and horizontal margin, width & height with "Constrain Proportion" option) to the user interface.

MJ 13 Aug 2012: Currently you have to insert the following ini section/variable into your client.ini.php file to activate the simple image manager.
 
[forum]
use_simple_img_mng = "1"
 
I suggest to rename the section to [tinymce] for release 4.3.x.
 
Furthermore we should enable the simple manager per default with ILIAS 4.3.x.

20 Aug 2012: We had a look at the new editor and highly appreciate its implementation. The new editor should be the default, a client.ini setting for falling back to the old one is ok. If no one complaints in the future we will abandon the old implementation. One final suggestion: "Constraint Proportions" should be activated by default.

MJ 20 Aug 2012: The simple image manager is the default now. To enable the advanced image manager (aka. ibrowser), you have to insert the following section/variable in your client.ini.php file:
 
[tinymce]
use_advanced_img_mng = 1
 
Furthermore "Constrain Proportions" is activated by default.
 

6 Follow-up