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    • Uploading Images

    Posted by George Greene posts: 257 United States

    I'm likely missing something but I've never found a simple way to upload images directly to a wiki page without first having to upload them to an image gallery. Most site apps let you click insert-image Browse for a file and upload it from your hard disk. Logical, familiar -and only three clicks.

    I'm using Tiki 7.2 -am I missing a permission or feature setting perhaps? If not, can this be a priority fix for the next LTS? My users don't upload pictures in a page because the all the steps confuse them.

    Ditto for video. I do have plug ins activated on the WYSIWYG toolbar for adding video but again, very much more convoluted than other site software (Wordpress just figures out a video URL you paste in and displays it -no dialog!)

    I'm hoping that I'm actually a bonehead and just don't know how to do this.

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    Posted by Torsten Fabricius posts: 1563 Germany

    Hi Unclegeo,

    it is possible to upload images, respectively files, into the filegallery and to insert the images into the wikipage whilst you are in the editmode in one single step with only a few clicks.

    Assuming, that you have the appropriate permissions, you just go to the editmode of the wikipage.

    Then you find a few edit-icons on top of the page editor.

    Depending on the local settings just about the sixth icon is for uploading images.

    if you click on that, a dialogue will pop up and there you can type in the image source, the image Id (not more recommended image gallery) or the file Id (recommended file gallery for all files including images).

    If you do not know the file Id, or the file (image) is not yet uploaded, you can click on a small icon beside the text-field "file Id".

    A new small browser window will pop up, in which you are directed to the file gallery. There you can upload the image from your hard disk to the appropriate file gallery or create a new gallery.

    Finally, after uploading, you click on the uploaded file in the galleries list mode and the small browser window will close by itself. Now you see the popup dialogue again, but the Id of the file (image) is filled in the textfield.

    Optional you can assign more parameters to the file and click on the button "insert".

    Now you are back in the editmode and depending on the assigned parameters you see the img plugin in the wikipage editor, right at the place, where your mouse cursor has been when you started the upload.

    Maybe you have one or two more necessary clicks than in other systems, but this way you just can insert the picture on every else wikipage, article, blogpost, forumpost etc..
    You just need to mind the file Id, or copy/paste the plugin or click on the tool icon again, but now without the need of uploading the same image again.

    I hope my description is any help for you.

    If this is not so easy to reproduce, just tell me and I will make a sort of HowTo in the documentation.

    Cheers
    Torsten

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    Posted by George Greene posts: 257 United States

    Thank you, Torsen,for the detailed reply. You bring up a good point about the advantages. However the process does not work that way for me (I'm using Tiki 7.2).

    When I click the "Image" button (it says "Image" when I hover) I get an "Image Properties" dialog but there's no "File Id" field and so no button (there is a URL field). I'm going to guess I should click "Browse Server" and I get a file gallery window where if I look around I see I can choose "upload file" from the top menu. Here I can browse and upload a file from my disk. I choose my "Images" Gallery (I'm five clicks in now) though I don't know how my users would have any idea which gallery to use -and if they don't choose one it goes to "root". (I suppose I could edit the template in php to add instructions).

    Its not at all clear that the file title and description are required so I bet my users would feel they needed to fill these out. I click "Upload file(s)" (total of six clicks and two text field entries now)

    The window, now titled "Upload File", shows me the uploaded file. There is no instruction as to what to do at this point -no "return to edit" or even "Click the Pic". I try clicking on the thumbnail -nothing happens. Maybe the filename? Nope. I'm going to guess I need to go to Browse Gallery (My only other choice is "List Galleries" or dismissing the window which does not enter the filename in the original window). (seven clicks total not counting my guesses)

    Now I'm back in the full file gallery listing of all galleries. Hmm... thought I'd be in the Images gallery. I'll click the Images gallery. (eight clicks now) Yay! There's my pic! But -no instructions as to what to do now. I hover and see a thumbnail, So I'll just guess I need to click it. I click (nine clicks) and ...nothing happens. The window does not close.

    Not knowing what to do at this point, I guess that I need to dismiss the Images gallery window (ten clicks) and now the file name is in the URL field of the original Image Properties dialog! I fill in alternative text and a size and click "OK" (11 clicks total). And there's my pic in the edit.

    So eleven clicks, two field entries, four lucky guesses and no instructions at crucial points in the process -decidedly not user fiendly.

    What you described, while a bit more work than other sites, might be short enough to get my editors to do it with a little hand holding (because, again, how would they know what to do?). But the almost complete lack of intuitive interface and no clear instructions for either of these methods just means regular users are just going to avoid images entirely.

    It would be nice to have an feature setting for a simple "upload image to wiki page" that opens a dialog with "Browse Disk" and "OK". Maybe it pops images in a "wiki images" gallery behind the scenes. It would not be easy to reuse an image but that doesn't happen often and an admin could do it if they use the convoluted method.

    OR- is my Tiki broken?

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    Posted by Torsten Fabricius posts: 1563 Germany

    Hello Unclegeo,

    I did test the upload on a wikipage and I did count seven clicks in Tiki - we cannout count any clicks on the computer or work that has to be done in a grafical software like scaling down.
    And optional parameters shouldn't be counted aswell.

    Just compare the job to upload an image in the appropriate format and size to the system and insert it to a content-page at once (being in the content-edit mode).

    A possible 8th click would arise, if users want to choose a specific file gallery for the upload.

    If you are not shure, that your users can cope with too many options, you as webdeveloper/admin can give the users the appropriate permissions, that they only see, what they need.

    Aswell you can limit the visible file galleries by using groups, categories and category permissions.

    I did test on Tiki7 and Tiki9 and I have to admit, that in Tiki7 the dialogue is missing an important information, which is given as a logically named link in the Tiki9 I tested.

    So the dialogue in 7 is not really clear enough for a non-techie user and the user would need some more explanation.

    In Tiki9 (the next LTS version becoming a stable release about in April) it seems, that this is sorted, even as the dialogue is pretty much the same - just the "missing link" is added ;-) .

    I think I should do some kind of a little HowTo or maybe a little screencast to demonstrate this.
    Planned such thing anyway, but I am still looking for the appropriate software.

    I hope you feel comfortable with the reasonable chance to get more userfriendlyness in uploading images from wikipages after an upgrade to Tiki9.

    Please feel free to test this on demo.tiki.org/9.x and report your thoughts, questions and suggestions.

    user: admin
    pw: 12345

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    Posted by George Greene posts: 257 United States

    Rick,

    As always your Tikiwiki for Smarties primer is must reading for everyone!

    The only problem is that what you get when you click the image button is different than what I get. I click the image icon and the dialog that comes up has no choice for "upload from disk" -it just asks for a URL and if you choose "Browse Server" you get into the convoluted process I described.

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    Posted by wincel posts: 45 Germany
    No. Why? Should I do it? It is exactly the bug described there (and another one already reporter by someone else too): it does not recognize single jpg or png file uploads at all and in zip files upload it recognizes only jpg files correctly after extracted.
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    Posted by wincel posts: 45 Germany
    How do I turn the error reporting on please? And how do I disable AJAX uploads?
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    Posted by wincel posts: 45 Germany

    Done both, same as before: single upload does not recognize png at all (after upload no thumbail). JPG yields thumbnail but when inserting as image give "file is no image" in wiki.
    I've seen no error besides that but error reporting is on now and Ajax switched off. But as was already reported as bug - uploading is still done as ajax no matter if one switches it off or not.

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    Posted by Torsten Fabricius posts: 1563 Germany

    Hi wincel,

    could you please try to reproduce the error on demo.tiki.org?

    user: admin
    pw: 12345

    Cheers
    Torsten

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    Posted by wincel posts: 45 Germany

    I did, it works on the demo page http://demo.tiki.org/8x/tiki-index.php?page=Wincel+Picturetest - but the demo page has a different upload screen than my page for example. I have made an account on my page so you can see what I mean. My page is at www.eq2wiki.net .
    user: tikiwiki
    pw: 12345

    It is a standard install from hostgator, so there is nothing special on my end as far as I know. I upload on the harddrive.

    Edit: ricks99 yes I have all the requirements. It works as I said before - but only with zip files and jpg. Jpg single upload are generating a thumbnail at least, but when added into wiki pages yield a "not an image file" empty block.

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    Posted by wincel posts: 45 Germany

    Jquerymedia is not activated. I'll activate now and upload again, one moment.

    Activated jquerymedia. No change both jpg single upload or png single upload same problems as before.

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    Posted by Xavier de Pedro posts: 1817 Catalan Countries

    Unclegeo, upgrade to latest stable version of Tiki (currently 8.x), or prepare the upgrade to the next 9.0 (that will become LTS in a few months). I'm using pre9.0 in some sites for production and it's pretty stable already, besides a few already known bugs, so it's a good candidate to start testing your upgrade to it in the following months (and stay with it for a few years if you want stability).

    Tiki 7.x is outdated and deprecated.


    Once that is said, I would suggest you to ensure that you are not using the ajax uploader. wincel has that activated, it seems, in his website, and his problem might be related to other things than yours.

    Many of us are taking benefit from the icon in the toolbar to upload images in 3 clicks, as Ricks very well pointed out, and described in his documentation sites.

    Any way that we can have a look at your site, to try to help you better with your problem?

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    Posted by George Greene posts: 257 United States

    Rick, Xavi,

    Sorry, was off at NAB in Vegas! I'm back and just upgraded to 8.2 (as far as Simple Scripts at Blue Host will allow me) as Xavi recommended. Besides the fact that clicking a link sometimes now logs me out, 8.2 seems to be working fine.


    Here's the screen I get even after the upgrade, and I'm not sure how to include it here, so here's the URL, which also brings you to the site as Xavi requested:

    http://pocketprogressive.org/tiki-index.php?page=Upload+screen

    (Do you need to get in? If you register and let me know your user name I'll set permissions for you)

    The cursor in the image is on the image icon that I'm clicking in the WYSIWYG. (just a thought -my theme wouldn't have anything to do with this would it? Can't imagine why, then again I can't imagine a lot of things!)

    How do I turn off "Ajax Uploading"? All I see is the ability to disable Ajax entirely in Admin/Features/Interface and in Admin/WYSIWYG which also looks like I would turn off Ajax entirely. What fresh hell would that bring me?

    In Admin/Editing and Plug ins/General I have "use file galleries to store images" not enabled which must be the default. In Admin/Editing and Plug ins/plug ins/plug ins there are two plugins for images: "img", which says "display custom formatted images" -this is enabled- and "image" which says "display an image" -this is not enabled.

    Again, Xavi and Rick you guys are worth way more than we're paying you!

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