How to use and upload media

Introduction

In the places where we show or link to media there is a common dialogue to enable you to select an existing item in the media library, or to upload a new item.  In CkEdit you access this using the "Insert from Media Library" button [add icon illustration].

Existing library items

You are first presented with a screen showing  existing items in the library with the most recently modified at the top of the list.

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In the top left hand corner it shows the media types that we allow, the default being Images. If you are handling a different media type click the appropriate name in the list, e.g. file for a pdf.

We categorise media items by type, county etc. and above the list of items are options to specify some of these categories and just show them in the list. This does depend of course on filling in these fields when uploading new media items. Click 'Apply filters' to see the new list. Click an item to select it, and then 'Insert selected'.

Upload new item

There is also a box that gives you the option to add (upload) a new file. Click 'Choose file' to start the upload process and this pops up a new window showing files on your computer. This  lets you choose the file to upload. The file name does need to have the appropriate suffix for that media type. If you select an inappropriate one a warning message is displayed telling you which type will be accepted. An image will then appear in the left hand region. That doesn't happen if it is an invalid file for that type. You will also get a rather cryptic 'This value should be of the correct primitive type.' when you try to upload it.

In most case you will have chosen a valid file, so you then need to fill in the fields in the right of the window that are used to describe the media item that will be created and which are used when searching for existing media items. There are also fields such as Label and Copyright which are displayed along with the media item in the web page. Then press 'Save and select' to upload it into the media library and continue the dialogue.

Selecting image sizes and formats

How images display in the final page depends on the original format and size of the image and on the setting applied to the inserted media item. This is explained here