Achieve Releases the Views Media Browser Module

Views Media Browser

Achieve Internet has released a new Drupal 7 module named Views Media Browser on Drupal.org. This module simplifies managing websites that have a large number of media files, such as images, videos, and PDFs. To install the module, go to www.drupal.org/project/views_media_browser.

Why the Views Media Browser Module is Useful

Do you wish you had the ability to filter your media files and narrow down the list so you can quickly select the file you want? The Views Media Browser module gives you this functionality.

When maintaining websites with many media files, the media module from drupal.org has become a staple to providing an easy way to upload and insert files into fields. While this improves the overall task of inserting the file, the process of searching for and selecting the desired file from a long list of available files, sorted only in order of uploaded date, quickly becomes cumbersome. 

Drupal 7 now supports adding fields to all entities, including media files. This creates the foundation for making it much easier to manage files by adding fields such as a title, descriptions, and taxonomies.

Achieve Internet’s new Views Media Browser module leverages the power of views for the media browser to turn this foundation into highly useful functionality. When you want to edit a particular file, or attach it to a node, Views Media Browser allows you to filter by or search through any field, or any combination of fields, thus narrowing down the list of files to choose from.

The Views Media Browser module uses views filtering, enabling you to filter by any type of field in your media files. Filtering by taxonomy terms and searching text fields are just two powerful examples. You can filter your files by any combination of fields – giving you the ability for a very sophisticated drill down to file a file among a large library – limited only by your organization ability.

If your website has hundreds or thousands of images or files to manage, and you design your information architecture with this filtering functionality in mind, you can save significant hours in content management by being able to quickly and easily find the exact file you want.
 
 

Installation and Setup

Getting the Views Media Browser set up and ready to use is simple – just install the module. It automatically creates and configures the default view that will be used as the control. This replaces the default list with a view that provides similar functionality, but the real power comes with some minor configuration.

Think about how to categorize your media files in a logical way that makes sense for your website, and that makes it easy to narrow down the list of files to select from. Create fields for your file types to support the way you want to filter your files. For example, add a taxonomy for file type (e.g., jpg, wmv, pdf, etc.), and a taxonomy for content (e.g., product line). Also consider the power of being able to search text fields, such as title and description.

The next step is to fill in the fields in your files – either when creating or editing the files.

Next, set up the Views Media Browser view to use your fields. Because this module simply integrates the view with the media browser, your choices for configuring this view are limitless – you can readily extend it by uploading new view filters, sorts, and searches.

To configure each field for the Views Media Browser module:
 

1.     Go to the Structure menu and select Views. Edit the Views Media Browser view.
2.     In the Filter Criteria section, click Add.
3.     Check the box for the field you want to add to the view.
4.     Check the checkbox for Expose this filter to visitors, to allow them to change     it
5.     For most fields, including taxonomy fields, select the checkbox for Reduce duplicates.
        For text fields, in the Operator field, select Contains.
6.     Click Apply to add this field to the view.
7.     Click Save at the top of the view to save all of the fields you added to the view.
 

 

Future Plans

We have plans to expand file management and the user interface in the near future. We are also looking forward to working with the maintainers of the media module to see if there is an opportunity to combine the two modules in the future. Of course, like every good Drupal project, we are looking for your feedback and contributions toward improving the Views Media Browser module. 

In the meantime, installing and using Views Media Browser is simple and easy. Give it a try and see if it helps you save time managing your media files.

To install the module, go to www.drupal.org/project/views_media_browser.