Improved image/file manager
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:25 am
I love CMS Made Simple, but the purpose of a CMS is to make it easy to manage content. With regard to images and files, the current setup does not meet that criteria.
I would like to see the following changes made:
1. Combine the Image Manager and File Manager. By offering a 'list' and 'thumbnail' view, both bases would be covered. All images would display a thumbnail, while all other file types would display either a generic file icon, or an icon for that file extension (e.g. PDF). Files with image extensions could still be edited via the image editor popup.
2. Allow the combined file manager to be loaded in a lightbox, thus files and images can be uploaded and inserted while editing a page rather than going back and forth between the page and the file manager.
3. Building on the above, add the ability to call the lightbox from a page template and customise its contents. For example:
{filemanager filter='image' ext='jpg,png' type='single' name='header' title='Header Image' desc='Choose an image for the page header' default='/images/default.jpg'}
4. Simplify the 'Insert/edit image' popup contents (using the lightbox mentioned above) to use plain English rather than technical terms. For example, change 'Image URL' to 'Image location'.
5. Make the lightbox buttons larger and use icons that make the actions more obvious. For example, the 'upload' button currently looks like a file browser, but it should really show a generic image thumbnail since the user actually wants to choose an image, not browse for files.
6. Allow multiple file uploads in one process (rather than selecting each file individually, as it is now).
7. Merge in some of the functionality of the photo gallery, such as custom file/gallery fields, titles/descriptions, auto-thumbnailing, front end display templates and so on.
I would like to see the following changes made:
1. Combine the Image Manager and File Manager. By offering a 'list' and 'thumbnail' view, both bases would be covered. All images would display a thumbnail, while all other file types would display either a generic file icon, or an icon for that file extension (e.g. PDF). Files with image extensions could still be edited via the image editor popup.
2. Allow the combined file manager to be loaded in a lightbox, thus files and images can be uploaded and inserted while editing a page rather than going back and forth between the page and the file manager.
3. Building on the above, add the ability to call the lightbox from a page template and customise its contents. For example:
{filemanager filter='image' ext='jpg,png' type='single' name='header' title='Header Image' desc='Choose an image for the page header' default='/images/default.jpg'}
4. Simplify the 'Insert/edit image' popup contents (using the lightbox mentioned above) to use plain English rather than technical terms. For example, change 'Image URL' to 'Image location'.
5. Make the lightbox buttons larger and use icons that make the actions more obvious. For example, the 'upload' button currently looks like a file browser, but it should really show a generic image thumbnail since the user actually wants to choose an image, not browse for files.
6. Allow multiple file uploads in one process (rather than selecting each file individually, as it is now).
7. Merge in some of the functionality of the photo gallery, such as custom file/gallery fields, titles/descriptions, auto-thumbnailing, front end display templates and so on.
