Upload Reference Widget

Category: Fields and widgets — Other products by this author

Screenshot — click to enlarge

Current release: Upload Reference Widget 1.1

Released Nov 26, 2007 — tested with Plone 3.0, Plone 2.5, Plone 2.1

Fixes a problem with 'required' fields and make sure it honors the 'startup_directory' correctly.

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The Upload Reference Widget has been threatened since Plone 2.1. The threat: a widget that will not interrupt a user's work flow while giving the added benefit of reusing the asset uploaded into Plone. This Widget is a testament to how well the ATReferenceBrowserWidget was designed. The Upload Reference Widget will allow users to upload a File and have the file created as content and a reference to the file created as a attribute on the existing content.  There's even a GMail-like multi-upload widget interface. This opens up several possibilities that were not possible before this widget.

The Problem

Often a user uploads a file when creating or editing a content item. Plone displays the file as an attribute of the content.

For example: When creating a news item (say, q4-07-announcement), you upload a new image of a company logo. When you create the next news item, q1-08-announcement, you want to reuse the q4-07-announcement image. Not happening with default Plone.

This is horrible. So how can you reuse an image asset? You have to upload the image first. Then when you create a news item, you reference the image. But this complicates the user experience.

Imagine

Alan was just a little too late to make the 2.1 code freeze.
— Alexander Limi

Imagine: You open the image repository. You upload your images in bulk (possibly using Enfold Desktop). You go to a folder and create a news item. Instead of uploading the image, you click Reference image. You navigate the image repository to find your newly uploaded image. At least after putting the images in the repository, you can easily reference them and reuse them across assets.

The Dream

Let's make it so that when a user creates a news item and uploads a file, the file is immediately reusable by being referred to, instead of having to be uploaded over and over.

Upload Reference Widget is the promised land. It looks like a normal upload widget, but it creates a file or image in a predefined place and automatically adds a reference to the content item you are editing. It's like magic, without the entry fee.

Desired Features

• Expose Upload Reference Widget to ATSchemaEditorNG so everyone can use it

See also

Image Repository

By Plone Solutions, billed as "a simple folder that can hold thousands of images, and provides you with a user interface that lets you tag things with keywords effectively, as well as browse images by keywords (tags)"