Solved Howto: Inserting an image?

I have some embedded images in posts imported from another forum that I would like to close down. When that happens, however, then embedded images will disappear.

I would like to link to them in the attachments folder. Is it possible? If not what's the next best approach?

This subject of this topic is "Howto: Inserting an image?". In general terms (in very simple terms), the procedure that people should normally use to upload an image and insert it into a forum message is described in msg #7 of How to upload, insert and display an image attachment . This procedure has not changed in over 3 years.

I suppose the next part of that question - in order to address your specific issues - is, what happens to the uploaded images? These images are stored on your server. This topic A question about attachments addresses that question in broad terms where I wrote:

... users' images [are] stored in the ../media/kunena/attachments (each user has their own separate folder for any attachments they uploaded)

This essence of this topic is that it relates to migrating a NING forum to Kunuena (and we know next to nothing about how NING handles images). Again, in very broad terms, the overall issues to be addressed in migrating from one forum structure to the Kunena structure are described (in a roundabout way) in How to move, copy or merge my old Kunena forums from one site to another :

The three things that you need to move from one site to another site are:

1. Kunena data (tables);
2. Joomla users; and
3. forum attachments

Literally, that's all you need to do but ... the solution may be complicated if the new/target site runs a different mix of software to the original/source site.

In your case there may not be a simple solution. As I have mentioned, we know almost nothing about how NING handles embedded images. Perhaps, if we had that understanding and, given the time, a solution may be forthcoming. On the other hand, the other options are either to (a) transfer the images from your old forum to your new forum, one at a time (and piece the posts back together), or (b) accept that the task may not be worth the effort. At the end of the day, nothing is impossible but every decision you take to attempt to resolve the "apparently impossible" has a cost.

Does this help?

*** Off-topic ***

In another topic you've created - also addressing your issues connected with migrating from NING - you asked about the relationship between Kunena users and Joomla users. Although there is a table called _kunena_users, Kunena users are Joomla users (i.e. the table is populated from the Joomla users table).

In order that your other topic is not side-tracked on something that does not assist you (or others reading it), please try to remain on-topic. It is better for everyone if you start a new topic for new questions (or use the search feature here to locate information that may assist).

*** End Off-topic ***

In summary, the questions are complicated because there are issues involving the conversion of a forum structure - one that we no almost nothing about - to Kunena.

G'day mate. You are amazing. I posted my question going out the door hoping there might be a pointer when I got back. Instead of which there's a very full answer. I know you are pointing to existing sources of info but AFAIK there isn't an index to all this knowledge so I apologise if I should have found this myself.

How Ning handles images is easily described but not very important:

api.ning.com/mumbojumboverylonghashedstringprobablyadirectorypath/filename.ext

The salient point is that the link has a finite life, of unknown duration, for ex-Ning users. I've got all the images and can stash them in Dropbox or on the same machine that runs Joomla or in Amazon S3 storage or various other places. I'd like to have them integrated into the site so that a backup and restore would cover everything. Indeed, they already are... they're in the attachments folder organized by user. With Ning it was possible to embed images in posts easily enough.

If I put the images in a Dropbox folder, say, I can get a link to each and then post these in Kunena posts as needed and they won't disappear as long as Dropbox stays online. It doesn't make a lot of sense that Kunena can point to an image somewhere else on the web but not locally, which is what appeared to be the case. In short, I didn't see how to embed an image within a message: there's no insert image icon on the toolbar. I haven't yet tested the procedure you've pointed to, but the fact that I've needed it explained should say (I hope) "this is not as intuitive as it could be" (I realise there are alternative hypotheses!).

harmlessdrudge wrote: If I put the images in a Dropbox folder, say, I can get a link to each and then post these in Kunena posts as needed and they won't disappear as long as Dropbox stays online.

Sounds feasible.

harmlessdrudge wrote: It doesn't make a lot of sense that Kunena can point to an image somewhere else on the web but not locally, which is what appeared to be the case.

Well, yes and no. Obviously, uploaded images are stored on the server and, like everywhere else on the internet, hotlinking an image - irrespective of whether the image is stored on your server or elsewwhere (on another site) on the 'net - requires the use of the HTML <img> tag and the Kunena forum software manages those things for you.

harmlessdrudge wrote: I didn't see how to embed an image within a message: there's no insert image icon on the toolbar.

That's unusual. If you could post your configuration report (which contains a link to your site and, as long as your site is on the internet and we can access it) we may learn more. Obviously, to upload and insert an image in the Kunena forum means that one needs to be able to login to the site. Is this possible?

My toolbar, attached, looks the same as the one on this site.



The image link icon doesn't behave as I expected. In the absence of a separate icon for adding an image (see below) I expected to see a URL when I pressed insert, even for an image uploaded locally.

My old images, which I want to replace, had links like

|img|h t t p /sitename.ning.com/hasheddirectorypath/filename.jpg|/img|

(I've edited to make it readable)

I edited this to match my attachments folder:

|img|h t t p /sitename/joomla/htdocs/media/kunena/attachments/userid/filename.jpg|/img|

which didn't have the desired result (and which would mean that the link would need to be edited if the sitename changed).

The icon on the toolbar is one with an image and a link. It is therefore reasonable to expect to enter a link to an image, no? An icon to embed an image directly is not one I would expect to have a link. Here's how Microsoft Word (the first thing that comes to hand) does it:




clearly separate and distinct icons for add an image and add a link to an image, on the left and right respectively.

When I follow the procedure you described here, in message nr 8, I get an attached file not an embedded image.

Update: I can see now that the code entered is changed from

attachment:

to

attachment=

followed by a number.

As I was directly editing the message_text, to avoid updating anything else, I didn't see that (I aborted the submit).

I think I know what to do to resolve the issue, but I think it would make life easier for users to have an insert image icon on the toolbar.

Update: The other thing I have discovered is the need to enter 'image/jpg' in the filetype field in the attachments table.

harmlessdrudge wrote: I think I know what to do to resolve the issue, but I think it would make life easier for users to have an insert image icon on the toolbar.

I'm pleased that you understand what needs to be done and we can mark this topic resolved.

Regarding your comment about adding an extra glyph to the BBcode toolbar - to implement the feature provided by the Attachment "Add File" button (which is used to upload and insert images) - if you can conceptualise how this could be achieved and write it up as a feature request then, perhaps, the developers may consider it in the future. FYI, a year or two ago there was some experimentation using drag-and-drop instead of using the file selection method you see today. The experiment was abandoned in the face of technical abilities and pressures on the release cycle.

Ok, I'll look at that. Meanwhile I updated the migration to ning post with an addendum on images. Now that's done all I need to do is avatars!

The open source blogging platform Ghost , which I've recently looked at, has some very nice features (markdown for one) including drag and drop of images. However, it's all based on node.js and not likely something recyclable.