Embedding images

Is(n't) there really any way to embed TidyPics images in user–generated contents? Blogs, pages, groups etc. One can't do it through embed:media to place in the text area. It's a major drawback which reduces the usability of this plugin. In addition, it's impossible to transfer the images to the standard »File« plugin and vice versa because they use different storage locations.
I've tried some proposed solutions. Using the plugin »Embed Extended« – it adds the tab »Search for content«, with a dropdown list which includes the new options: Albums and Photos. However, only »Albums« can be searched for content while »Photos« provides no content, it appears to be empty.
Then I tried these ElggHacks instructions:
http://elgghacks.com/questions/view/4479/how-add-tidypics-image-into-blog-post
to add a new file image.php with a defined source code to »Embed Extended«. I've done so but to no effect again. I even doubt whether the file image.php is referenced in any script.
In fact, each of the images has its own URL which shows when displaying it in a new browser tab – something like:


photos/thumbnail/<number>/large/
photos/thumbnail/<number>/small/

and can be embedded but it's quite inconvenient to ask users to do this process manually each time.


Alternatively, we could use the standard »File« plugin. But it has other drawbacks – impossible easily to restrict the file type/format (security concerns) and quota–size per one user. So, TidyPics seemed to be a suitable alternative because it's enough to allow only the upload of images while other content can be linked externally.
Now however, it appears awkward to use either of them.
 

  • One (not comfortable) way to embed an image is to use the "Image" menu option of the editor bundled with Elgg (or the Extended Tinymce editor) where you could embed images by providing an image url. For a Tidypics image you can use the image url that is used by the Download image menu entry in the title menu displayed when viewing an image. Not intuitively...

    I've coded a simple plugin yesterday that would add a new tab to the bundled Embed popup where you can select the Tidypics image you want to embed in a posting. Right now it just lists all images available on the site. I guess not user-friendly with many images available. I can upload this plugin hopefully soon as it is. Maybe it can be used as a starting point to add some more options for embeding images, e.g. by search for image title or maybe even by adding a "Copy embed link" to Tidypics image pages and then offering a "Paste embed link" on the embed content popup.

  • Very good! The plugin Tidypics Image Embed functions all right.
    Even usable with this version 4.2.2 – just enough to change the version requirement in JSON.

     

  • Actually, one functionality of Tidypics Image Embed was to be modified.
    It shows all images from all users to select for embedding, which may be confusing. This should be limited to the current user's images.


    Solution —
    in the file:

    views/default/embed/tidypics_image_embed/tidypics_image_embed.php

    inside

    echo elgg_list_entities

    to add a condition on a new line:

    'owner_guid' => elgg_get_logged_in_user_guid(),