By A Web Design

Media Manager In Joomla 1.6

The Media Manager is a very useful tool for uploading or deleting files in the <joomlaroot>/images/ directory on your web server. Files might include PDFs, word documents, or just pictures. You can upload new files, delete existing ones, and create sub-directories. The Media Manager offers two views: thumbnails view and details view. The first (thumbnails view) will show a preview of the image files. The second (details view) will show the file name, dimensions, and file size.

To manage uploads in Joomla 1.6, login to Joomla as administrator, by simply entering the url_of_your_website/administrator in your Browser. Enter the appropriate username and password {which was provided while installing Joomla} and then click on Login as shown in Diagram 1.

Diagram 1

After logging in to the backend, a control panel page opens as shown in Diagram 2.

The Control Panel provides access to many default Joomla! functions and features. From the Control Panel, you can create and manage articles and categories. Other features available in the Control Panel are the media, menu, language, and user managers.

Diagram 2

In the top menu, locate the link Content. Click Content. From the drop down menu that appears click Media Manager as shown in Diagram 3.

Diagram 3

The Media Manager screen is displayed as shown in Diagram 4. It contains different files that are already in the Media Manager. From here you can easily create a sub-directory, upload and delete any files as required.

You can even switch between Thumbnail and Detail View on demand.

Diagram 4

Creating A Sub-directory Inside The Images Folder:

Enter the name of the folder in the textbox field and click Create Folder as shown in Diagram 5.

Diagram 5

“Create Complete:\{folder_name}’ message is displayed as shown in Diagram 6.

Verify the sub-folder is created in the root of images folder as shown in Diagram 6.

Diagram 6

To navigate inside directory structure, click the respective folder in the central area as shown in Diagram 7.

Diagram 7

Uploading A Single File:

Currently there are no files in the folder. In the Upload files section, Click Browse as shown in Diagram 8.

NOTE: The maximum file size uploadable through the uploader tool is 10MB.

NOTE: In order to navigate up by one level in directory structure, click the green up arrow icon once.

Diagram 8

After clicking Browse, a file navigator window opens. Navigate to the appropriate folder where the files to be uploaded are located, select and open a single file as shown in Diagram 9.

Diagram 9

The file name appears in the Upload files text box.

Click Start Upload in order to upload the file into the Joomla framework as shown in Diagram 10.

Diagram 10

“Upload Complete:{path_to_file_name}” message is displayed as shown in Diagram 11.

Diagram 11

Now, click the folder in which your images are stored as shown in Diagram 12.

Diagram 12

The image is uploaded and can be used within Joomla as shown in Diagram 13.

Diagram 13

Now, you can upload rest of the files using this uploader tool in Joomla 1.6.

Uploading Multiple Files:

To upload multiple files using media manager, you have to configure some settings in media manager first.

Click Options at the top right hand corner as shown in Diagram 14.

Diagram 14

In Component tab, following are the parameters can be set:

Legal Extensions ( File Types ) : Legal extensions are the types of files that may be uploaded to the Media Manager, including images and files like PDFs, Office documents, etc. Extensions should be in comma separated.

Maximum size ( in MB ): It is the maximum size of the file that may be uploaded. The default setting is 10 MB. Change it to 100 MB or more to upload large files simultaneously.

NOTE: While this is a Joomla restriction on the upload file size, PHP also automatically restricts file upload size, so be sure to check your PHP settings, in your php.ini file if you are having trouble uploading large files.

Path to file folder and path to image folder: These are the default paths for uploading files (like PDFs, Office documents, etc) and images within the Media Manager. You can upload to the images folder directly which is located in the root of the Joomla framework.

Restrict Uploads: Restrict uploads for lower than - Manager level – users, to just images if Fileinfo or MIME magic is not installed. The default setting is ‘Yes’.

Check MIME Types: Use MIME or Fileinfo to attempt to verify the file type being uploaded. The default setting is ‘Yes’. By checking the MIME information, you help ensure users don't upload malicious files to your site. If invalid MIME type errors are received then change the setting to ‘No’.

Legal Image Extensions (File Types): Image Extensions (file types) allowed to be uploaded. Entries should be comma separated. These entries are used to check for valid image headers.

Ignored Extensions: Ignored Extensions are the type of files that are ignored for MIME type checking and restricted uploads. By default, no extensions are ignored.

Legal MIME Types: It is the list of legal MIME types for uploads. By default, Joomla automatically includes some standard file types.

Illegal MIME Types: It is the list of illegal MIME types for uploads. By default, Joomla automatically includes one standard file type.

Enable Flash uploader: It will turn on the capability to upload multiple images and files at a time. If it does not work, then it may be due to incompatible flash settings by Adobe.
Set "Enable Flash Uploader" to ‘Yes’ and click Save & Close in the upper right as shown in Diagram 15.

Diagram 15

The bottom of the Media Manager screen will updated to a new looking interface as shown in Diagram 16.

Diagram 16

Click Browse files as shown in Diagram 17.

Diagram 17

After clicking Browse files, a file navigator window opens. Navigate to the appropriate folder on your ard disk where files to be uploaded exist. You select and open multiple files as shown in Diagram 18.

Diagram 18

NOTE: A file name cannot contain spaces, otherwise it will not upload. It is good practice to keep your file names as descriptively simple as possible.

Click Start Upload as soon as the files appear below with their file sizes as shown in Diagram 19.

Click Remove which is in front of the file size to remove a file from being uploaded.

Clear List clears the list of files to be uploaded and those that have already been uploaded.

Diagram 19

A progress bar indicates file transfer as shown in Diagram 20.

Diagram 20

Once the file gets transferred, the “Upload Completed” and “File Successfully Uploaded” messages are displayed as shown in Diagram 21.

Diagram 21

Now, you would be able to see the files uploaded in their specific folder(s) as shown in Diagram 22.

Diagram 22

Delete File:

The following are the two ways of deleting file(s).

Select the checkboxes of the respective files and then click the Delete as shown in Diagram 23.
Click on Red Cross circle of individual file(s) to delete them as shown in Diagram 24.

Diagram 23