This video walks you through installing and configuring the Workbench Media module. It also demonstrates how the Media module and the Workbench Media module work together.

Install

(I'm using the 2.0-unstable6 version of Media (and File Entity) because the 2.x version has some new features, it's the actively maintained version, and I've used it on more than one production site without any major issues.)

I'm not going to go in-depth on the media module itself, because it's such an in-depth module on its own. But, I will show you the process of uploading media using the Media module before I enable the Workbench Media module, so that you can see which module is doing what.

Enable

  • File Entity
  • Media

Enable the Media Browser for uploading article images

First, we need to edit the article content type to use the media browser for uploading images

  • Go to "Structure => Content types => Article => Manage fields => Image => Widget type"
  • Change the Widget to "Media file selector"

Now, we can see what it looks like when we create an article

  • Go to "Content => Add Content => Article" (node/add/article)
  • Title: Article with media
  • For the "Image" field, we now have a "Select media" button
    • When we click that, we see that we can upload an image as usual, if we select the "Library" tab, we can choose any image from the library. We can also click the "My files" tab and select an image that we have already uploaded. And finally we can select the "View library" tab and view the entire library of images. I'll go ahead and select an image from the library.
  • Section: Exhibits
  • And when we save it, we see the moderation info from Workbench Moderation, but I'm just going to leave this alone.

The last thing I want to show you is that the "Create Content" page in the "My Workbench" dashboard only lists "Article" and "Basic Page" as options. This will change as soon as we enable the "Workbench Media" module.

Enable:

  • Workbench Media

Add media without creating content

In the "My Workbench" area, if you click Create Content, you can upload media without having to create content (ie: an article). This is available because this page shows all entities that we can create, not just nodes. Just to compare, I'll go to the standard "Add content" page, and you'll see that the "Add Media" option is unavailable.

I'll upload a new image via the new "Upload Media" option, and show you how it works.

  • Basically, you get an upload widget to choose your file. I'll select an image, and click "Open"
  • Then click "Upload"
  • At this point, I have the option to replace the file (because I have the File entity permission "Edit file"), but I'll just click "Save".

We can now see the media file in the "Files" tab of the standard "Content" page. We can also select this file when we create a new article.

File List

The Workbench Media module also create a "File List" tab in the "My Workbench" dashboard. This is very similar to the standard "Files" page, but provides some additional details such as the path, file size, which nodes are using the file and the file path.

Permissions:

In order for a user to access and utilize the Workbench Media module, they will need the following permissions.

Media Permissions

  • Import media files from the local filesystem (This is only required in order to upload media when creating content. ie: a new article.)

Workbench Permissions

  • Access My Workbench

Workbench Media

  • Use the media add form (This is what shows the "Upload Media" option in the Workbench "Create Content" tab.)