Automatically adding the author as a category

Thanks for your question and the reference to Justified Image Grid (JIG). JIG is a great plugin that has explicit support for MLA; you can use all of MLA’s data selection parameters to filter your Media Library by, for example, author and then use JIG to compose a gallery of the resulting images. There’s no need for workarounds to get the results you want.

Here’s an earlier topic with some tips on configuring JIG to work with MLA:

mla mapping/display xmp metadata

You can find more information in the “Support for Other Gallery-generating Shortcodes” section of the Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab. Filtering by author is covered in the “Author, Author Name” section of the Documentation. You can code something like this:

[mla_gallery author_name='john' mla_alt_shortcode=justified_image_grid]

I hoop that gets you started on a direct solution for your application. I am marking this topic resolved, but please update it if you have any problems or further questions regarding the above suggestions. Thanks for your interest in MLA.

I’d like to bring it to your attention that you can auto-take over MLA shortcodes to be displayed with JIG. So take what David said and even without the mla_alt_shortcode attribute, it can work.

Hi David,

Thanks for the quick response, and sorry that I haven’t replied sooner (I’ve been snowed under with other jobs). Just to clarify what I’m trying to do:

I’m allowing multiple users to upload pictures, and I’m using JIG to automatically display the entire media library and then filter_by authors. I know JIG doesn’t currently support author filtering (although it works really well with filtering by category), so I’m trying to combine the functionality of your plugin with JIG.

Here’s the JIG shortcode I’m currently using:

[justified_image_grid ids=* height_deviation=200 filterby=category filter_style=buttons filter_orderby=title_asc load_more=hybrid load_more_mobile=click exclude=965,966,968,901,897,896,884,883,878,830,921,1048,1049,1053]

As you can see I’m currently using “filterby=category” and adding categories ‘back of house’, but this is not quite the automated solution I’m looking for.

Could I either A) combine the functionality of both galleries (with regards to filtering), or B) get Media Library Assistant to automatically force a category onto the image that matches the author name?

I don’t think that’s possible unless you got the author name in an IPTC metadata, so it could be mapped to a taxonomy, then use JIG to filter based on that.

MLA can map field values to other field values if I know correctly. And IPTC fields to taxonomies. Post author is a field (but not IPTC in your case), and I’m not sure where to map it, subce JIG would want to filter based on a taxonomy and not a field.

I’ll look into filtering by author, it seems like a nice idea.

Firsh,

Thanks for that. I’ll look at a different way round it .

I’ve previuously tried adding a class during the frontend upload (first using the plugin “TT Guest Post Submit” (the free version), then with “Frontend Uploader”) but neither seemed to add it. Very frustrating.

JIG is amazing by the way, works really well.

Thank you ??

For frontend upload here is an article: https://justifiedgrid.com/support/faq/is-it-possible-to-have-frontend-upload-for-visitors/ it’s about Frontend Uploader. I’m sure it could be modified to apply a category after uploading, but it would require some PHP knowledge.

@firsh – thanks for pitching in with your suggestions!

@badger41 – Thanks for your updates and the example shortcode. It looks like you want to display a list of the author values ( filter_style=buttons ) and let the user pick the value(s) they want; is that right?

If so, you can use an IPTC/EXIF mapping rule to assign “author” as a taxonomy term. However, it will take a bit of PHP code that hooks an MLA filter to change the author ID to something more useful, e.g., the author name or nickname. If that works for your application, let me know what you want to display and I can be more specific.

You might also consider separating the author “terms” out in their own custom taxonomy so you can use categories and tags for other purposes. Let me know if that is useful for you.

Hi David,

Yeah, that sounds really useful. The gallery should show “All” images automatically, but have filtering buttons above to only show images by “Dave”, “Jane” etc.

Users have to be logged in to see the site, and the User names are (I believe) going to be their nicknames anyway, so I don’t think we’ll need to change the author ID with PHP. If I can assign the “author” as a category or tag of the image that would be perfect.

Thanks for replying by the way, your support is much appreciated.

Dave

Thanks for the additional details. I may have confused you with my comments about the author ID Vs name, nickname, etc.

The only field already provided by MLA is the author ID. Another database query is required to retrieve user_login, user_pass, user_nicename, user_email, user_url, user_registered, user_activation_key, and user_status. In any case, there’s no need to “change the author ID with PHP“.

I’m going to develop a custom data source that makes all of the possible information available so you can choose what you need and use it in a rule to map the value(s) into any taxonomy you like. I will post an update when I have progress to report.

That would be great David, thanks for your help.

I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20160714 that contains an example plugin, /media-library-assistant/examples/mla-substitution-parameter-hooks-example.php.txt with a solution for your application.

The example plugin implements a new “author:” custom data source that you can use in an IPTC/EXIF mapping rule. Just enter something like this in the EXIF/Template text box:

template:[+author:first_name+] [+author:last_name+]

You can access most of the Public Properties of the WP_User class as described in the Class Reference/WP User Codex article.

I hope that makes sense. I chose this implementation because I can think of other ways to use a similar approach.

To get the Development Version, follow the instructions in this earlier topic:

Shortcode not working in (special) widget

Strictly speaking you don’t need the new Development Version, just the example plugin. If you give me your contact information I can send the example plugin by email. You can use the Contact Us page at our web site:

Fair Trade Judaica/Contact Us

Do not post your e-mail address in the forum; personal details in a public forum violates WordPress guidelines. I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi David,

I’ve downloaded and installed the development version (Media Library Assistant v2.31 (20160714)) and entered template:[+author:first_name+] [+author:last_name+] into the EXIF box in Taxonomy Term Mapping (Field title: categories).

Unfortunately I end up with a category of [+author:first_name+] [+author:last_name+]. I’m still on wordpress version 4.5.2 if that helps.

Also, on a related note i tried using “template:[+post_author+]” and that gives me results of 1,2,3 etc, but it only works when I upload using wordpress media uploader, not Frontend Uploader or TT Guest Post Submit.
This is an issue as I need to use one of these (or a similar plugin) for my user uploads.

Dave

Thanks for your update and for taking the time to install the Development Version.

To activate the author: prefix and get access to the data you need you must also install the /media-library-assistant/examples/mla-substitution-parameter-hooks-example.php.txt example plugin. As I wrote in my last post, you can either get the example plugin out of the Development Version /examples directory or I can send you a copy by email.

Regarding the “Frontend Uploader or TT Guest Post Submit” issue, I will have to make some changes to MLA itself to accommodate these plugins. To reduce the time/memory requirements of page loads on the “front end” and during Ajax operations MLA does not always load all of its code. I believe these plugins are using Ajax to handle their processing and/or they don’t use the standard WordPress file upload process. I am traveling this week but I will investigate further as soon as I return home. Thanks for working with me on this topic and for your patience.

Hi David,

I’ve emailed you. Thanks again for your help,

Dave.

Thanks for working with me offline to refine and test the mla-substitution-parameter-hooks-example.php example plugin and the MLA support for front-end file uploaders. For other Support Forum users, here is a summary of the work:

I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20160725 that support front-end file uploads. After you have installed the new Development Version you must add an entry to your wp-config.php file to activate the support. Here’s the documentation:

Two options control the custom field mapping when new items are added to the Media Library (“Enable custom field mapping when adding new media”) or when attachment metadata is updated (“Enable custom field mapping when updating media metadata”). Check one or both options to enable these features. Some plugins support file uploads from the WordPress “front end”, usually by using the WordPress “Ajax” support. To enable mapping when these plugins are used you must add an entry to your wp-config.php file so MLA will load the mapping code:

• define( ‘MLA_AJAX_EXCEPTIONS’, ‘wfu_ajax_action,upload_ugc’ );

The above example adds the “action” values for two popular file upload plugins, WordPress File Upload and Frontend Uploader respectively. Once the entry is added MLA will run the mapping rules when it detects file upload operations from the other plugin(s).

I am marking this topic resolved, but please update it or contact me if you have problems or further questions regarding the solution we worked out. Thanks for your interest in MLA.