One of the most powerful features of Drupal's Media Library is that it enables content authors to re-use media entities. Have a favorite image that you like to use with all blog posts about a specific topic? Or a default icon you want to use for a tutorial unless an alternative is provided? The Media Library can accommodate this without requiring you to keep a copy of the image locally and then attach it to every node where it's needed.
This can lead to a potential issue when an editor deletes an image, thinking they've also deleted all the content that used it. If they missed a post referencing the now deleted image, what happens when there is no image to show?
The contributed Entity Usage module provides a mechanism for tracking relationships between entities. This is essential functionality when working with a library of reusable media entities because it helps ensure that media entities attached to content are not deleted.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Discuss the use case for the Entity Usage module
- Learn how to configure Entity Usage to keep track of relationships between media entities and nodes that reference them
- Prevent media items from being deleted if they are in use somewhere on the site
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to explain what the Entity Usage module does, and how to use it to solve common problems related to deleting items from a large Media library.
A commonly asked question is, "How do you add images to the body of a content item in Drupal?" You can allow users to embed images, videos, or any other media into a field configured with a WYSIWYG editor, such as CKEditor. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to enable Drupal’s Insert Media button for CKEditor, and configure the corresponding text format so that it can render embedded Media entities.
Content authors can then use the Media Library to select images (or other media) to embed into the page.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Learn how to enable the Insert Media button for CKEditor
- Demonstrate how to insert media into the body of a content item (or any other field configured to use CKEditor)
By the end of this tutorial you should know how to configure Drupal to allow content authors to embed images in content items.
Drupal's media management tools, the Media and Media Library modules, provide content authors with drag-and-drop media and asset handling, full WYSIWYG editor integration, and a library of reusable media assets. There's minimal configuration required to get started, but full control via Drupal's standard Entity and Field systems for those who need it.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Provide an introduction to the media system in Drupal and its use-cases
- Explain the Drupal core features that the Media system is built on
- Link to other tutorials that will go into much more depth on these topics
By the end of this tutorial you should know what role the Media and Media Library core modules fill and know whether or not you'll want to make use of them on your project.
Media entities are standard Drupal fieldable content entities. For the most part, they function, and are managed, in the same way as Nodes. So if you've previously created content in Drupal, much of working with Media entities should be familiar -- with some notable exceptions related to the connections between Media types and the media resources they represent.
In this tutorial we'll:
- Get an overview of Media entities, Media types, and Media fields in Drupal
- Point to other tutorials that go into more depth on individual topics
- Learn some basic terminology and concepts related to the Media system in Drupal
By the end of this tutorial you'll have an overview of the pieces that make up the Media system in Drupal core.
In this tutorial, we'll walk through the process of adding and configuring filters and adding a filter group.
In this tutorial, we'll walk through the process of adding and configuring sort criteria to a view.
In this tutorial, we'll add and configure a contextual filter for a view. Our Baseball Awards content type has a field Year. We'll make it possible for a page to be dynamically created on our site that contains the year and lists the awards for that specific year. To do this, we'll add a contextual filter to the Baseball Awards view that will allow visitors to filter the list of awards by the award year. We'll also add a block using the summary view contextual filter configuration, which visitors can use to view results for specific years.
One of the ways you can create a REST endpoint in Drupal is by using Views. In this tutorial, we'll add a REST endpoint display to a view of baseball players. We'll examine and configure settings that are unique to the REST endpoint display.
By the end of this tutorial you should be able to:
- Add a REST endpoint display to a view
- Understand how to configure settings for an endpoint
Instead of providing multiple views with different filter criteria, consider empowering your users by exposing filter criteria as an interactive form. You can even configure the forms to use AJAX to refresh results. In this tutorial, we'll walk through the process of adding and configuring exposed filter or sort criteria in a view.
Like exposed filters, we can expose sort criteria to the site visitor. Exposing sort criteria gives the visitor more control over the list of content they are viewing. In this tutorial, we'll configure our view of baseball players to allow visitors to sort the list in different ways by adding several exposed sort criteria.
Contextual filters are a Views mechanism for dynamically refining the contents of a view. It might be helpful to think of them as "dynamic filters". In this tutorial, we'll discuss the concept of context, look at how to add contextual filters in the Views UI, and review the Taxonomy term view that comes with Drupal and how it uses a contextual filter.
Exposing filter criteria allows the users of your site to choose how to filter a content list created in Views. When rendered on the page, the exposed filters will be displayed to the user as interactive form components.
By the end of this tutorial you will:
- Understand what it means to expose filter criteria and when it might be useful.
- Be able to identify when a view has exposed filters and which filters are exposed.
Exposing sort criteria allows the users of your site to sort a view using an interactive form.
By the end of this tutorial you will:
- Understand what it means to expose sort criteria and when it might be useful.
- Be able to identify a view's exposed sort criteria.
With filters, we can define query conditions and refine the results of a view. But what is a filter and how do filters work in Views? In this tutorial, you'll learn:
- How to add and configure filter criteria to a view to refine results
- What configuration options are available for filter criteria operators
- How filter groups allow you to group and order filter criteria to achieve desired results
By the end of this lesson, you should understand how to use and configure filter criteria in Views to refine the results of your view. (Note: We'll cover exposed filters in Overview: Exposed Filter Criteria in Views)
In order to display values for referenced entities in views, you need to add a relationship. What is a relationship, how do they work, and what does it mean to require this relationship? What are some common use cases for adding a relationship to a view? By the end of this tutorial you should be able to:
- Explain some common use cases for adding a relationship to a view.
- Understand the concept of entity references and how those field values can be displayed in a view.
With sort criteria, we can specify how to order our list. We can specify sort criteria using any field on or related to our view's base entity, and then specify in which order to sort, e.g. ascending or descending. If you are familiar with MySQL, it may be helpful to know that sort criteria are the ORDER BY
clause of the query that Views builds. In this tutorial, you'll learn:
- How to add and configure sort criteria to a view to sort the list in various ways
- What configuration options are available
By the end of this lesson, you should understand how to use and configure sort criteria in Views. (Note: We'll cover exposed sort criteria in Overview: Exposed Sort Criteria in Views)
Like most output in Drupal, Views relies on Twig templates for a significant amount of its rendering. In this tutorial we'll identify where you can find the default Views templates within your file system, what the common templates are for, and how to name your templates so that they are applied to specific views.
By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to:
- Identify where to find default views templates
- Understand which templates apply to what part of a view
- Get a sense of the template suggestions and how to use them to limit where your custom templates are applied
- Identify a view's machine name
- Identify a display's machine name
- Identify a field's machine name
Now that you understand the purpose of relationships in Views, let's add a relationship to a view so that we can access and display a field value from a related entity.
In this tutorial, we'll modify the Player Awards view to add a relationship to the player that received the award. Then we will add a field that belongs to the player content that would normally not be available to the view without our new relationship.
Now that we understand what templates are and how we can use them, let's override some templates! In this tutorial we'll copy the views wrapper template to our theme and override it so that we can customize the markup for the Baseball Players view. Then we'll modify the template so that our view's pager appears both above and below our table of players.
To follow along with our Drupal Views tutorials, set up a Drupal site loaded with our 4 custom views and baseball stats content that will make querying in Views a bit more interesting and meaningful.
By the end of this tutorial, you should choose a solution and follow the instructions for creating a Drupal site loaded with our starting point content and views.