Hi. As a part of the Moodle UI Consistency Guidelines project, I am thinking that each guideline (in Moodle Docs) will need at least one or two screenshots to demonstrate each interaction style/element presented. Trying to streamline the process: taking a screenshot, cropping it, uploading to mediawiki in several steps, perhaps making a correction and uploading again, and adding the image to the final mediawiki page seems stupid if the process is repeated dozens of times. Maybe I'll try this tip, but it is still lots of work. Or the flickr extension could be installed, but then the images would be on a server uncontrollable by moodle, too.
Just brainstorming here, but is there any chance of getting a ssh/ftp-able directory on the docs server to upload screenshots to mediawiki with minimum hassle possible?
I understand mediawiki has this functionality of including files uploaded this way on wiki pages, though I am not sure how exactly it works. Or alternatively, it could just be allowed that wiki pages can contain images from (certain?) external URLs - but then, the problem persists, since it would not be smart to put the images on anybody's personal server.
So, a place to upload files in batch would be useful. Of course, if Moodle 2.0 File API already allows uploading files in batch via AJAX magic or Java (I do not know), this would solve the problem (provided that those images could then be accessed publicly). In any case, the upload user would need no permissions except to upload files to one isolated directory; no copy/rename/move/delete/anything else, so it should not constitute a big security risk, especially if the uploads had a file size limit.
Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Olli Savolainen -
Number of replies: 7
In reply to Olli Savolainen
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Frank Ralf -
Hi Olli,
MediaWiki does not display external images by default, but that can be changed with the configuration setting $wgAllowExternalImages in LocalSettings.php . But I wonder whether this will open the wiki to lots of spam.
Cheers,
Frank
In reply to Frank Ralf
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Olli Savolainen -
Thanks. Yeah, it is problematic if you can't restrict by domain.
In reply to Olli Savolainen
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Chris Collman -
Hi Ollie,
Helen and other more technical MediaWiki aware people will also chime in here.
I work on another MediaWiki where we upload a lot of pictures at a time. I have a localhost MediaWiki and looked at the file structure for a shortcut. I could not figure it out and decided it was not worth the effort in messing up a production site.
Everything I read says "use the interface" and I don't see a bulk upload tip anywhere for a MediaWiki even by administrators. There is an import page feature for admins but I don't think that will help.
I sort of like the "put in the image file name on the page before uploading the file" approach. That is what I do when I am loading 40 images in "gallery" or merely one after the other that are all preformatted. Alerts everyone that a file should be there and it is a WIP. Then I go to the tedious part and start uploading the files one by one. However, the naming convention is usually simple ChrisPic001.jpg ChrisPic002.jpg and non-informative.
Alternatively, figure out some sort of image that indicates "future home of a screenshot", one that is not too large.
Screenshots are a real pain for me when I do not create them on a regular basis. Here are a few of my usual considerations/edits of my own or other's work. Guilting of not doing this consistantly myself.
), but it does allow for corrections and collaboration 
Chris
Helen and other more technical MediaWiki aware people will also chime in here.
I work on another MediaWiki where we upload a lot of pictures at a time. I have a localhost MediaWiki and looked at the file structure for a shortcut. I could not figure it out and decided it was not worth the effort in messing up a production site.
Everything I read says "use the interface" and I don't see a bulk upload tip anywhere for a MediaWiki even by administrators. There is an import page feature for admins but I don't think that will help.
I sort of like the "put in the image file name on the page before uploading the file" approach. That is what I do when I am loading 40 images in "gallery" or merely one after the other that are all preformatted. Alerts everyone that a file should be there and it is a WIP. Then I go to the tedious part and start uploading the files one by one. However, the naming convention is usually simple ChrisPic001.jpg ChrisPic002.jpg and non-informative.
Alternatively, figure out some sort of image that indicates "future home of a screenshot", one that is not too large.
Screenshots are a real pain for me when I do not create them on a regular basis. Here are a few of my usual considerations/edits of my own or other's work. Guilting of not doing this consistantly myself.
- Name convention for image (ie Lesson_Import_question_types.png rather than Lesson1.png)
- Version note with image file (Very handy but I am bad about this)
- Placement on page (format image)
- Title/label image
- Screenshot standard (demo.moodle?)
- Presize image or not?
- Cropping effictively
- Marking up image
), but it does allow for corrections and collaboration Chris
In reply to Chris Collman
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Olli Savolainen -
Thank you Chris!
I could swear I saw that FTP uploading somewhere... oh right, here. but it does say it is experimental etc (that should work with anything like ftp/ssh).
Anyway, I already found quite a nifty solution for actually creating the screenshot. It is called ksnapshot, which incorporates taking the screenshot and cropping it into one seamless process. Mediawiki does its own resizing anyway so I don't think I need to bother with that.
Another option would be to have Mediawiki accept single images at once from the clipboard (i think you could do this with a java applet) or take the screenshot from within the website, like our beloved tracker can do (but only from windows, which is a no-go for me).
The naming scheme is, then, another issue. But I am not sure if it really needs to be worried that much about: the only meaningful context for an image normally is a wikipage, and as long as those are named consistently and meaningfully, I see the most important task as being accomplished.
What do you mean by Screenshot standard and Marking up image?
I could swear I saw that FTP uploading somewhere... oh right, here. but it does say it is experimental etc (that should work with anything like ftp/ssh).
Anyway, I already found quite a nifty solution for actually creating the screenshot. It is called ksnapshot, which incorporates taking the screenshot and cropping it into one seamless process. Mediawiki does its own resizing anyway so I don't think I need to bother with that.
Another option would be to have Mediawiki accept single images at once from the clipboard (i think you could do this with a java applet) or take the screenshot from within the website, like our beloved tracker can do (but only from windows, which is a no-go for me).
The naming scheme is, then, another issue. But I am not sure if it really needs to be worried that much about: the only meaningful context for an image normally is a wikipage, and as long as those are named consistently and meaningfully, I see the most important task as being accomplished.
What do you mean by Screenshot standard and Marking up image?
In reply to Olli Savolainen
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Chris Collman -
Hi Olli,
A markup is something like Image:Course_top_topic_mu1.jpg in MoodleDocs .
Screenshot standards. Some people are fans of png, others use jpgs or what ever. Some people take a 800x600 image and display it at 10%. Some use frames and some use thumbs qualities and some use none (for example). It would be nice to have some guidelines for the bald people of the world.
My screenshot tool used to use SClip, but recently I purchased SnagIt. The same image was marked up with it.
I don't worry about naming, but I like to reuse images in various pages and use somebody else's image before I create one myself. You can search images via the media name but T123.jpg will not tell me it has a lesson context.
Best Chris
A markup is something like Image:Course_top_topic_mu1.jpg in MoodleDocs .
Screenshot standards. Some people are fans of png, others use jpgs or what ever. Some people take a 800x600 image and display it at 10%. Some use frames and some use thumbs qualities and some use none (for example). It would be nice to have some guidelines for the bald people of the world.
My screenshot tool used to use SClip, but recently I purchased SnagIt. The same image was marked up with it.
I don't worry about naming, but I like to reuse images in various pages and use somebody else's image before I create one myself. You can search images via the media name but T123.jpg will not tell me it has a lesson context.
Best Chris
In reply to Chris Collman
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Olli Savolainen -
Wow. Even though it is a bit slow to start up the applet and I did get it to hang once, I did manage to paste an image straight from ksnapshot into AnyWikiDraw. It do not know how to determine the size for the image though, if the screenshot is bigger or smaler than the drawing area.
In reply to Olli Savolainen
Re: Moodle documentation: Uploading many images to MediaWiki at once
by Frank Ralf -
What I'm using for screenshots is a little freeware tool from German computer magazine c't (for Windows):
ScreenShots
ScreenShots allow to take a screenshot of the complete screen, a single window or an interactive selection using user defined hotkeys. The screenshot can be put into clipboard or directly stored in a file in different formats.
Among other features you can automatically crop, resize and name your screenshots.
It can be downloaded from http://www.heise.de/ct/Windows-weitergedacht-ac-tivAid--/projekte/133818
The tool is in German and English.
Cheers,
Frank
ScreenShots
ScreenShots allow to take a screenshot of the complete screen, a single window or an interactive selection using user defined hotkeys. The screenshot can be put into clipboard or directly stored in a file in different formats.
Among other features you can automatically crop, resize and name your screenshots.
It can be downloaded from http://www.heise.de/ct/Windows-weitergedacht-ac-tivAid--/projekte/133818
The tool is in German and English.
Cheers,
Frank
