[Props-general] Thoughts about image placement.

[Andrew S. D. <asd...@uc...>]

Hello all
 
I have been playing with a new installation of props for this years
students and have been thinking about the way images are displayed in
stories. ( the {storyphoto} tag)
 
The layout with images down one side of the page is not as common as it
used to be with people opting for inline display. In the past I have
grafted in a wysiwyg editor with photo compatibility to allow the user
to place images within the text of the story - like the bbc - by passing
the image functionality of props - which is not ideal.
 
But I was wondering. Would it be possible/desirable to add a little
function to the story content tag that did the following.
 
1.Add tags to the content when adding a story- eg {image 1} as a marker
for the image.
 
2.Generate an array from the list of images with the story id
3.Take the content variable generated for display
4.loop through that variable and do a string replace with the photo
array where the order number equals the number in the tag
5.package that up and send it back for display - it could be a function
call in the photos lib.
 
You could add more elements to the replace such as align and caption
information etc would just be a matter of replacing the text string with
a suitable html construct.
 
You could have a flag in the admin section that sets the image display
to storyphoto or inline image mode.
 
Is that just me having a bit too much coffee at work or would it be a
good idea?
 
All the best
 
Andy
 
Andy Dickinson
Course Leader BA(Hons) Digital Journalism Production
University of Central Lancashire
Dept Journalism
01772 894752
asd...@uc...