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Plans to support attachments other than images? [done]

asked 2010-09-30 07:33:12 -0500

Benoit gravatar image Benoit flag of United States
865 22 8 31

updated 2010-10-25 21:05:47 -0500

Evgeny gravatar image Evgeny flag of Chile
11034 50 84 182
http://askbot.org/

I noticed that askbot support uploading of images, so presumably there is infrastructure in place to store binary blobs.

I would like to request support for generic attachments.
I realize we can use a link to a storage location, but it would be nice to have everything using the same front-end.

Not a huge priority, but definitely a nice feature to have in the context of a corporate site.

Update:
After thinking about this, I believe this feature could look like this:

  • In the editor, add a new command (ctrl-F ?)
  • ctrl-F brings up a navigation dialog to select the file
  • The selected file is uploaded to a configurable directory.
  • Should automatically add a unique prefix to file name to avoid name clash.
  • A hyperlink (similar to ctrl-L) is linked to any highlighted text.

I believe that would provide an acceptable way to upload (and link to) files.

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answered 2010-10-23 19:46:39 -0500

Benoit gravatar image Benoit flag of United States
865 22 8 31

updated 2010-10-24 09:31:31 -0500

Since we don't particularly care about images, but want links to uploaded files, with minor changes, we were able to implement this functionality.

Ctrl-G inserts a link instead of an image. Modify skins/default/media/js/wmd.js and in doLinkOrImage, around line 1742, remove the ! from the start tag to make it a link instead of embedding an image.

In views/writers.py, upload function, around line 59:

  • Remove the check on extensions (we don't care to limit to just images)
  • Changed the new_file_name to retain the original file name (instead of a numerical name)

Definitely not appropriate for everyone, but it meets our need.

If this is functionality that askbot would want to provide in the regular release, I would suggest adding a new command/icon to WMD (ctrl-F for file or ctrl-U for upload?).

Probably would require a few more changes to upload to distinguish between images (and limiting extensions) and files (without limits).

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I'll try to do something about this today. Also the parsers (prewiewer and the python server side) will requre some change. Evgeny ( 2010-10-24 12:29:42 -0500 )edit
Sorry for the typos, commented on the phone in a hurry. Ability to edit comments is also on the list :). Evgeny ( 2010-10-24 19:17:27 -0500 )edit
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answered 2010-09-30 12:43:42 -0500

Evgeny gravatar image Evgeny flag of Chile
11034 50 84 182
http://askbot.org/

updated 2010-10-25 21:18:52 -0500

edit: made this feature to work, but you still have to specify a list of uploaded file types in settings.py file (in the parameter ASKBOT_ALLOWED_UPLOAD_FILE_TYPES, also there is ASKBOT_MAX_UPLOAD_FILE_SIZE - max file size in bytes.

The keyboard shortcut still does not work though (Ctrl-F is probably not a good choice anyway).

This site only accepts pdf attachments.

pdf-test.pdf

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I don't think attached files would have to show up in the main text field as markdown. I think it would be fine if there was another section (between Question and Answers or at bottom of the page) that would list the various attachments available with a link to launch a download. Benoit ( 2010-09-30 14:02:55 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2010-09-30 07:33:12 -0500

Seen: 85 times

Last updated: Oct 25 '10