[development] image node type

[Robert Douglass]

Sebastian wrote:

> Frankly I feel all images should be a node. Even if an image is included 
> in a content node just for spice or illustration, very likely these 
> images could be thumbnails that link to a larger version. Same story if 
> I include a true photo in a content node, it will most likely also be a 
> thumbnail linking to the full image node.
> 
> So I see no reason to build two frameworks for handling images when one 
> will do. Why the arbitrary separation? They should all be nodes, and if 
> we need organizational separation of "photos-available-in-galleries" vs 
> "spice-and-illustration-images", that should be handled via taxonomy, 
> and only the desired terms made available in menus/galleries.

I agree with Sebastian and would take it one step further; that all 
uploaded files become nodes, and that they have some super-type common 
functionality. Our image node would then extend the file type, and so 
would MS Word types, and PDF types, and MP3 types and so forth.

The first step to resolving the problem we have with images is to find a 
good way to show a relationship between two arbitrary nodes.

Uploading any file using our current upload form should create a 
dedicated node for that file and establish the relationship between them.

Let's say that the relationship is called "attached file".

The next step is to be able to search through all existing nodes that 
can possibly fill the roll of "attached file" while creating a new node. 
A current limitation of our system is that I'd have to upload the same 
PDF 3 times if I want to have it appear on 3 different nodes. This, we 
can all recognize, is crap. I should be able to reuse the already 
uploaded PDF.

This raises two issues: a search interface for media assets is hard to 
build. Image assist is the best working example we have, and with all 
due respect to its greatness, it is still clunky (haven't tried the 
newest version though).

Second, our node creation process will soon mandate a wizard API. If I 
have a node that can have an "attached file" relationship, is a location 
and is an event, there is no way to fit all that on one form page.

SO! To fix image, we've got more fundamental work to do!!! We need a 
relationship API (will Vlado's work suffice? Is it suited for this 
purpose?), and we need a wizzard API (Adrian, report please).

-Robert