Configure media galleries
Media galleries are community widgets that display photos and videos. You must configure media galleries in your IBM Connections deployment, and then community owners can add the widget to their communities.You must perform the following tasks to configure media galleries:
- Install the Files application with IBM Connections. If you did not install Files, see Modifying the installation in interactive mode for information on installing applications after initial installation.
- Make sure the connectionsAdmin J2C alias is associated with a valid user who is mapped to the administrator role on the Files application. Media galleries use this user to generate preview images of each file. During the IBM Connections installation process a connectionsAdmin J2C alias is typically created, mapped to a user that is a Files administrator, and referenced by the media gallery widget definition in the events-config.xml file. For information on managing J2C aliases, see Change references to administrative credentials. For information on adding users to roles, see the topic Roles. For information on changing the referenced J2C alias for media galleries, see Media gallery events-config.xml properties.
- Import the default photo and video object types provided with IBM Connections. See Importing the default media gallery object types.
You can perform the following optional tasks to configure media galleries:
- Create custom photo and video object types. The default object types are fairly basic. You might create your own object types to give more advanced users the option of seeing photos or videos with more detailed or different information. For example a community of amateur photographers might be fine with a media gallery with the default object type definition. But a community for professional photographers might want a media gallery that includes aperture and lighting data for each photograph. See Create custom media gallery object types.
- Add a terms and conditions statement for users to agree to before they upload new files. Add terms and conditions to media galleries.
- Change the size of thumbnail preview images that display in the widget. For example, lower the maximum size on preview images in the widget in the community home page to allow more images to display in the widget. Or increase the maximum size if the thumbnail images are too small for your client. See Change media gallery image sizes.
- Use a third-party video player instead of the default player. See Use a third-party video player in media galleries.
- Set default object type selection when adding a media gallery widget to a community. Users have three options: photos only, videos only, or photos and videos. Photos and videos is selected by default. You can change this to photos only or videos only. See Setting the object types available when adding a media gallery.
- Set the media gallery file extensions users are allowed to upload. See Setting allowed media gallery file extensions.
- Set maximum file sizes and maximum library sizes. Media gallery files are stored in Files application libraries. You might want to add limits to file and library sizes for various reasons, such as keeping file upload times reasonable and maintaining good application performance. See Setting a maximum size on files and Setting a maximum size on libraries.
Importing the default media gallery object types
You must import the default photo and video object types provided with IBM Connections to enable media galleries in IBM Connections deployments.Create custom media gallery object types
Create your own photo and video object types to customize the information provided with each media gallery file. This is optional.Add terms and conditions to media galleries
Make users agree to terms and conditions when they upload new photos or videos to media galleries. This is optional.Change media gallery image sizes
Set maximum sizes for photo and video file preview images in media galleries. For example, lower the maximum size on preview images in the widget in the community home page to allow more images to display in the widget. Or increase the maximum size if the thumbnail images are too small for your client. This is optional.Use a third-party video player in media galleries
Use your preferred third-party video player to view media gallery video files. This is optional.Setting the object types available when adding a media gallery
Set the default selection in the list of object types users can choose from when adding a media gallery to their community. The selection determines whether the media gallery will contain photos only, videos only, or photos and videos. All three options are always available; this property only controls which one is selected by default. For example, if your media galleries will only display photos you could set the default Photos only, and then users won't have to select it when they add a media gallery to their community. This is optional.Setting allowed media gallery file extensions
Specify the list of photo and video file extensions users are allowed to upload to media galleries. This is optional.Media gallery widgets-config.xml definition
Like all IBM Connections widgets, the media gallery widget is defined in the widgets-config.xml configuration file. The definition contains some properties you can edit to customize media galleries, including the list of allowed file types:Media gallery events-config.xml properties
The events-config.xml configuration file contains the J2C alias that media galleries use to generate preview images, a required CMIS local namespace, and the height and width properties of the different images that display for each file in a media gallery.
Parent topic
Administer Communities
Related tasks
Importing the default media gallery object types
Setting a maximum size on libraries
Setting a maximum size on files
Change references to administrative credentials
Modifying the installation in interactive modeRelated reference
Roles