Select Images from a Multiple Images Field

Question

I have a multi-valued image field that gets populated automatically with several images per entity. I need to add a manual "approval" step where one or more of the images is selected to be used later. What is a clean way to implement the approval process for existing images?

Answer 1

Use field_collection module to build a field that has an image and a boolean.

Copy existing multi-image fields into the new field_collection like this:

/**
 * Copy a multi-image field into a multi-field_collection with an image field
 *
 * This function requires a patch for field_collection 7.x-1.0-beta7 like this:
 * wget https://drupal.org/files/1937866-field_collection-metadata-setter.patch
 * patch -p1 < 1937866-field_collection-metadata-setter.patch
 *
 * @param $nid  The node to update
 * @param $multi_image_source Name of the existing multiple-images field
 * @param $dest_field_collection Name of the new field_collection that will get the photos
 * @param $dest_field Name of the image field inside the field_collection
 */
function _copy_images_to_selectable_field($nid, $multi_image_source, $dest_field_collection, $dest_field) {

  $entity = entity_load_single('node', $nid);
  $wrapper = entity_metadata_wrapper('node', $entity);

  if ($wrapper->$dest_field_collection->value() != null) {
    drupal_set_message("skipping node with existing destination field ".$nid);
    return;
  }

  $photos = $wrapper->$multi_image_source->value();

  $collections = array();

  foreach ($photos as $photo) {

    $fc = entity_create('field_collection_item', array('field_name' => $dest_field_collection, 'revision_id' => 1));
    $fc->setHostEntity('node', $entity);

    $fc_wrapper = entity_metadata_wrapper('field_collection_item', $fc);

    $fc_wrapper->$dest_field->set($photo);

    $fc->save(TRUE);
    $collections[] = $fc;
  }

  $wrapper->$dest_field_collection->set($collections);

  $wrapper->save();
}

**NOTE: This function requires a patch for field_collection 7.x-1.0-beta7. Download and apply the patch from the field_collection module's folder like this:

wget https://drupal.org/files/1937866-field_collection-metadata-setter.patch
patch -p1 < 1937866-field_collection-metadata-setter.patch