Best method to upload / link to multimedia files in D6?

Question

I need a solution to allow users to upload multimedia files (audio, video, images, documents, links to such) to a node. Ideally, something like a combination of FileField + Embedded Media Field that supports different media and styles the viewer accordingly.

I know that module Media is supposed to solve this problem on D7, but I'm looking for a D6 solution.

I've tried:

• jQuery Media but it doesn't handle many file types that I need - plus I prefer a server-side solution.
• Styles + FileField Styles but they just don't work.

Answer 1

Have a look at ShadowBox, it supports a lot of formats and the FileField module which I think is essential for your set up:

Media extensions supported:
- Images (png, jpg, jpeg, gif, bmp)
- Video (avi, mpg, mpeg)
- Quicktime (dv, mov, moov, movie, mp4)
- Windows Media Player (asf, wm, wmv)
- Flash (swf, flv)
- IFrame (asp, aspx, cgi, cfm, htm, html, pdf, pl, php*, phtml, rb, rhtml, shtml, txt, vbs)

Source: Comparison of Lightbox-type modules.

There's algo the Lightbox2 module with is aroung since a long time and have quite a big installed base.

Answer 2

My solution was to use 2 multiple-value fields in my media content type:

• A FileField with a custom formatter that detects the MIME type of the uploaded file and renders a different theme for known type/subtype combinations, defaulting to the standard FileField link.

• An oEmbed field with Embed.ly support for media links. This API works much better than EMField.

The whole trick was to theme the media views and forms such that media from both those fields make up a single visual list, not two.

Answer 3

Have you looked at the MediaFront module? Here is a quote about it (from the module's project page):

... is a front end media solution for Drupal. It employs an innovative and intuitive administration interface that allows the website administrator to completely customize the front end media experience for their users without writing any code. In addition, this module provides an interface to which 3rd party media players can integrate and utilize settings presets to display rich media. Out-of-the-box, this module provides two media player solutions.