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Background

I have a multiple-value entity reference field with target type = media. It is used for "document" media, so mostly pdf files.

I am using the "Media library" widget shipped with core. With this widget, items appear in a grid with thumbnail, and can be reordered with drag + drop.

Problems

Most of the pdf files don't have a useful thumbnail, so they all look the same.

Due to the grid display, the title of each document is not fully visible.

The grid drag + drop reorder is less intuitive than a tabledrag, especially if the thumbnails all look the same, and sometimes even the visible part of the title is the same.

Once a media entity is added to the list, there is no link to edit this media entity from the node / host entity form.

Questions

Is there a table version of the media library widget?

Is there a way to show an edit link with each item? Either to edit the media in a form on a new page, or in a popup.

What I tried

Widget settings?
-> The widget does not have any settings.

Configure the display of documents in "Core | Media library" view mode?
-> Items still displayed in a grid.
-> The only field that looks well in a grid mode is the thumbnail. Text fields look weird.

References

Poor soul who asked the same in drupal.org, with no success: https://www.drupal.org/forum/support/module-development-and-code-questions/2020-06-29/how-set-media-library-widget-to

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  • I added Media Entity Browser for this reason. It will bring back the edit dialog when double clicking a media item.
    – Kevin
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 23:47
  • I ended up making a subclass of core MediaLibraryWidget. It was enough to override formElement() and preRenderWidget() to do some custom modifications. I replaced the 'selection' with a '#theme' => 'table' with tabledrag, similar to template_preprocess_field_multiple_value_form(). I might publish this, and then post an answer.
    – donquixote
    Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 22:05
  • I also tried "Entity Browser", but it seemed I need too many modules to achieve the desired result.
    – donquixote
    Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 22:05
  • To automatically add "useful" thumbnails to PDFs, checkout media_pdf_thumbnail
    – bwaindwain
    Commented Oct 4, 2023 at 21:41

3 Answers 3

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In response to your second question, there is a core issue open regarding editing media items within the field widget: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/2985168

There is also a contrib module Media Library Edit.

One problem is that you will edit the media entity itself, affecting all usages of the media item.

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  • It should not be an issue though because someone should understand that media items are references.
    – Kevin
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 23:47
  • @Kevin Site builders would know this but it can be confusing for end users who just want to manage the content on their website.
    – imclean
    Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 3:59
  • I tried the media library edit, but it looks a bit awkward without a table display :)
    – donquixote
    Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 22:00
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There is a way to achieve this (to an extent) without modules:

1.) Go to the media library view: /admin/structure/views/view/media_library/edit

2.) Swap the display names of widget and widget_table displays.

My approach is to delete the headers on widget and widget_table, delete the widget display, and rename widget_table display to widget. I then add the edit link to the table.

Looks like soon a fix for this issue might get added to core: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/2985168

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  • Swapping the display names didn't seem to make any difference. Do you mean machine names?
    – aharown07
    Commented Jan 22, 2023 at 1:19
  • I think this is referring to "Add or select media" dialog which opens when you click [Add Media]. This has a Grid and a Table view. The OPs question refers to the default listing which is output from MediaLibraryWidget->formElement().
    – simesy
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 2:14
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If you are not wedded to MediaLibrary widget, you can use some other modules like Inline Entity Form and Entity Browser. However in my case this meant I lose the Media Library modal for adding new files and therefore lost dropzone support.

Entity Browser apparently has dropzone support but i didn't get this far.

I have verified you can use CSS to create a list. But it's not easy. It does work. I'll edit this post if I do that.

I went down the path of writing an extension of media library but the Ajax Remove buttons stopped working and I felt like it was getting too complex. However the code is here for what it's worth. https://gist.github.com/simesy/ceb2f3406bba20d6337ff6439c32247a

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