Overview of the Joomla! Media Manager

The Media Manager is a useful file management tool, which is included in the Joomla! CMS.

The Media Manager tool is located within your administration area and can be accessed by using the “Quick Link” icon on your Control Panel, or by going to the Menu: Site | Media Manager:

One of the main purposes of the Media Manager is to easily allow site administrators, and frontend users with permissions, the ability to upload and manage files for their Joomla! site. In circumstances where you do not have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to your web server, the media manager might be the only available tool with which you can add new images, videos, documents, and other files to your website.

Uploading media using the Media Manager

During initial site development, there are usually regular requirements to upload new files to your Joomla! site. Depending on the content for your website, this process can decrease as you move into the maintenance stages, or stay as a requirement for sites which are updated often.

Media Manager settings

As with all software applications, the Media Manager tool contains a set of predefined settings. Before using the Media Manager for the first time, it is recommended that you take a look at these as they offer the ability to customize media handling for your website. Depending on your file requirements, adjusting the media configuration settings now may save you time and effort down the line.

Your Joomla! site Media Settings can be found by going to Site | Global Configuration. Once the page has loaded, you will then need to click on the link named System.

The Media Settings area not only allows you to adjust settings related to the Media Manager, but also contains general settings for the media used throughout your Joomla! website. Information regarding each setting is as follows:

The fields are:

• • Legal Extensions (File Types)This field is a comma-separated list of file types that you want to allow to be uploaded to your Joomla! website. This setting applies to the frontend of your site, as well as the backend which includes the Media Manager tool.
  • Maximum Size (in bytes)This field holds the maximum size of the file (in bytes) to be uploaded. This can be set to “0” if you do not wish to restrict your file upload sizes. Most web servers will have their own file size limit that is usually configurable for the server by adjusting the server information file.
  • Path to Media FolderBy default, Joomla! has a media folder called <joomlaroot>/images. This is the area where all files will be uploaded to when using the Media Manager. You can change this value to a different directory if you wish, creating a default path for managing your media. The majority of Joomla! projects would probably leave this value as default.

    If you do decide to use another folder name for your media directory, it is important to leave the current /images directory on the server as this can often be used by other components.

  • Path to Image FolderThis is generally a path where you put your images for your Joomla! Content Articles.

    By default, it is set to <joomlaroot>/images/stories. You can change this to be what you wish. If you want to access this folder from the Media Manager, then make this a subfolder of the “Media Folder” previously mentioned. For example, <joomlaroot><mediafoldername>/<imagefoldername>.

    If you do decide to use another folder name for your image directory, it is important to leave the current /images/stories directory on the server as this can often be used by other components.

  • Restrict UploadsThis feature restricts uploads by user type. The default is set to Yes, which means that users below the status of a “Manager” will only get one folder option to upload files into. That folder is your main “Media Folder”. If you set this option to No, then users will also be allowed to upload to subdirectories within your main media folder.
  • Check MIME TypesThis is a security feature, and uses MIME Magic or Fileinfo to verify your uploaded file types. By checking the MIME file information, you help ensure users don’t upload malicious files to your site. Further information about Fileinfo can be found at http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.fileinfo.php.
  • Legal Image Extensions (File Types)This is a list of legal image extensions that you and other users are allowed to upload to your Joomla! site. The default list includes bmp, gif, jpg, and png files. Adjust, if you require further image extension types.
  • Ignored Extensions

This setting checks the file types which should be ignored for MIME checking. By default, this is left blank so all files would be included if MIME checking is turned on.

• Legal MIME TypesThis sets the list of legal MIME types for uploading. By default, this setting includes some file types, and it is recommended that you do not adjust this setting unless you know what you are doing.
• Illegal MIME TypesThis sets the list of illegal MIME types for uploading. As with the legal MIME types, it is recommended that you do not adjust this setting unless you know what you are doing.
• Enable Flash UploaderThe Media Manager contains an integrated Flash uploader tool. If enabled, this allows you to upload multiple files at once. The default setting is No.

  If you do decide to enable the Flash uploader and receive uploading issues, then disable this feature again. Issues can arise from incompatible Adobe Flash settings.

If you have made adjustments to the default Joomla! Media Settings, then you will need to save these by clicking on the Save button at the top right-hand side of the page in the Global Configuration section. A confirmation message to inform you that these settings have been saved should show on the following page.

Now that we have configured our site’s Media Settings, let’s head over to take a detailed look at the Media Manager upload feature.

The Media Manager tool is located within your administration area and can be accessed by using the “Quick Link” icon on your Control Panel, or by going to the Menu: Site | Media Manager.