Joomla Tip of the Day: Reorganizing your image files!

So you've had a site for a really long time, like super long, and you've assigned your promising young intern to some simple tasks. Shouldn't take too long, maybe one hour max. Well, two hours later your intern comes into your office looking completely exhausted and hating his/her life. He/she comes to you explaining how they couldn't find any of the right pictures easily. The company folder was empty and the logo was found in some random folder named 'a'. Maybe it's time for some spring cleaning.

 

Why should I bother reorganizing my images?
An obvious reason would be to save time. A more organized media manager will save you the frustration and agony of scouring through that clunky program for hours for that one specific image. By having more organization, you can use that time to work on the more difficult parts of your site rather than wasting it looking for one measly image. Also, in case your client wants an image from a long time ago, you will have an easier time looking for it.

Very true. If you decide to reorganize your files, you're going to have to do a lot of planning beforehand. Create a document that keeps all the information of the images displayed on your site. Some information I would recommend to document is where the image is being displayed and the name of the image file. As you go through you files, make note of the images you have moved and check back to your list in case there are any broken links you'll have to fix.

In my example, I started with the big idea of 'Location' and broke it down to three sub-topics of restaurant, tourists, and living based on the location. Then, I created the folders. I'll be looking for restaurant, tourist locations, and living images in the Bay area to start. Sadly, from here there is no secret quick way to reorganizing your files. You can begin searching through your media manager however you like, but I would encourage you to search in an order that's basic and easy to keep track of. Don't do all of this reorganization in one go though. I would recommend to take a few breaks and search your website to see if anything has gone horribly wrong because you moved a file. Also, while you reorganize, don't forget to make note of and delete the files once you have added it to the correct folder, nobody wants duplicates.

 

Fixing broken links are easy! Thanks to the wonderful document you have created and your excellent note-taking skills, knowing where and what the broken links are is a stress free activity now. Go to the article, module, etc. of wherever your image was before, and simply replace the old image link with the new one. Now your link should not be broken anymore.

The Media Manager in Joomla is too frustrating to organize!
I completely agree. An easier way to organize your files would be to go through your cpanel and rearrange your files that way. Organizing through the cpanel allows you to delete multiple files at once and lets you drag and drop files into different folders—something that you can't do on the Joomla media manager.

That's all there is to it. Hopefully you nor your intern will struggle with finding media images anymore!

- Danico Intern, Mary