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What is the easiest way to go and to upload more then 1 images in one place?

I noticed a "tool" called PowerTools, I'm not sure that it covers what I'm thinking of: what would interest me is there a client side tool available which would do the job and could select and upload bulk of images from a local PC after an authorization process?

The default OS "File Open" window would popup and could select multiple local images and after entering some data specific to the type of the component being uploaded (like some meta tags defined by the template, name of the component to be created, etc) after hitting the UPLOAD button, the tool would create all the images/PDF's components and upload the files too.

Also the destination structure should be selectable via such a program/tool if possible.

Asking because actually I created such a tool and wondering if there is already such a client side tool available to run in windows or MAC OS, Linux, etc.simple executing as a windows GUI application or there is no such tool available?

I felt a need to add in some cases an additional layer to Tridion and not by extension development but by trying other approaches, with option to access everything a content editor has access to and to be able to automatize lot of daily content maintenance. Without involving any server side change or development. This is what we are up-to, to provide some additional functionalities optimized to the needs and content editing processes we have.

Thanks for you answers and opinions!

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    I can understand that it would be nice to get some community approval for creating something better than Tridion offers by default. Perhaps the best way to achieve this would be to make your tool available as free open-source software.
    – Dominic Cronin
    Sep 19, 2013 at 17:48
  • It's a little odd you mention "open source and free" with Tridion... I think that the cost we invest into development is really allmost like "free" compaired to some of the costs in all this...
    – BVL
    Sep 19, 2013 at 18:01
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    It's not odd at all. There are many open and free community projects around Tridion. You have already mentioned one such project yourself.
    – Dominic Cronin
    Sep 20, 2013 at 7:29
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    Some of the open source solutions indeed aren't completely finished, but there are also a lot of them on SDL Tridion World for example which are. With regards to needing to manually install it (which is what I think you mean with making changes server side), yes of course you will see that open source extensions focus on the actual solution and are not quite the same as a product which you have to pay a lot of money for. That however doesn't make them less useful for editors (once they have been installed).
    – Bart Koopman
    Sep 20, 2013 at 9:55
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    -1 to the question, but not necessarily the sentiment (rant) that needing to install certain functionality sucks. When I don't have access to the CMS server, I'll definitely use client-side tools (scripts) like you have. No need to use double quotes to troll the PowerTools, by the way. Not cool, especially since it's made by volunteers, many of which are here answering questions.
    – Alvin Reyes
    Sep 21, 2013 at 17:10

3 Answers 3

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You can map a network drive pointing to the CMS webdav http://cmsurl/webdav. However this won't upload any metadata, in order to do that you will need to write some custom logic like event system to populate custom metadata, other issue regarding using webdav is that it will use the default multimedia schema or the schema specified in the folder where you are copying your multimedia, but, in your question I am understanding that you want to copy folders as well, so since they are new folders you will be using the default multimedia schema anyways.

I am not sure if you can map a network drive or use the CMS webdav in Mac OSX or Linux, my understanding is that as long as your software supports webdav it should be able to do so, but you might need to pass NT Authentication credentials so probably could be a conflict there.

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    You can also configure some default metadata in Tridion's webdav config file.
    – Dominic Cronin
    Sep 19, 2013 at 17:45
  • Seems that the tool we are creating is doing the job then. We can select whole folder with subfolders and it will create necessary structures and create and upload even different multimedia components at the same time on the fly. Also meta data is being populated as we want through the tools GUI. Aren't there similar approaches, software client tools available? Thanks, Eric
    – BVL
    Sep 19, 2013 at 19:19
  • That's great. Will this "tool" be open source as well?
    – Alvin Reyes
    Sep 20, 2013 at 13:44
  • How to guarantee that the tool,or "product" will work as expected, as open source is that guranteed?And also if someone invests a few months of cumulated worktime from his freetime and weekends, is it a big expectaction to get some kind of payment back?Actually I would really like to put together some kind of client tool, to cover some nice and advanced functionalities and to fit it to most of basic expectations of content editors.Actually it could even be a connector to provide an alternative to Translation Manager System.Don't want to get rich form this,but not thinking about open source yet
    – BVL
    Sep 22, 2013 at 14:48
  • @BVL without trying to make this a discussion (this is not the right location for discussions), there is nothing wrong with asking money for something you built, but keep in mind this is not the location to promote that. Any extension (open source and paid for that matter) can be submitted to SDL Tridion World and marketed from there.
    – Bart Koopman
    Sep 23, 2013 at 8:27
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Tridion provides OOTB webdav capabilities. You could use the webdav client to upload (literally drag and drop from your desktop) the files you want.

Check the Tridion Docs: http://sdllivecontent.sdl.com/LiveContent/content/en-US/SDL_Tridion_2011_SPONE/task_5C45FF81C2474FF1BC57C371E967B617 (requires usedid/pwd)

Authors could map the webdav URL as network drive then simply copy/paste or drag n drop the files. Additionally, You could setup the CME folders with their associated MM schema (like images, pdfs) then webdav will only let you upload those file extensions supported by MM Schema.

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  • Thanks for your answere, however if I understand correctly this involves some server side changes, configuration adjustments, etc. What we have at the moment seems more editor friendly for me and also additional functionalities can be handled on client side. What is more important that as I see now lot of additional functionalities could be handled by client side. Like a functionality similar to SiteEditing without real site editing capability of the server. Also functionalities similar to Translation Management - automatic localization and export/import of XHTML data, all via client tool.
    – BVL
    Sep 19, 2013 at 17:18
  • It is part of standard installation. If you are using LDAP authentication, it requires configuration changes to allow LDAP users can login. I consider these are bare minimal. sdllivecontent.sdl.com/LiveContent/content/en-US/…
    – Ram G
    Sep 19, 2013 at 17:23
  • What is more important that as I see now lot of additional functionalities could be handled by client side. Like a functionality similar to SiteEditing without real site editing capability of the server. Also functionalities similar to Translation Management - automatic localization and export/import of XHTML data, all via client tool.
    – BVL
    Sep 19, 2013 at 17:24
  • I lost you with your last comment. :) Webdav is not related to SiteEdit/TM.
    – Ram G
    Sep 19, 2013 at 17:26
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    @BVL I think you haven't made your question very clear initially and suggest that you edit your question to do so. That would also help in reducing discussions like these in comments and you would get better answers.
    – Bart Koopman
    Sep 20, 2013 at 10:00
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WebDAV is fast. In-context, Upload Multimedia is faster for "in-context" (meaning while creating some other content) multimedia creation. Content Types are another feature to assist in the quick creation of content with certain defaults and naming conventions (typically text-based components, but useful of multimedia on the page).

From the perspective of the question, yes the SDL Tridion PowerTools open source repository isn't a "tool," it is an extension (that a few of us spent a good number of hours on) which definitely is open source (GNU GPL v2, to be specific).

In terms of "no-install" scenarios, the Core Service allows any WCF client the ability to interact with the CMS. But it looks like you've already done that.

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    Java clients too ;)
    – Mihai Cădariu
    Sep 20, 2013 at 14:33
  • Nice to meet you all...Thanks for your comments! Alvin, if there is a single sign on authorization process, is there still an option to use WCF client to connect to Tridion? There is no restriction, actually anything can be done there in Tridion according to the users permission level, right? No I haven't used any MS technology, no WCF client was used, but the solution I was working on is very similar. :-) So what about SSO authorization step? In Tridion is there a default login page, login URL? In case SSO authorization is used, then these default login pages are turned of? Thanks!
    – BVL
    Sep 21, 2013 at 7:52
  • At a high level I believe so, but I'll let the others confirm. You do have to pass credentials and anything you do over the API matches what users are authorized to do in the Content Manager Explorer.
    – Alvin Reyes
    Sep 21, 2013 at 17:13
  • Also, this is a more answerable question (SSO authorization over WCF)--consider creating a separate thread on it. Stack Exchange encourages "answerable" questions reflecting and showing what we've tried. I understand your points in the original question (trust me, I'd want everyone to just "sample" the PowerTools if possible), but as it stands, it's hard to actually answer other than "yeah, sure you can." This isn't a forum in that regards.
    – Alvin Reyes
    Sep 21, 2013 at 17:18
  • Alwin there may be a lot of questions about WCF and making it work multiplatform too...Also seems for me it involves server side configuration changes. Correct if I'm wrong please. Or with a WCF client can we connect to a default Tridion installation by default? I'll have to invstigate this through more deeply. Thank for your suggestion, will consider to ask some new questions...
    – BVL
    Sep 22, 2013 at 14:50

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