On 4/15/05, Benjamin FrantzDale <frantzdale3i(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I agree with Greg and Jan, it would be great if you
could link first
and then upload. Since the exact name the file gets may be unknown a
priori, perhaps just putting "[[Image:]]", then clicking on it to
upload the file, then when the file is uploaded have the "[[Image:]]"
link get pointed to it.
I think you've just hit the nail on the head as to why this *would* be
difficult. Since (like many webforms) the upload system isn't coded to
rename the upload (see
http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1105) and because (as
Brion points out) files are attached to the whole wiki, not one page,
the name of the upload tends to be the last, rather than first, thing
you know.
Letting the user type an empty tag and then filling it in for them
would require the user to click the link, the software to "remember"
which page to change when they get back (using a URL parameter,
presumably), and then find the tag to change (presuming nobody's got
rid of it in the meantime, or fixed it by hand) and make the change
(marked, presumably, as made by the user who performed the upload).
Seems like a lot of work to code, and still pretty confusing to the
user, if you ask me - they have to remember the syntax for a
non-existent image, and remember to save the article (click it in a
preview, and the software won't be able to fill it in, and you'll just
lose your changes, which might not be what you'd expect). But, y'know,
I could be wrong.
Perhaps the best we could do is have the upload success screen have
nice clear instructions with copy-and-pastable syntax, such as:
* If this is an image, you can display it using
"[[Image:Example.jpeg|Your caption here]]"
* To link directly to this file, use "[[Media:example.jpeg|text of link here]]"
* To link to the description page, use "[[:Image:Example.jpeg|text of
link here]]"
Only with "example.jpeg" being filled in with the actual filename.
Coupled with a "return to..." link, that's pretty simple - you click
"upload file", upload it, and get instructions on how to reference it
in a page. (We could even have an extra "return to" link offering to
*edit* the last page visitted, to cut out one further step)
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]