"Image Metadata" Component Still Needed?

2
votes

To avoid strongly connecting multimedia metadata I've seen "image metadata" components that have fields such:

  • image (multimedia component link)
  • alt text
  • title
  • width
  • height

This allows us to separate context-specific information. For example a banner component could serve this role and might link to a multimedia image. Since alt text also depends on context, it doesn't make sense to set these fields in the multimedia metadata. We can also localize text for media separate from the multimedia.

In SDL Tridion 2011 I have advanced image options for richtext fields. When adding an image, I can set:

  • (alt) text
  • alignment
  • width
  • height
  • proportion

Buddy

This affect the attributes in the source. For example:

<img src="tcm:5-274" title="buddy" alt="buddy" style="vertical-align: top; width: 70px; height: 70px;"/>

When were these in-RTF options introduced and are they configurable?

2
tridion
Do you have an example of when the alt text should be context-sensitive, other than when the language/locale of the context is different? - Dominic Cronin

2 Answers

2
votes

I think the reason of having separate metadata components is because not all the scenarios of use of an image happen in an RTF, where you can add the additional attributes for the specific rtf you are editing. In some scenarios you want to use an image but with different metadata depending on where is used.

Scenario A: The Metadata of the image strongly depends on the final content which is consuming the image and will be used only in that context, you can do an embedded schema that is constructed by a multimedia link + the metadata fields. In the content that will consume the image, add that metadata schema as a field

Scenario B: The Metadata of the image doesn't depends on the final content which is consuming the image and there are some variations of different metadata, same image. In this case should be a regular schema for store metadata with a binary link pointing to the binary. This schema can be referenced as component link by other schemas.

Scenario C: The Metadata of the image will be the same always regardless of where is consumed. In this case you add the metadata in the metadata of the Multimedia Schema. You can extend the UI for apply those values automatically to the RTF when the user chooses that image, but still give them the flexibility of change those

1
votes

I can't tell you exactly which version they were introduced, but they are not recent. I have seen them in Tridion 2009, 5.3 and even 5.2 IIRC.

If by configurable you mean to change (add/remove) these attributes -- no, they cannot be configured.