image_import

image_import.module allows mass import of images and, optionally, captions into Drupal installations using the image module from James Walker. This module is deprecated, because the upload functionality in Drupal core is much better in recent versions. If someone else would like to take over and upgrade this module, please contact Syscrusher to discuss.

Prerequisites: upload.module, image.module, and Drupal 4.6, all configured and working properly. Drupal version 4.5.* and earlier are not currently supported. Drupal 4.6.3 or higher recommended for best results.

Features:

• Number of images that can be imported is limited only by the system's speed and settings (such as PHP's maximum script execution time). The site administrator can select an optional time limit for image import, so that it can do large directories in smaller chunks and avoid web server timeouts.
• Fully supports and exploits free-tag vocabularies using Morbus Iff's free-tagging (folksonomy) patch, if available. With Morbus' kind permission, I have committed in his sandbox directory a freetagging patch that works against a stock Drupal 4.6.2 source tree (see the accompanying README file for instructions on applying the patch). The image_import module also works correctly without that patch -- freetagging just makes things more convenient. (Nota bene: I test each version of image_import with this patch, and do recommend it as being very useful. The feature has been accepted into Drupal core for 4.7.)
• Unlike previous image import code, this module can do a "fast import" while also individually captioning images. For each image being imported, the module looks for a file whose name matches but whose extension is one of several recognized as text or HTML. If found, that file's contents will be used to automatically create a teaser and body (description) for the image.
• Optionally deletes the uploaded files (including caption files) to prevent the next import run from accidentally importing them again as duplicate nodes.
• System administrators can force the deletion of uploaded files.
• To support systems where users have individual upload directories, the module can be configured to insert the Drupal username into the import directory path. It can also optionally *not* do this for the special case of the system user (uid=1). There is also a way to have the module remove spaces from the usernames.
• Users with appropriate permissions, as defined by the site owner, can override the import path for their images.
• Optional debug mode produces detailed messages to help in problem isolation.
• Optional throttle mode ensures that each new image is imported at least one second later than the previous, so that they will sort correctly in node listings.
• Flexible pattern-replacement for generating titles that include the filename and/or the first line of the caption file.

This module is no longer under active development, because most of its functionality is now in Drupal core and the standard image project. If you are a developer interested in adopting this module, please contact the owner to discuss.