We are having some difficulties with the display of PDFs, audio, and images on our item pages and would appreciate any input. We are using Center Row as a theme and have done some customizing of the theme using the CSS editor. These are the issues:
Images: a thumbnail appears on the item page, below the main image so that there are two images on the page
PDFs and audio: the main image does not display, only a URL - when clicked the PDF viewer displays for the document and the audio player displays for audio files
Also, when we attempt to upload a PDF thumbnail for the browse pages, it is too large and covers other thumbnails on the page.
We have implemented the Universal Viewer module but not IIIF.
Without seeing what’s happening “live” so to speak it’s hard to say absolutely for sure, but it sounds like you have two problems:
One is the “doubling”: that’s probably being caused by the Universal Viewer, where you’re just seeing the theme’s normal display of images and also the Universal Viewer’s display. You could remove the normal theme display, if desired, by editing the theme or using the CSS Editor to hide it. Universal Viewer also has some options for disabling its appearance on item show pages, or you could always deactivate or uninstall it if you don’t want it at all.
As for PDFs and audio only showing as URLs, that probably just indicates that Omeka was unable to create a thumbnail for those. One option you have is to just enable the “Embed media on item pages” setting for your site (it’s under the site’s settings form, in the General section). That should cause the PDF viewer, audio player, etc. to display directly on the item page.
Finally, the bit about a manual thumbnail breaking the browse pages: can you share a screenshot of that issue? That’s probably something we could fix in the theme. Alternatively, you could simply upload a smaller custom thumbnail if size is the only issue.
Thank you for the speedy response. A couple of follow-up questions:
When you mention editing the theme display to prevent the doubling of images on the item record, is that something one can do in the theme settings or does it require working with the code?
I enabled the “embed media on item pages” on the site settings, but I am still not seeing the PDF viewer, audio player etc. The URL appears in the “Other Media” field - not sure if that is significant.
An update on the above issues: they seem to be related to the Center Row theme. When I switch to Default, Cozy, or Foundation themes the media (PDF viewer and video/audio player) embed correctly in the item record and the doubling of the images disappears. Has anyone else encountered this issue with Center Row? Any suggestions for fixes? We’re still using 2.0.1.
So I think what’s happening here is related to the “carousel” type viewer that’s used in Center Row, which basically only supports images. If you could send a screenshot of the issue (you can post them directly here) or a link to a page showing the problem, that would help us be sure we’re all on the same page with the problem you’re seeing.
OK: what’s happening here is that the big image there is actually a carousel: if you have multiple images on one item, it will let you switch between them on that top section.
The little thumbnail right below is just used to allow direct switching between the images if you happen to have more than one.
Ah, right. That makes sense. I have seen this on other content management systems, but in those cases the thumbnails didn’t display if there was a only a single image.
Regarding the PDF viewer and audio/video player: is it not possible to embed them in Center Row item records then? If not, has anyone found a way of directing the users attention to the relevant metadata field so that they are not missed?
