[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #47215: The media that is "Unattached" is different in list mode vs grid mode

[WordPress Trac]

#47215: The media that is "Unattached" is different in list mode vs grid mode
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 Reporter:  pbiron        |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Media         |     Version:
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                |     Focuses:
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Comment (by pbiron):

 After several hours tracking down another problem involving grid mode, I
 discovered **why** grid mode doesn't show images with post_states as
 unattached...and I don't like the reason :-(

 Grid mode intentionally does **not** show **any** image (whether it is
 attached or not) with a non-empty value in the `_wp_attachment_context`
 postmeta of the attachment post.  (see
 [[https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/js/media/models/attachments.js#L155-L161|src/js/media/models/attachmetns.js,
 lines 155-161]]).  That "feature" was introduced in #21819.

 Why don't I like this?  Because it is not just grid mode in the media
 library that excludes those images...it is **anything** that uses `/wp-
 includes/js/media-models.js`.  One such user is the Customizer, for
 setting header images.

 One consequence of this is the following:

 1. set the active theme to any theme that supports `custom-header`
 2. launch the customizer and select one or more images as header images
 3. publish that customizer changeset
 4. now, set a **different** theme that supports `custom-header` as the
 active theme
 5. launch the customer and try to set the **same** header images.  You'll
 find that you **can't**, because `wp.media.model.Attachments` strips them
 out :-(

 Why would you want to have the same header images in 2 different themes?
 In my case, the 1st theme is what is currently used on a given site and
 the 2nd theme is an in-dev complete rewrite of the 1st theme that has the
 same basic page layout (including the area where the header image is
 displayed)...and I need to switch back-and-forth between the 2 themes to
 make sure that the revised theme hasn't broken things that work in the 1st
 theme.

 Another possibly unintended consequence of this "feature" is that it
 prevents you from inserting a header image (or site icon, etc) into post
 content...because the image inserter (in both gutenberg and class) uses
 the media modal (and hence `media-models.js`).  Why would you want to do
 that?  Suppose you're writing a blog post about how you built the current
 site.  You give detailed/step-by-step instructions of various things like:
 setting header images, site icons, etc in the customizer.  It would be
 perfectly normal to include those images in the content of that post...but
 you can't!

 @joemcgill since you worked on #21819 do you have any comments?  That
 ticket was about hiding crops of a given image from the media modal, but
 the solution implemented actually hides things that may not have been
 cropped.  For instance, suppose my theme does:

 {{{#!php
 <?php
 add_theme_support( 'custom-header', array( 'width' => 1000, 'height' =>
 150 ) );
 }}}

 and the header images I upload in the customizer are exactly those
 dimensions...then the media modal stripping them out because `'context'
 === 'custom-header'` is overkill, since they are **not** crops, they are
 originals.

 Maybe the the work that @azaozz is undertaking on `derived` images for 5.3
 could be leveraged to make the media modal's stripping of crops less
 greedy (i.e., don't strip an image just because it is "contextual", but
 only if it a crop/derivation of another image)?

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47215#comment:1>
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