[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #19110: Media File Url

[WordPress Trac]

#19110: Media File Url
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 Reporter:  braydonf     |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Media        |     Version:
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:               |
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Comment (by dd32):

 The Guid field simply stores the publically accessible URL to the resource
 at present, this can either be the file url (for attachments) or the
 Post/Page Permalink. If you Clear/md5  the Guid column, !WordPress should
 operate as normal (or at least the default theme should, plugins and other
 themes may be {{{_doing_it_wrong()}}})

 !WordPress does '''not''' use the Guid field for anything other than RSS
 feeds (It used to use it for the URL to media.. And still does for
 backwards compatibility, but only if, and only if, all the other WordPress
 attachment metadata is missing (or was never added since the image was
 uploaded pre 2.3-ish)). The URL to the media is dynamically generated from
 the site url(well, Content url) and the Attachment metadata (stored as
 postmeta for the media posts).

 There is a metadata generation hook where you can insert/extract metadata
 from uploaded files and store it as meta, WordPress extracts image Exif
 data for example (but unfortunately, stores it as a serialized field -
 which limits it's query-ability).

 The problem with adding another table (aside from the obvious; adding a
 new table) is primarily the migration to a new table, and the fact that
 for most things, it's not needed. Post Meta and Taxonomies can group
 and/or store meta for a specific upload, not only that, but the specific
 metadata one might want to store will change over time, requiring new
 columns and generally scaling out of control.

 The only downside to the current media situation (IMO) is the One-to-One
 relationship of !attachment:post_parent -> post:id, A Attachment can only
 have "1" parent post at present, which limits being able to include media
 into multiple posts using the current [gallery] shortcodes (Neither of the
 above suggestions address this limitation I should add, and in reality,
 tie it into the current structure harder).

 > The GUID field could also be used to store a random UUID version 4.

 This seems to infer you're thinking of WordPress 2, 3, and 4. WordPress
 uses the Decimal versioning system, Version 3.2 -> 3.3 is more of a
 Version 32 to Version 33 jump if you subscribe to the notion that the
 first number represents a milestone in a product. When we reach 3.9, we'll
 then go to 4.0, which will be as major as 2.2 to 2.3 was.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19110#comment:6>
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