File Entity and Media Modules in Drupal 8: DrupalCon Austin Session Notes

• Media handling is something that users expect, and competitors to Drupal have.

In Drupal 8

• File listing - like what File Entity adds under Content in D7
• WYSIWYG Integration - only works with images, not videos, etc.
• Multi-upload capability by default

For Contrib in D8

• Pluggable components for all the media handling
• Hope to reuse them between various media library modules.
• Non-file centric storage components (for remote media, Youtube videos, etc)

Current Problems

• No stable 2.x release
• WYSIWYG handling
• overly-complex out of the box (configuring file display)
• Usability vs Extensibility
• Sustained maintainership

Plan for D8

• Split up File Entity into smaller chunks.
• File Entity and Media Entity will exist separately
• Will try to make components work in a non-media context: Entity Embed, Entity Browser, Fallback formatter

Challenges in Drupal 8

• External Dependencies for Contrib: Currently can't use composer for contrib.
• Using formatters and widgets on data without any real fields
• Files lack proper access controller
• Typed Data and Plugins