Bug - images are attached even if I just want them displayed

[UsableThought]

Normally I use the little "cute sunset image" icon on the rich text editing bar to include photos in a post (it's the icon to the right of the smilie icon and to the left of the film frame icon). And normally, no problem.

However, for the post below, I am finding that no matter what I do, images are getting "attached" as files to the post. This has never happened before and I have no idea why it would be happening now. All I want to do is display the pictures, not "attach" them. If I go into BBEdit mode and change the ATTACH tags to IMG tags, when I save, they are again converted to ATTACH tags. ?!

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/question-about-12au7-headphone-amp.912128/#post-5745910

 

[phinds]

Your link is NOT to an image, it is to an entire post in a thread. You need to pull out the image if that's what you want.

Like this:

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Hot linked images are now automatically attached. There is no difference when the post is displayed. We've started this program because older posts with images tend to go broken. You had a ton of attachments. I don't know what you wanted to keep so I just kept the above. PM me so I can fix further if needed.

 

[phinds]

OOPS. I see I misunderstood the issue. I thought you wanted to post an image and were using that thread to show the image you wanted to post. I didn't even notice that it was YOUR post in the first place; I was just focusing on the image.

 

[UsableThought]

Hot linked images are now automatically attached. There is no difference when the post is displayed. We've started this program because older posts with images tend to go broken. You had a ton of attachments. I don't know what you wanted to keep so I just kept the above. PM me so I can fix further if needed.

Thanks Greg. The one you kept was the only one I wanted (I had been doing some editing).

So you're saying that in future, if when posting we link to an image hosted elsewhere using the "Image" link on the rich text editor, the image displayed won't actually be related to that link anymore; instead, the image will have been imported & attached to the post as a file; and it is this imported file that will actually be displayed?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks Greg. The one you kept was the only one I wanted (I had been doing some editing).

So you're saying that in future, if link to an image hosted elsewhere using the "Image" link on the rich text editor, the image displayed won't really use go to that link; instead, the image will be attached to the post as a file; and it is this image that will actually be displayed?

I think you got it. When you hot link to an image on a different site, instead of linking to that image, our system will download it and insert it as an attachment. It is seamless and you generally won't even know. It doesn't change anything for you. It helps prevent broken images in old posts. Anything prior to 2012 you tend to find a ton of broken images. This hurts the community.

 

[UsableThought]

I think you got it. When you hot link to an image on a different site, instead of linking to that image, our system will download it and insert it as an attachment. It is seamless and you generally won't even know. It doesn't change anything for you. It helps prevent broken images in old posts. Anything prior to 2012 you tend to find a ton of broken images. This hurts the community.

Well, I'd say it's not seamless just yet! Because I was doing some editing & trying to choose between a couple of different images & not liking how one of them was coming out, I wound up with two attachments, not just one. And I couldn't delete the one that was no longer being referenced. And every time I went into try & delete it and start over, the system imported the images yet again . . . so still more attached images started showing up at the bottom of the file. Very confusing since (a) some of these images were duplicates and (b) others were no longer being referenced regardless.

I guarantee I will not be the only person this happens to, because other folks edit their posts as well. If at all possible, I would recommend that users be given the tools (whether in BBEdit or the toolbar) to remove attachments no longer wanted.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Well, I'd say it's not seamless just yet! Because I was swapping an image, I wound up with two attachments, not just one. And I couldn't delete the one that was no longer being referenced. And every time I went into try & delete the ATTACH tags and start over, the system re-imported the images . . . so yet more attached images started showing up at the bottom of the file. I guarantee I will not be the only person this happens to, because other folks edit their posts as well. If at all possible, I would recommend that users be given the tools (whether in BBEdit or the toolbar) to remove attachments no longer wanted.

If you need to edit then yeah it might be confusing because you don't expect them to be attachments. You should be able to manage your attachments during edit. It's below the editor.

 

[UsableThought]

If you need to edit then yeah it might be confusing because you don't expect them to be attachments. You should be able to manage your attachments during edit.

Yes, that would be my request! It's fine if they are no longer displayed at that point; just so long as clutter can be removed & just the wanted images retained.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yes, that would be my request! It's fine if they are no longer displayed at that point; just so long as clutter can be removed & just the wanted images retained.

What is your request? When you remove an attachment from below the editor you must also remove the attachment bbcode from the post.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I will make an announcement tomorrow explaining this change tomorrow.

 

[UsableThought]

What is your request? When you remove an attachment from below the editor you must also remove the attachment bbcode from the post.

Doesn't work. What I'm finding is that no matter what, whether using the rich text editor or the BBCode editor, there is no way to remove the file attachments themselves; they remain even after every single ATTACH tag has been removed (i.e. when no images of any sort were being displayed any longer). My guess is, the files are being saved in the database separately from what could be seen in either editor mode.

EDIT: I'll replicate the behavior right here in this post. I'll attach the same images, then delete the ATTACH tags in the editor, and you'll see that the file references will remain.

1) OK, I edited to add the images. It's okay the first time I do this - I see what I'm always used to seeing: the images are displayed and there are no "attachments" for the image files.

2) However when I now delete the ATTACH tags (this is in the rich editor - "ATTACH=full" to open, with a number for the image, and then "/ATTACH" to close ) and save the post again, the images no longer display, but the "attachments" for the image files show up & can't be gotten rid of. See below. You'll see that in one case I added and removed the image twice, and now we have two file attachments for that image.

This is exactly the behavior I'm talking about. If I remove a displayed image during editing, the file attachments persist when they shouldn't. Changing to BBCode editor doesn't help as there are still no ATTACH tags visible. This will be very confusing if everybody starts experiencing it. I suggest others (e.g. mods) give it a try and see if it happens for them.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

they remain even after every single ATTACH tag has been removed

The "manage attachment" area is below the editor. In quick edit, make sure you click the "more options" button.

 

[UsableThought]

The "manage attachment" area is below the editor. In quick edit, make sure you click the "more options" button.

Ah - under "MORE OPTIONS . . . " Thanks. Since I've never before had to consider file attachments as such when linking to an image, I had no idea that this was the magic button to click.

Right now the only help I can find for attachments is under BBCODE: https://www.physicsforums.com/help/bb-codes

But that page says nothing about the MORE OPTIONS button in the rich text editor, nor about using that button for file attachments after editing graphics links. I suggest something brief be added to this effect; I had searched the help before posting my complaint & hadn't found anything.