How about [mla_gallery list=mask]?

Thanks for your patience in awaiting my progress report. I have finally had a bit of time to look into your suggestion.

I downloaded and installed the WP Publication Archive plugin. I created a “publication” for a PDF file and looked at the corresponding single publication page, which lists the document title, file name and links for “view” and “download”.

The “download” link behaves just like the MLA link=download parameter, which you referred to as a “pure download”. The “view” link is the new behavior you are after; is that right? It seems to behave just like the MLA link=file parameter; is that right?

The difference, as you suggest, is that the URLs associated with the “download” and “view” links do not show the actual URL of the file; they are the “pretty permalink” of the publication.

So, what you are suggesting is something like a new MLA link=stream parameter that would behave just like link=file but would hide the URL; is that right?

For this new parameter, I imagine the URL associated with each gallery item would contain the ID value of the Media Library item associated with the desired file. It would look something like:

http://www.mysite.com/wp-content/plugins/media-library-assistant/includes/mla-file-downloader.php?mla_download_id=5394

Would that be acceptable? If so, this is not too hard to implement. If you can confirm that I have understood what you want I can investigate further.

Thanks for your update. After some additional thought I arrived at a somewhat simpler URL format, e.g.:

http://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=mla_transfer&mla_item=my-item-slug

This is less “pretty” than the URLs generated by the WP Publication Archive plugin, e.g:

http://www.mysite.com/publication/view/my-item-slug
http://www.mysite.com/publication/download/my-item-slug

Those work because “publication” is registered as a custom post type, which is significantly more complex than the approach I am planning. I hope the difference in URL format will be acceptable for your application.

I am undecided about handling the “issue with large files“. How large are the files in your application?

I do plan to support both “view” and “download” but I haven’t decided on what parameter names and values to use for them yet; perhaps link=file or link=download with a separate mask_url=true.

By the way, I never saw a response in your other support topic:

Create a feed out of the media library

Did you ever get a chance to try the new example plugin I developed for the latest MLA version?

Thanks for the additional details. I would guess that “large files” means something like 50M or 100M. I doubt very much that 10M would be a problem for a streaming application.

I am still investigating the “simple” and “more complex” alternatives for this feature. You wrote “I’m thinking about posting PDF files, which will look a lot more professional using the complex approach.” What do you mean by “look a lot more professional“? I ask because:

1. The only difference will be in the format of the URL. The gallery display will be the same in all cases.
2. The “more complex” “pretty permalink” solution might be better for Search Engine Optimization. Is that a concern?
3. Both approaches hide the actual location of the file on your server. Is that a concern?

I realize that this feature has two separate parts:

1. How the link is formatted.
2. How the file is transferred.

Which of those two is more important for you, and why?

Thank you for your help in thinking through this feature!

Regarding the RSS feed topic, I had a good dialog with the other user, who has a rather specialized application. They ultimately decided that understanding how to use RSS was a barrier for their audience and did not add it to their site. The example plugin is now in the official MLA release, so installing a beta is n longer required. If you ever get back to trying the example plugin I welcome your feedback on it.

I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20171113 that contains a new mla_named_transfer=true parameter for [mla_gallery] that generates the admin-ajax links described in my earlier post. You can find more information about the parameter in the “Transfer by Item Name” section of the Settings/Media Library Assistant Documentation tab. The new Development Version also contains the initial version of the “MLA Item Transfer Pretty Links” example plugin. It would be a great help if you can install the Development Version and example plugin and do some testing of your own.

The mla_named_transfer=true parameter implements the “simple” approach described above. The new example plugin adds the “more complex” alternative, transforming the links from the admin-ajax format to something like:

http://www.mysite.com/mla-transfer/view/my-item-slug
http://www.mysite.com/mla-transfer/download/my-item-slug

The example plugin adds a Settings/MLA Pretty Links page that allows you to change the “mla-transfer”, “download” and “view” portions of the pretty links. It will transform any [mla_gallery] shortcode containing a mla_named_transfer=true parameter.

To get the Development Version, follow the instructions in this earlier post:

Create a feed out of the media library

To install the example plugin, navigate to the Settings/Media library Assistant Documentation tab and click the “Example Plugins” button. You will see a table that lists all the example plugins and gives you a “one-click” action for installing them. Type “pretty” in the text box and click “Search Plugins” to filter the table. You are looking for the “MLA Item Transfer Pretty Links” example plugin. Find that plugin and hover over the title in the left-most column. Click the “Install” rollover action, then go to the WordPress Plugins/Installed Plugins submenu and activate it as you would any other plugin.

Thanks for inspiring these MLA enhancements. I look forward to your feedback.