Media

Import

Images and other files are imported into FAL and related to the record. The target file directory is part of the import configuration.

An asset is downloaded once per run no matter how many records use it, and files are named after the URL they were downloaded from, so a re-import reuses what is already stored instead of fetching it again.

Redirects are followed, up to five hops; some hosts serve every asset that way. The file is named after the URL upstream supplied, not the redirect target, so an asset stays one file across runs. A redirect without a target, or a longer chain, counts as a failed download and leaves stored relations alone.

Which fields the import owns

main_image and media_files mirror what upstream supplies. Each import rebuilds them: an image upstream no longer lists has its relation removed.

Images added to these fields by hand are removed by the next import. The relation carries no marker saying where it came from, so an editorial addition cannot be told apart from a leftover of an earlier import.

Use editorial_images for images maintained in the backend. The import never writes to that field and never removes anything from it, and its contents are available in the frontend as editorialImages.

Note

One exception is worth knowing: a record for which upstream supplies no media at all is not cleaned up, so hand-added images on such a record survive. Do not rely on it — it follows from how the clean-up works, not from a decision to protect those images, and a record that later gains an image upstream loses them.

A download that fails does not remove the image it failed to fetch. Only a 404 or 410 from the media server counts as the asset being gone; a server error, a refused or rate-limited request, or a run started with --no_media leave the stored relations alone.

FAL accessors

A tourist attraction exposes its media as native Extbase FAL relations:

Accessor	Meaning
`mainImage`	The primary image (`main_image`), a single file reference. Import-owned.
`mediaFiles`	Additional images and files (`media_files`). Import-owned.
`editorialImages`	Editorially curated images (`editorial_images`), maintained in the backend. Never touched by the import.

mainImage returns a single file reference or none; mediaFiles and editorialImages return a (possibly empty) collection.

Rendering

The FAL relations are rendered with the standard Fluid image view helper, so processing (cropping, scaling) and metadata (copyright, alternative text) are available:

<f:if condition="{attraction.mainImage}">
    <figure>
        <f:image image="{attraction.mainImage}" />
        <f:if condition="{attraction.mainImage.originalResource.properties.copyright}">
            <figcaption>{attraction.mainImage.originalResource.properties.copyright -> f:format.htmlspecialchars()}</figcaption>
        </f:if>
    </figure>
</f:if>

<f:for each="{attraction.mediaFiles}" as="image">
    <f:image image="{image}" />
</f:for>