Allow images to be uploaded as visualizations

[pmackay]

This is so that a wider variety of visualizations can be displayed on Community Data without needing new features from the backend.

[pmackay]

@GilesGibson @djwesto do you guys have any ideas/examples of test viz images you would want to upload?

[GilesGibson]

I would like to have all the Report on the state of the Borough up there, even if we have to slice it up into visuals and text.

[pmackay]

Can you get hold of that? Send it to us?

[GilesGibson]

have chased it

[djwesto]

I could slice up any visuals from PDF or Word docs, although they may be so awful-looking that we might as well re-create them in Illustrator so you might want to obtain the actual source data which was used to create the graphics in the report docs as well, @GilesGibson.

As to how image uploads might work in the current system, I propose we either:

1. find a way to allow users to attach images to Visualisation nodes or
2. we design a completely new content type to hold images of visualisations instead of live visualisations...

Paul, if we go with the first approach, would there be some way to add a new Wizard step at the beginning to ask users something like:

Do you have an image of a visualisation you have made already or do you want to create a new "livedata" visualisation from a dataset?

[pmackay]

That's what I had in mind, a choice or simply another link on the "add
content" page for an image based viz. But easiest way is to reuse the
Visualization content type I think...

[GilesGibson]

I suppose that users may want to create a graph in Excel (for instance), then cut it and paste it in to where the visualisation is going to be.

[djwesto]

This option would let them do that – they could use multiple approaches to getting an image:

• save an image of their graph out of Excel
• use the Mac screengrab tool or Windows Snippet app to create a screenshot image file
• export the image out of a PDF or Word doc

Once they've got the image, they can upload it into a fresh Visualisation node on CD.

@pmackay I definitely think it would be cooler from a UX point of view if we can find a way to reuse the existing content type – we might want a way to display an indicator on the final Vis node display to flag up static image visualisations rather than active live-data visualisations... does that idea belong in a new Github Issue?

[pmackay]

@GilesGibson take a look at http://dev-communitydata.gotpantheon.com/visualizations/example-static-visualization - does this seem OK?

I still need to update the menus to allow 2 different types of viz to be created. Am thinking of the current menu that goes to wizard, and another "Static image visualization" menu item that just opens the regular Drupal node edit page.

[djwesto]

Nice work @pmackay – this is a great addition to the site and I hope it will help support a lot more people to add in visualisations they can't currently build within the limitations of the prototype. But I wonder if we could adjust the wording a little on the labels around the image field itself?

Instead, could the text read:

Add your visualisation as an image
If you prefer not to use live data to dynamically generate a visualisation, you can upload a normal image file to the community instead.
Files must be less than 100 MB.
Allowed file types: png gif jpg jpeg.

[pmackay]

"Add content" page updated. Image field text changed as above.

[pmackay]

Completed on live. Menu link added. Please review.

[GilesGibson]

some quick feedback.

Main menu drop down text - "add visualisation or Add image visualisation" I think we need to use different language as they both come across as the same.

Can we move the file upload higher up the screen, it is the main thing to do etc.

Can we elaborate the explanation of what the whole idea is about a bit? maybe mention infographic, map, Excel chart etc.

Is there a preview option after it has uploaded?