KL My Media 
Get one Media Folder per user
- created: 05/04/2019
- latest update: 07/04/2019
KL My Media is a Joomla! system plugin that will help you keep users' media separated, private and well organized.
Table of Contents
1. What is KL My Media?
By default, Joomla! allows users to see all files in the media folder. This may not be a big deal, however, if you manage a website with multiple authors, then you may want to keep their media separated, private and well organized.
KL My Media is a plugin that enhances the Joomla! core media manager by restricting users to a specific folder, keeping their media separated.
Each user will be able to have their own media folder, based on its user ID, name or username. Their access will be restricted to this specific folder, allowing them to access files and folders only in this folder and folders within it. However, Super Users will always be able to see all media folders.
KL My Media plugin gets special importance when managing websites with multiple authors, where many authors are publishing and regularly adding files to the media folders, and you want to keep their media well organized or you simply do not want them to be able to use other authors media files to their own content.
2. Requirements
KL My Media plugin is meant to work with Joomla! core media manager.
Joomla! 3.9.0 or higher.
PHP 5.6 or higher.
To take full advantage of this plugin, you need to have the PHP iconv and intl (Internationalization extension) extensions enabled on your server. See Latin and non-Latin characters.
Keeping your Joomla up-to-date is extremely important for your website security.
3. Installation
Download the latest KL My Media package and install it as you would any regular Joomla! extension.
- Log into your Joomla! administration
- In the menu, choose: Extensions >> Extension Manager
- Under 'Upload Package File' select the extension zip
- Click on 'Upload & Install'
When the plugin has been uploaded and installed successfully, you will see a confirmation message. Then you will be ready to start.
By default plugins are not enabled, so don't forget to enable it.
When updating KL My Media, you do not need to uninstall it first, simply install the new version on top of the old one.
4. Updates
KL My Media plugin can be updated in two different ways:
Manually updating:
Download the latest KL My Media package, and install it as you would any regular Joomla! extension. See Installation.
Using the standard Joomla! update manager to notify you about updates:
First, KL My Media plugin needs you to set up the Download ID before you can install the updates through this method. You can find your main Download ID or create additional Download IDs under 'My Dashboard' on our website after logging in. Then, go to KL My Media plugin and paste your Download ID in the appropriate field. Finally, click on 'Save & Close'.
Now, all you need to do is to go to Extensions >> Extension Manager >> Update in your Joomla! backend. If you do not see the updates try clicking on the 'Find Updates' button in the toolbar. If a new version of the plugin is available you will be able to update by selecting it and clicking on the 'Update' button.
You need to have an active subscription in order to update, if not, you will see the updates but you will NOT be able to install them. Instead, you will see an error message telling you about a 403 or 404 error received when trying to update.
Access to Download ID field is only available to members of Super Users group. So, members of another user group will be prompted with the message:You are not authorised to view this resource.
5. Language Packs
All versions of KL My Media are released in English but other language packs are available.
The installation process is easy, just download the desired language pack and install it as you would any regular Joomla! extension.
Available language packs:
Didn't you find the language pack you want to use with KL My Media?
Ask us how to contribute. You won't regret.
6. Settings
After a successful installation, navigate to Extensions >> Plugins, then make a search for 'KL My Media'. Selecting the System - KL My Media plugin you will be able to set it up.
Now, let's take a look at how easy is to set a per-user media folder, restricting access to user's own files.
| Option | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Folder Name | ID | Sets the naming criteria to users' new media folders. You may choose from user ID, name or username. |
| User Groups Handling | Include | Determines how the selected user groups will be handled. Include - Each user belonging to the selected user groups will have a separated and private media folder. Exclude - All users will have a separated and private media folder except the ones belonging to the selected user groups. |
| User Groups | Select the User Groups to assign to. You can select multiple user groups. |
|
| Users Handling | Include | Determines how the selected users will be handled. Include - The selected users will also be included in the already selected users. Exclude - The selected users will be excluded if contained in the already selected users. |
| Users | Enter users IDs to assign to. Use one line list of comma separated users IDs or enter each user ID on a new line. |
Users Handling and User Groups Handling settings will have a significant impact on plugin behavior. Pay special attention to these settings to avoid unwanted behaviors.
Super Users will always be able to see all media folders.
7. Latin and non-Latin characters
When using the user name as the media folder name, it must contain only Latin characters (a-z), numbers, dots, underscores, and hyphens.
As you can imagine, this may raise a problem if the user name contains accented characters such as French, German and so on, or use non-Latin characters like Chinese and Arabic, as these will not be accepted.
So, how we will deal with it? Using transliteration of the user name. We will convert Latin and non-Latin characters into their ASCII equivalents.
eg: Latin Zoë will be converted to zoe and non-Latin 张三 will be converted to zhang-san.
If you are unable to have the PHP iconv and intl (Internationalization extension) extensions enabled on your server, everything will be stripped except the allowed Latin characters mentioned above. Unfortunately, not only, but mainly, if using non-Latin characters, this may lead to an empty name. To prevent that from happening, and only in such cases, the folder name will fallback to the user ID.
eg: Latin Zoë will be converted to zo and non-Latin 张三 will fallback to the user ID because, in this conversion, the result would be an empty name.
8. Plugin Messages
To help you understand the impact of My Media plugin settings, every time you access or save any changes to its settings, some explanatory and informative messages will be displayed.
Whenever a user or user groups are selected, a message will be shown explaining how will be the expected behavior. See how this example settings are reflected in the message, showing the plugin expected behavior.
Please read carefully these type of messages because they reflect how the plugin will behave.
info
If you enter a user ID belonging to the Super Users group, you will be warned about it. In this example, the user with ID 556 belongs to Super Users group.
No action required. Just an alert for the fact that being Super User, it will be ignored.
info
You will see this message if you have not yet selected any user or user groups to apply to.
You must set at least one user group or one user ID to make some magic happen.
Warning
If you enter a non-existing user ID, you will be warned about it. In this example, the user with ID 789 does not exist.
Just alerting you that the referred users do not exist. You may want to check it. Maybe a typo?
Warning
9. Changelog
These changelog list details about updates to KL My Media.
8.1. KL My Media for Joomla! 3.x
Version 1.0.0 (07/04/2019)
First release for Joomla! 3.x
10. Acknowledgment
We would like to thank all who somehow participate in the development of KL My Media.
11. What Else?
We like to improve our extensions wherever we can and appreciate your feedback.
If you like this extension, please help us making it even better by writing your review on Joomla! Extensions Directory (JED).
Nevertheless, if you have any questions about this product please feel free for asking here.
We keep it simple, but we make it special!
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