Customizing the media library

The core of the media library is the collection of media items for you to choose from. It can be displayed in two ways: as a grid or as a table. Both layouts are part of the same view, creatively named "Media library", and both are totally customizable with the Views module.

However, it's worth noting that the grid layout is intentionally sparse, and meant to be very "visual", with minimal textual information. The table layout is far more suitable for displaying additional fields and metadata if needed. See the Views module documentation for more information about working with views.

Customizing the Media Library view mode

You may wish to customize the way media items are displayed in the modal select window. For example, it could be useful for documents or audio files to display authored on dates or other information along with the files (as shown below).

This additional information is provided by the Media Library view mode configuration. (For example, /admin/structure/media/manage/image/display/media_library.)

Please see the additional information about configuring the Media Library view mode under Customizing Display Modes on the Administering the Media Library handbook page.

Customizing media fields

When adding media to the library, you are required to fill out any mandatory fields associated with that media type. A typical example is images, which for accessibility reasons always require you to fill in alternate text.

In addition to required fields, all media types can have custom fields associated with them, and it is possible to expose these fields in the media library so that users can fill them out when adding new media. For example, you could allow your users to add tags or captions to media items they are adding to the library.

Show Custom media fields in insert dialog on node

The 'Media library' form display is responsible for the insert dialog. Adding newly created fields to the 'Media library' form display makes them appear when clicking insert on node. For example: admin/structure/media/manage/image/form-display/media_library.

(Rem.: You need to enable custom settings for the "Media library" form mode before you can add fields to that form mode. Just going to "Manage form display" won't do it -- that's the settings for the default form mode, not the media library. However, that page should have a collapsible area, at the bottom of the page, to enable custom settings for other form modes. One of those checkboxes should be "Media library". If you ensure that box is checked, then save settings, you should be able to configure the "Media library" form mode, which will affect what fields show up in the media library.)