Find a way to differentiate different media types in the administrative media library grid view

Clarifying.

Some UIs (like ubuntu nautilus) stamp the preview image with an overlay, looking like a film roll or the like.

Some UIs (like ubuntu nautilus) stamp the preview image with an overlay

Is this a suggestion (media could be stamped), or a workaround (it works on ubuntu)? How is this applicable to media types other than videos?

so a theme could implement some custom styling to make types look distinct

This is troublesome when using a generic admin theme instead of a custom one: How is a run-of-the-mill theme supposed to know which kind of media bundles a site uses? We would need to base such styling on the source provider. This does not work well when needing to differentiate between multiple bundles using the same source, e.g. "Public Video" and "Internal Video" bundles.
I don't think it's possible to generically provide such information, and we'd have to rely on some form of custom text or imagery. Even providing a visual indicator to differentiate all the sources shipped with Core will be a lot of options to support.

I was wondering, since the MediaSource plugins already have a default_thumbnail_filename annotation key, maybe we could use that or even add another key (e.g. default_icon_filename) for identification purposes - and maybe eveb make it configurable in the bundle, so site builders can provide a custom icon.
That way we could put an icon, badge, flag or something similar out of the way (in the top left corner maybe?) with an informative title text so the user has access to the information without being overwhelmed by it.

From the issue summary:

Figure out if and how to visually differentiate different media types in the media library.

Renember to convey it non-visually too.

Re: #4

How is a run-of-the-mill theme supposed to know which kind of media bundles a site uses? We would need to base such styling on the source provider. This does not work well when needing to differentiate between multiple bundles using the same source.

This difficulty is one of the reasons we keep the table view display, to provide the user with a useful choice of tools based on what information they need for a given task/website. We realized that some information is hard to convey with an icon/badge, and there isn't much extra room available in the grid. The table view has room for any extra columns you need, so the bundle name is included there as a sortable column by default.

It would be great if the media type can be conveyed in the grid too, but it's not a complete disaster if we can't figure it out.

File fields use an icon based on the major mime type groups, with a fallback for any mime types that are unknown and/or don't have an icon. This doesn't correspond perfectly to media bundles, but having an icon per media source may suit a majority of sites.

An alternative to having icons in the theme, could be to put an "admin icon" imagefield on the bundle, and let site builders upload one.

#10:

The media library is segmented by media type and has been since it was redesigned in Drupal 8.7.

You're talking about the media library field widget, I think? The media types are segregated into tab-like groups there.

But in the listings at /admin/content/media, all media types are shown in a mixed listing...

• The table view display (from media module) shows the media type in a column. The type column is sortable too.
• The grid view display (from media_libarary module) doesn't show the media type.
• Both views have a filter for media types, but by default it shows all types. So if you arrive via the toolbar menu, you see a mixed listing.

So for the listing at admin/content/media-grid, this issue is still relevant.

Indicating the media type on each item (view row) could likely help users to understand what it is. Right now, you can't tell the difference between an image thumbnail, and a remote video thumbnail.

Accessibility:

• There's no particular WCAG-based requirement to display the media type. (But WCAG isn't the be-all-and-end-all of accessibility.)
• However, if the media type is conveyed, it must be conveyed in an inclusive, accessible way for all users.
• The general problem noted above - not being able to tell the difference between an image and video - may have a disproportionate impact on users with cognitive impairments. My hunch is that users with working memory impairments would greatly benefit from help to distinguish these.

Leaving the "needs accessibility review" tag on for now, for the other accessibility maintainers.

Right now, you can't tell the difference between an image thumbnail, and a remote video thumbnail.

Yea, this is the big one for us. We like driving our users toward the grid view for using the media library, but since it doesn't differentiate media types it can be a bit confusing at times.

This is our current solution, using some preprocessing and styling:

There is no patch to review.

But currently media library has the tabs on the side does that not count?

> But currently media library has the tabs on the side does that not count?

This exact question was raised in #10 and has been answered in #12. This is not about the media library field widget. This is about the administrative grid view.

If we are adding visual images for different types of media, then this is a 1.1.1 SC issue.

I believe the issue status should be "Active" as no patch or merge request is attached to the issue.
https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/issues/fields-and-other-parts-of-an-...