"Link", "Alias" or "Create shortcut" in WP Media Library

Question

Introduction

Here you can see a folder structure within a media library (Wordpress). Now, I want to make it very userfriendly to make it possible, that a file can be in multiple folders. The user should know, that the files are not directly "copied" in the file system.

Instead, it should work like the Windows Explorer: There is one file fixed to a folder and you can create a shortcut through the context menu.

Possible approachs:

• "Hold any key to create a file shortcut" -> "Link 1 file" (Window Explorer)
• "Hold any key to link the files" -> "Link 1 file" (Link = Linux?)
• "Hold any key to create a file alias" -> "Link 1 file" (MAC)

Do you know some better solutions?

After the shortcut is created, the file is still in the "Wup" folder, and the "Test" folder contains this shortcut.

Answer 1

It seems you want to allow users to create a symlink to the image so it can be accessed through different URLS. If you go to domain.com/images/image.jpg and domain/images/folder/symlink.jpg it will show the same image. It's a very uncommon practice to allow your users to do this, but it's certainly possible. If you want to use a shortcut, then you can mimic the behaviour that Windows uses. Allow them to create a shortcut in the folder through the context menu. Then they can move the shortcut to the correct folder. In my opinion this is easiest way to do a shortcut, because the users are already familiar with this behaviour.

Another option is creating a button or context menu where the user can select the symlink destination in a file tree structure. This give them an overview of where they can put the image.