Add "media" slot to element cards

[ryanleichty]

It feels inconsistent when showing a column of element cards where some have images and others don't. It would be great if element cards had the concept of a media slot that could be optionally configured to display either a selected thumbnail image or fallback to something else (like the entry icon or something else).

Document previews in Sanity have the title, subtitle, and media slots that can be customized to display different values. In the screenshot below, the media slot looks for the first image within the imageGallery array field. If none exist, it falls back to the document icon.

[ryanleichty]

This might be somewhat related to this PR: #15283

[brandonkelly]

It’s completely up to you whether an entry type should have a thumbnail, based on which field you select as the thumbnail source. That could be an Assets field, or any other field type which implements ThumbableFieldInterface.

What exactly would you expect to enter into a “media slot” beyond what’s already possible?

[brandonkelly]

I like the idea of using the icon if other entry types have thumbnails. I think we would just continue not doing anything special for entry types that don’t have a thumbnail or an icon. The developer can go through and add the missing icons if it’s a problem.

[brandonkelly]

Craft 5.5.0 is out with the ability to select Entries fields as thumbnail providers 🎉

[ryanleichty]

Circling back to this after testing out the latest updates, and maybe I'm missing something, but I was expecting to see the icons as thumbnails here:

Same thing here:

I do see the icon showed in the preview here, but not in the actual UI.

Using a thumbnail of a nested entry

How is this supposed to work with matrix fields? Where do we select the thumbnail that should be used?

[thupsi]

I don't think the improvements in 5.5 have to do with the icon appearing in thumbnail form as described here. The kinda relevant new feature is that you can surface a thumbnail from an entry field to the parent entry.

[ryanleichty]

Yeah, I guess I took some of the responses above as confirmation that you could:

• Use a thumbnail from a nested entry
• Use an icon if other entry types have thumbnails

[brandonkelly]

This is sortof being addressed in Craft 5.7, as we’re moving the thumbnails over to the right side of the card, so they won’t look weird alongside cards without thumbs. (#16983)

[brandonkelly]

Craft 5.7.0 is out with that change.