= image_picker

A simple, customizable image browser.

== Installation

Install the gem directly:

  sudo gem install pelargir-image_picker --source=http://gems.github.com
  
Or install the gem in your Rails project as a plugin:
  
  script/plugin install git://github.com/pelargir/image_picker.git

Or clone the project:

  git clone git://github.com/pelargir/image_picker.git

Then install the required image, JS, and CSS files into your Rails project:

  rake image_picker:install

== Usage

First, add the picker to your view and pass it the name of the image
being picked. This name is used to create a hidden field that stores
the database ID of the image that gets picked:

  <%= image_picker :avatar %>
  
Now tell your controller that you'll be picking images, and which
ActiveRecord model you'll be using:

  class SomeController < ActionController::Base
    image_picker :model => Image
  end

The ActiveRecord class must respond to three method calls:

  thumbnail: the path to the image's thumbnail (e.g. /images/foo_small.gif)
  title: a friendly title for the image
  description: a description of the image (optional)

That's it! The picker will show up in your view and, once you've
picked an image, its database ID will be set as the value of the
hidden field "<name>_id" where <name> is the name you passed
to the image_picker helper in your view. The hidden field can
then be submitted via a form or referenced in JavaScript.

== Other Options

The controller helper accepts any arguments you can pass to an
ActiveRecord finder. For example:

  class SomeController < ActionController::Base
    image_picker :model => Image, :order => "created_at DESC"
  end

If the will_paginate plugin is installed, the image picker will
use it automatically. You can pass pagination options to the
controller helper as well. For example:

  class SomeController < ActionController::Base
    image_picker :model => Image, :per_page => 6
  end

== Resources

Repository: http://github.com/pelargir/image_picker/
Blog: http://matthewbass.com
Author: Matthew Bass

Extraction work sponsored by Terralien