MovableType 5.2.6 — modify default html markup of assets added to an entry?

Question

I know that for a long time MT has not made it easy / accessible to edit the default markup that wraps an [image] asset when it is inserted into a MT entry. (So strange that this hasn't been created as a system module like everything else.)

There is one plugin that seemed to solve this problem, though it was written for MT 4* and seems to be defunct: https://github.com/endevver/mt-plugin-custom-asset-markup I've installed it, anyway, and it's unclear how it's supposed to work or be triggered / managed (there are no settings, though I may be doing it wrong).

Every time an image is inserted into an entry, I want its markup to include a few of its properties in the tag. For example, I want to assign the ID value of each image when it's inserted into the entry body:

<IMG ID="ar_<mt:AssetId>" … />

• Has this problem been solved in MT 6? (I'm holding off a system upgrade till we launch as I don't want to destabilize right now, but might be worth it.)
• Tips on how to operate the plugin above?
• Any suggestions / hacks, other than editing the Perl modules directly or writing my own plugin?

Answer 1

I've used the Assetylene plugin to do this many times. It works just as you expect -- create a template module named "Asset Insertion" and edit the HTML to be spit out. I've tested it with MT4 and 5 -- I'm sure it works with 5.2.6 -- and it should work with MT6, too.

Answer 2

I ended up just editing the Perl files. FTR the relevant portions are here:

lib/MT/Asset/Image.pm

New code is below. Essentially there are a few conditions that output blobs of HTML, per the options selected by the user when inserting an asset into an entry. I know nothing about Perl — but basically in each relevant case inserted the MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->id ) into the sprintf call, and used the %s thingy to insert the value of the ID into my HTML at the appropriate point.

(I also got rid of the ca 1999 onclick "open a popup" code — replaced it with properties that can be read with a to-be-written jquery call.)

        my $link
            = $thumb
            ? sprintf(
            '<img src="%s" %s alt="%s" %s id="aid_%s" />',
            MT::Util::encode_html( $thumb->url ),   $dimensions,
            MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->label ), $wrap_style,
            MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->id )
            )
            : MT->translate('View image');
        $text = sprintf(
            q|<a href="%s" class="popup" data-img-url="%s" data-img-width="%s" data-img-width="%s">%s</a>|,
            MT::Util::encode_html( $popup->url ),
            MT::Util::encode_html( $popup->url ),
            $asset->image_width,
            $asset->image_height,
            $link,
        );
    }
    else {
        if ( $param->{thumb} ) {
            $text = sprintf(
                '<a href="%s"><img alt="%s" src="%s" %s %s id="aid_%s" /></a>',
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->url ),
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->label ),
                MT::Util::encode_html( $thumb->url ),
                $dimensions,
            : MT->translate('View image');
        $text = sprintf(
            q|<a href="%s" class="popup" data-img-url="%s" data-img-width="%s" data-img-width="%s">%s</a>|,
            MT::Util::encode_html( $popup->url ),
            MT::Util::encode_html( $popup->url ),
            $asset->image_width,
            $asset->image_height,
            $link,
        );
    }
    else {
        if ( $param->{thumb} ) {
            $text = sprintf(
                '<a href="%s"><img alt="%s" src="%s" %s %s id="aid_%s" /></a>',
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->url ),
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->label ),
                MT::Util::encode_html( $thumb->url ),
                $dimensions,
                $wrap_style,
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->id )
            );
        }
        else {
            $text = sprintf(
                '<img alt="%s" src="%s" %s %s id="aid_%s" />',
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->label ),
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->url ),
                $dimensions, $wrap_style,
                MT::Util::encode_html( $asset->id ),
            );
        }
    }