The Media Gallery module, installed by default, is both a standalone content area as well as a supplement to the Features and Newswire modules. Users may upload images, audio, video, or animation directly for display in the Media Gallery, but the gallery also houses all of the media attached to articles and comments as well. The "Display All" module preference (Site Admin->Prefs->Misc:Media) governs whether or not the gallery pages display only content uploaded for the Media Gallery, or whether it should also display media attached to an article. Turn "Display All" on to have it show all content, whether attached to an article or not.

Uploading to the Media Gallery is as easy as posting an article. The form allows you to select one or more media files from your hard drive (if you upload more than one, they will all share the same caption, artist, etc). The form requests both an "artist" name (the creator), and a contributor name (the person who uploaded it), so it's easy to upload media created by others while still giving them credit.

dadaIMC allows 3 different sizes of photo: thumbnail, page-size, and full size. You only need to upload one image, and dadaIMC will automatically resize the picture to create as complete a set as possible. In other words, if you upload a very large image (800 pixels wide), dadaIMC will create a page-size image (defaults to 450 pixels wide), and a thumbnail (defaults to 120 pixels wide). If you upload a small image (120 pixels wide), dadaIMC will not touch it, since it is already as small as the smallest size used on the site. There will be no larger versions created.

Some optional fields, like keywords and media date, are available to offer more complete data about the uploads. The Media Date is particularly useful during time-sensitive periods, when the date of a photo is important, but it is uploaded some time later.

The method used to display various MIME types (audio, movies, Word documents) is controlled by the Administrators. Audio files, for example, can either be presented to the user as a download, or an inline audio controller can allow them to listen directly on the page. These methods are set in the Mimetypes section of the Site Admin pages, which allow a per-MIME type configuration.

Beginning with version .99, dadaIMC employs very strict security measures with regard to media uploads, to minimize the possibility of malicious exploits.

1. Uploaded files must have a file suffix that indicates the type of file
2. Files whose suffix does not match the MIME type reported by the server are rejected.
3. Files whose suffix does not match an appropriate MIME type from the dadaIMC mimetypes table are rejected.
4. Text files have their entire contents scrubbed of potentially malicious code before being displayed.
5. Certain file suffixes can be whitelisted or blacklisted to control the kinds of uploads permitted. This is configured by the site administrators.