Remove Edit Gallery from Media Library modal

[noisysocks]

Describe the bug

Users are able to edit a gallery from the modal that appears when one clicks on Media Library in a Gallery block. This is confusing, though, as the image captions in this modal differ from the image captions in the block. Having Edit Gallery in the modal is unnecessary as galleries can be edited directly from within the block. We should remove the Edit Gallery button. See #8310 for more context.

To reproduce

1. Insert a Gallery block.
2. Upload a few images to the gallery.
3. Add a caption to one or more images.
4. Click Media Library.
5. Click Edit Gallery.

Note that the image captions that appear in the modal differ from the image captions that appear in the block.

Expected behavior

There should not be a Edit Gallery button in the modal.

Screenshots

[jessie-ross]

@noisysocks, is it ok if I tackle this one?

[paaljoachim]

Check out this issue:
#21247

[noisysocks]

@noisysocks, is it ok if I tackle this one?

Go for it! 💪 I'll assign you so that nobody else accidentally starts working on it. Let me know if you can no longer work on this and would like to be unassigned. And, of course, please drop into #core-editor in WordPress Slack if you have any questions or need help.

Check out this issue:
#21247

This will still be an issue if #21247 is implemented because we'll still have the Media Library button.

[jessie-ross]

I have taken a look at this.

The context seems to be that the modal is a Wordpress tool from pre-Gutenberg, and is getting phased out for a purely block editing tool as per #21247 . It provides both gallery editing as well as media-library capabilities and we will be removing the gallery editing.

I have traced the media library button through the code and I have found a way to isolate the modal as used only by gallery:

gutenberg/packages/media-utils/src/components/media-upload/index.js

Lines 83 to 91 in bbc2390

	const getGalleryDetailsMediaFrame = () => {
	/**
	* Custom gallery details frame.
	*
	* @see https://github.com/xwp/wp-core-media-widgets/blob/905edbccfc2a623b73a93dac803c5335519d7837/wp-admin/js/widgets/media-gallery-widget.js
	* @class GalleryDetailsMediaFrame
	* @class
	*/
	return wp.media.view.MediaFrame.Post.extend( {

wp.media.view.MediaFrame.Post is used in other places particularly the classic editor, so it makes sense to alter its behaviour using the extension of it above.

Design-wise, I looks like it should work to just remove the "Edit Gallery" menu item, and as per #8310 it seems like it won't impact existing user experience.

I will submit a PR shortly.

Possible complications:

• I have not yet looked at the native side of things, I am not sure if I need to.
• MediaUpload goes through an extensible filter, I haven't looked into this enough but it doesn't look like it should be an issue.

[jessie-ross]

While testing this I have found that the edit image feature currently isn't functional:

[jchornenky]

How are you supposed to swap or add images to a gallery if this feature is removed?

[padams]

Please do not remove the edit link. It is currently the only way to edit the caption (or other media meta-data ) for an image
"globally" without having to hunt for the image in the media library. Also editing via the modal allows for drag and drop re-ordering of images which far faster than clicking the arrow button on images in the Gutenberg gallery.

[phil-sola]

I second the comments above. Please do not remove the edit gallery link on the left. This is an incredibly helpful feature. Especially for Block developers who may want to create their own enhanced gallery block.

MediaPlaceholder component offers the desired functionality whereas MediaUpload seems to be the dated (pre-gutenberg) version of the same thing, without the edit gallery link. I have tried both from a UX perspective and it is far more confusing not being able to reorder or edit the images already selected to the gallery; and having to completely resubmit the images each time, than it is simply having the option there.

It makes no sense to remove this from the newer component. Surely the issue here is that the captions should sync up if they are a feature? Not simply remove another feature because this one doesn't work.

[mrfoxtalbot]

The link to the Media Library that used to be visible right under the gallery block has now been removed, so there is no way to access the Media Library directly anymore. I am going to mark this as resolved but please feel free to reopen if necessary, @noisysocks.