Display featured image (if set) as a thumbnail

[mtias]

This would help in recognizing if a featured image is set for a post.

Implementation wise, we should look at moving away from local state in sidebar/featured-image and to push the image to redux state instead.

[StaggerLeee]

Looks very nice. Finally my default no-featured.jpg wont stretch to be gigantic. As you planned before.
Maybe to move it to the left of the Title. It is most used case on Archive loops.

[karmatosed]

More fuel for this:

From @helen:

I wish that the featured image showed as a block where the theme puts it, or maybe just always above the title. Not a side setting.

[StaggerLeee]

Leave it in sidebar too. Not a big deal, as they are collapsed.

Developers tend to add HTML inside this metabox (sometimes per custom post type) to announce something to Editors. For instance sometimes featured image is used as Team member Photo, and wording is different, as it is the HTML description added to Metabox.

Sometimes developers add image size limit as HTML description, etc...

It cannot look nice with same HTML added in Gutenberg content area.

Here is a quick found list of few snippets used in Featured Image Metabox, that cannot be easy used in Gutenberg content area:

• Add HTML to featured image metabox
• Add a checkbox to the featured image metabox (example, Don’t display image on post view)
• Add custom fields to featured Metabox
• Change featured metabox header name
• Change image size in Featured Metabox

If you an make it easy for developers to add all this under "Block" tab then problem is non existent.

[helen]

Isn't a featured image kind of like a pre-inserted immovable block of content rather than information about a post to be managed in a side setting? Actual theme usage varies but it's still much more content-esque than it's been treated. I imagine there's discussion about pre-defining a layout of blocks for people to fill out somewhere around here that has some parallels - #1684 looks like it might be that.

[StaggerLeee]

It is Helen, by old WordPress matrix. Blogging, blogging, blogging.
WordPress today is much more than this.

Here are just few examples, from memory, where I used featured image that would be illogical as "content" block only:

• Classifieds - No featured image will be inside content, from standard point of view.
• Portfolio Archive with few custom links as image overlay - No Post detailed view.
• Teams / Members - Featured image as (human) profile photo.
• Gallery/Galleries Archive from Posts - Difficult to explain Archive thumbnail above Gallery in editor (backend). Or any place, it would not fit this purpose.
• Custom ERP, Tasks management, Invoices, projects, organisations, clients. Not so easy to have Featured image for all those post types, inside Gutenberg content area.
• Testimonies custom post type - Allways better to have person photo in sidebar than in content. My humble opinion.
• WooCommerce Product Image.
• Display of PDF thumbnails in template, Archives. Instead of ordinary ones. (They are inside Featured Image metabox)

Much more, more WP users, more versatile CMS cases. I mentioned only few I do.

[helen]

Sorry, was thinking about single views and previews (since you can't really preview a change in non-single context) and didn't specify. I'm aware of varying custom usages of featured images.

[StaggerLeee]

Not sure if I understand all this technical talk.

I am just saying Featured Images is in many cases not something User should click somewhere to invoke it.
It needs to be visible on all post edit screen refresh/reload.

As you can see from very often used Team / Members custom post type. You can imagine Member face photo is crucial important to be visible all the time in post edit. As reference. No if, no click here, no context this or that. Just plain visible all the time.

You decided now to go with all sidebar tabs collapsed, but different story. Would be nice to remember open/close state, per User. Or it is generally step backward for Users. From previous drag & drop Metaboxes, remembering open/close state not they are forced to this.
On some news portals Excerpt sidebar tab, box is maybe of crucial importance and Editor want it open all the time. But, different story. No need to discuss it here. Maybe it is discussed here. #2194 I dont get it all right now.

[hedgefield]

I second @helen's desire to have it moved it from the sidebar to the main content. There may be other usecases, but in general you'll want to use it as an image header above your post, so that's where it should be shown.

In the case of the mockup, I think I would prefer it on the left as well.

[mtias]

Moving to ideas.

[adamsilverstein]

What does 'moving to ideas' mean @mtias? Are we backlogging or tracking these 'idea' issues somewhere? This seems like a useful suggestion, can we leave the issue open?

[karmatosed]

@adamsilverstein all ideas are kept here: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/projects/8. We totally aren't losing or removing anything.

[adamsilverstein]

@karmatosed Awesome, thanks for clarifying! I had no idea what putting something in Ideas meant :)

[alexmansfield]

For those of you who expressed interest in a featured image block that can be pre-inserted by a theme/plugin using Gutenberg templates, here is a simple plugin that does that: https://github.com/modularwp/gutenberg-block-featured-image

[kjellr]

For those of you who expressed interest in a featured image block that can be pre-inserted by a theme/plugin using Gutenberg templates, here is a simple plugin that does that: https://github.com/modularwp/gutenberg-block-featured-image

Very cool. Here's a screenshot for reference:

Once page/post templates are represented a bit more visually in Gutenberg, I could see things working a bit like this: you'd select a post template that has a featured image, and then you'd have a position-locked featured image block you can edit.

[rodrigoslayertech]

Very cool. Here's a screenshot for reference:

Once page/post templates are represented a bit more visually in Gutenberg, I could see things working a bit like this: you'd select a post template that has a featured image, and then you'd have a position-locked featured image block you can edit.

"and then you'd have a position-locked featured image block you can edit"
How to do this?

[kjellr]

How to do this?

It's not possible yet, but maybe something to explore in Phase 2 of Gutenberg.

[boemedia]

I like the fact that setting a featured image is now more visible to the content manager. However, not all themes require a featured image, so it may cause confusion. Maybe add a checkbox (as some themes do) by default, where people can disable the featured image? I also used to use a plugin where you could select an image in the post as featured image. This could maybe be a nice add-on to the image block: a selectbox to select an image in a post as a featured image too.