Add post thumbnail from url

[paradox460]

If you got add a post thumbnail in 2.9, and use the "From URL" option, there is no link to set the image specified as the thumbnail. You can only put it in the post.

[nacin]

This is because we don't sideload the photo from a url and actually add it to the media library -- I'm a big fan of media_sideload_image() but we only use it in Press This.

[Paradox460]

One thing that would be actually quite useful is the ability to specify a url, then have a "download to server" option, like MediaWiki provides.

I believe they just use CURL.

[nacin]

Replying to Paradox460:

One thing that would be actually quite useful is the ability to specify a url, then have a "download to server" option, like MediaWiki provides.

I believe they just use CURL.

We have a download_url() function that uses WP's HTTP API, which is used to download core/theme/plugin packages and in media_sideload_image(). media_sideload_image() is the ability you're looking for, though it is used only in Press This.

[lgedeon]

media_sideload_image() can be extended to either:

1. optionally return the attachment id (instead of html) so we can set_post_thumbnail( $post, $id ) with the results
2. or we could include set_post_thumbnail( $post, $id ) in the function and add a boolean that says to make it the featured image
3. or we could extract getting the attachment id into another function and make this function only responsible for building the html. Then if all I need is the id, I can call the extracted function instead.

I would love to write this patch, but would like to get your thoughts on preferred approach.

[helen]

Feeling disinclined to do this - we don't sideload for insert from URL in other contexts, and relying on some other host for your featured images doesn't seem like a good thing to encourage.