Cover Photos Required?

It is a CATEGORY option...

Category Management >> Basic Information Tab >> Allow Items to be created >> Require Item Image (If enabled, requires that at least 1 image be uploaded to the item before it can be created.)

 

If enabled, requires that at least 1 image be uploaded to the item before it can be created.

What they do AFTER can't be stopped.. ie, they can remove all attachments if they want to.

For LIST VIEW display, it first checks to see if there is a cover image, if no cover image, it checks to see if there is a defined category image if that fails, it uses the users avatar.

HTML:

                            <xen:if is="{$item.cover_image}">
                                <a class="avatar NoOverlay" href="{xen:link showcase, $item}">
                                    <img width="48" height="48" border="0" src="{$item.cover_image.thumbnailUrl}" />
                                </a>                      
                            <xen:elseif is="{$item.category_image}" />
                                <a class="avatar NoOverlay" href="{xen:link showcase, $item}">
                                    <img width="48" height="48" border="0" alt="{$item.category_name}" src="@imagePath/nflj/showcase/category_images/{$item.category_image}">
                                </a>
                            <xen:else />  
                                <xen:avatar user="$item" size="s" img="true" />
                            </xen:if>

for GRID VIEW display, it first checks to see if there is a cover image, if no cover image, it checks to see if there is a defined category image if that fails, it uses the default no_image.png. The users avatar can't be used in Grid View.

HTML:

                            <xen:if is="{$item.cover_image.thumbnailUrl}">
                                <img class="showcaseItemThumbnail" src="{$item.cover_image.thumbnailUrl}" />
                            <xen:else />
                                <img class="showcaseItemThumbnail" src="@imagePath/nflj/showcase/category_images/{xen:if '{$item.category_image}', '{$item.category_image}', 'no_image.png'}" />
                            </xen:if>

 

If they removed the images, then their avatar should display. Have you rebuilt showcase thumbnails? If not, you should probably run it for the first time.

 

You are not blind, I pulled that out 6 months ago in SC 2.5.3 when I removed the limitation on attachment uploading to allow FILE ATTACHMENTS to be uploaded instead of just IMAGES. I explained this several times in various threads. Its not permanently gone, its just disabled for now until a professional solution can be implemented (I refuse to HACK something in).

Sometimes in order to implement a very popular request, other low level functionality takes a hit.