Image uploads in mailings / File browser integration for CKeditor

[Arjan]

A feature I would really like, is for users to be able to easily add images to mailings. This is a recurring issue for many users judging from a number of forum posts. Pasting an image url just isn't user-friendly enough.

There seem to be several options.
1. Integrate a file browser with the CKeditor that comes with CiviCRM. Options:
a) Document how to setup CKfinder for use with CKeditor. http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,12091.msg55472.html#msg55472
b) Document how to setup IMCE with CKeditor. IMCE integration http://drupal.org/project/imce_wysiwyg with CKeditor through WYSIWYG API (http://drupal.org/project/wysiwyg) is available for Drupal, but as far as I know no-one has figured out how to do this for use with CiviCRM+CKeditor. This post http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,12091.msg54358.html#msg54358 almost gets it done - I tried and got IMCE showing in CKeditor's dialog's, but had trouble to actually send the image url to the editor.

2. Replace CiviCRM's version of CKeditor with another one from the CMS (I use FCKeditor with IMCE).
a) Is it feasible to implement a clean way to choose from an installed editor from Drupal? Probably a lot of work?
b) Hack CiviCRM for to replace CKeditor with a specific Drupal editor. Like http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,6443.msg28805.html#msg28805 or http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,6443.msg38902.html#msg38902.

1a Should be done anyway I guess, but for many smaller organizations, buying CKfinder is not a viable option (in our case, because it would work on only one domain unless you get the corporate version).
1b I think someone who's familiar with CKeditor and/or IMCE code can easily do this. Anyone?
2a Would be a great feature, but probably a lot of work.
2b Like 1b, it looks like it shouldn't be too hard for someone who knows CiviCRM and can code, which unfortunately excludes me :S.

Any more thoughts on this? I think exposing the file structure shouldn't be a problem, e.g. for IMCE with Drupal you can limit read/write access to specific folders. And I have trusted users.

If someone could figure out how to implement either option 1b or 2b, I'd be willing to sponsor the documentation/code effort (personally, so on a limited budget . This is assuming it's not a lot of work...). (So if you can do this, post here or PM me).

[Piotr Szotkowski]

You might want to post it to our blog at civicrm.org (with a call to chip in); you might want to also consider other (related!) CiviMail features that might be interesting to potential sponsors.

[FatherShawn]

I've written the documentation requested in 1.a.  It's in our wiki now: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC32/Adding+CKFinder+with+Authentication+to+CiviCRM