Digital downloads using the Drupal Media module

The Media module made its way into Drupal core for the Drupal 8.4 release a while back. It gives Drupal users a standardized way for managing local media resources, including image, audio, video, and document files. We wanted to add using this module into our Drupal Commerce demo site to give an example of how this module could potentially be used in a Commerce setting.

In this Tech Talk video, I’ll quickly show you how we updated our digital download Commerce product example to use the Media module, giving us the flexibility to add audio samples to the product page and access to the full download after purchase.

Background

I wanted to update the Epic Mix Tape by Urban Hipster digital download example product. This is a fake album featuring all of your favourites by artists you’ve never heard before. The idea is to showcase that you can add digital products to a Drupal Commerce-based online store, not just physical products.

Originally, we were using just a standard file field that, when checkout was completed, gave the customer access to download the file. This was done before the Media module made its way into the core. Now that the Media module is in the core, we figured it’s time to update it.

Setting up an album media type

When the Media module is installed you get some new admin menu items. The first is a section called Media Types (under Structure) where you can configure your media entities like any other Drupal content entity. Here I created an ‘album’ media type with two unlimited file fields, one for sample audio tracks and one for the full audio tracks. This is the basis for creating my downloadable albums.

The second admin menu is under Content. Here you get a new Media tab which is where you can add, edit and remove any media items. Since I already created the Album media type, I can add the Epic Mix Tape album files here. This completes the media side of the updated digital download product. All I need to do now is update the product configuration to use it.

Completing the digital download product configuration

Now that the media type has been added and I’ve uploaded an album, I need to set up a way to use it. It’s pretty easy to do. First, for the digital download Product Type, I add an entity reference field to provide a way for selecting the album media entity to use for the product samples.

I then do the same thing for the Product Variation Type. This one, however, will be used to give access to the full files after purchase.

Finally, some template updates. The Drupal Commerce demo site has some pretty custom template files for the products. In the template, I access the media entity directly and loop through the items, printing each audio sample and track title onto the product page. I do the same thing for the checkout complete page but print out the full tracks instead.

Depending on your templates and display settings, you can get similar results without manually accessing the files in the template file, however, I wanted to print out the file description with the audio player right on the page. Showing the description unfortunately is something you don’t have the option of doing using the standard audio display widget.

And that’s it! Check out the Urban Hipster Drupal Commerce demo site below to see it in action.