A lot of media functionality has been added into Drupal core over the last few releases. First, we got the Media module in 8.5 which offers fieldable media types. Then we got the Media Library module which offers a popup where users can select media assets. Now for Drupal 8.8 and above you have the ability to embed media assets directly into the editor.

There are three important parts when it comes to media functionality. You need the following:

• Store media assets (media types)
• Reuse media assets (media library)
• Embed media assets

As of Drupal 8.8+,  the above-mentioned functionality is all supported in Drupal core without installing any extra modules.

This functionality could be achieved before Drupal 8.8 by using Media entity, Entity embed and Entity browser. But required a fair bit of site-building and configuring. However, now all you need to do is install Media and “Media Library” and you’re good to go.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create and manage assets, using the Media field and Media library. Then we look at how to embed assets directly in the editor. We finish things off by creating a custom media type to manage Instagram posts.