To display and upload media, rtMedia needs to know where each media file will be displayed. This identification and tracking of the context in which the media will be displayed, by default, is at the core of the Anywhere Uploader and Anywhere Gallery.
Some contexts are understood by rtMedia, implicitly. Others have to be explicitly defined.
Some contexts are implicit to rtMedia:
WordPress
BuddyPress
bbPress
The context defines where the media belongs and how it should be displayed. Contexts are also useful for grouping media items. Each context is defined with a context ID to specify the particular context (user, post, page, BuddyPress group, etc), to which the media is attached.
In the rtMedia uploader (using the shortcode or the template tag), a context and context_id can be defined. By default, it takes the current context (component, if BuddyPress and post_type, if WordPress).
For e.g., if you place the uploader on a page, the default context is 'page' and the id of the page becomes the context_id.
If your theme or plugin uses custom post types, the name of the posttype, for eg, _event, place, recipe, etc become the context, and the post_id becomes the context_id.
When displaying an rtMedia gallery (using the shortcode or the template tag), again a context and a context_id can be defined. If not, the default context is picked up by rtMedia as described above.
By using a combination of the rtMedia uploader and rtMedia gallery, you can build a frontend gallery to which users can directly upload.
You can define your own contexts. Just add a unique context slug to your uploader shortcode or template tag. You can also have multiple objects for the same context by supplying unique ids.
For e.g., if you are running a photography contest... You can place an uploader with context="photocontest" and context_id="1" on a page. Then, using the same context and context_id values, you can display the contest pictures on your site.