Fixed number of displayed images with channel images inside entries loop

Question

I was wondering if anyone has a decent trick to show 4 images in a row from multiple entries containing channel images. So the four newest channel-images no matter which entry they come from.

The problem is that I don't know how may images an entry will contain, since you can put any number of images in an entry.

codewise:

{exp:channel:entries limit="4"}
       {channel_images_field} 
       <img src="{image:url:large}" />
       {/channel_images_field}
 {/exp:channel:entries}

Will output any number of images, depending on the amount of images in the channel_images_field. It could be 3+2+5+7.

I could of course erase the rest using brute force js frontend or with css overflow:hidden, but I'd rather just parse 4 from the server.

EDIT

The complete tag is inside a category tag and contains another EE field, making it difficult to use the channel_images tag outside the channel entries tag.

{exp:channel:categories channel="gallery"}
{exp:channel:entries channel="gallery" dynamic="no" category="{category_id}" limit="4"}
    {channel_images_field} 
        <img src="{image:url:large}" />
        {comment_field_poster}
    {/channel_images_field}
{/exp:channel:entries}
{/exp:channel:categories} 

I suppose that makes it impossible to really solve it due to nesting issues. It's either all images from a channel, agnostic to the related entries, or the images inside a specified entry tag, agnostic to the channel_images total.

See it live here: http://www.fotografielessen.nl/index.php/Fotoalbum/ (now showing the first four entries with all the images, sorted by category)

Answer 1

The docs seem to suggest you can use the {exp:channel_images:images} tag outside of the channel:entries loop. Have you tried that? So adding the channel, category, limit, orderby and sort parameters.

{exp:channel_images:images channel="<your-channel>" category="<your-category(s)>" limit="4" orderby="upload_date" sort="desc"}
    <!-- Template Code -->
{/exp:channel_images:images}

EDIT: Failing that, you could always use a separate channel:entries loop for the images and limit that to 4 entries making sure you've ordered it by entry date. Then within that limit your channel_entries loop to 1 image. This assumes you will always have 1 or more images per channel.

So for your example:

{exp:channel:entries orderby="date" sort="desc" limit="4"}
       {channel_images_field limit="1"} 
       <img src="{image:url:large}" />
       {/channel_images_field}
 {/exp:channel:entries}

Answer 2

To get the most recent 4 images from a channel simply do:

{exp:channel_images:images channel="gallery" limit="4"}
<img src="{image:url}" alt="{image:title}">
{/exp:channel_images:images}

Brad

Answer 3

{exp:channel:entries channel="channel_name" limit="10"}
        {exp:channel_images:images entry_id="{entry_id}" prefix="nested" limit="4"}
        {/exp:channel_images:images}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Try that. Basic stuff. Read the docs on channel images.