front-end attaching image to post (create gallery tab in media uploader)

Been searching for a couple of hours and couldn’t find anything.

So I am using wp_editor() to create an easy way to post on the front end. When users upload images through the media uploader they do not attach to the post they are creating and I would really like this.

Images are uploaded before the wp_editor() get processed. I just don’t know how to pass the post’s id to the images that are being uploaded. I want there to be a gallery in the media uploader for each post where there are images uploaded with it like in the backend, so I don’t want to use a custom field. I’d rather have the post’s id passed into the image’s attachment metadata as the post_parent, but I can’t figure out how to do this while or after the image uploads or even after the wp_editor processes. I know there is attachment meta because I see that there is an author and date in the media library. When I try to wp_update_attachment_metadata I find that I cannot pass the drafted post id back to my plugin where there is a wp_insert_post hook looking for an ‘inherit’ post status. All of the examples I find online of attaching media uploads to post deal with building your own upload form, not hooking into the media uploader.

So is there any other way that I should be doing this? Do I really just need to make custom meta and create my own gallery tab in the media uploader? Is there a way to already have the wp_editor associated with a post id before processing it? Below is my code:

In my plugin (plugin page): obviously this doesn’t really work because I’m not passing any variable back, but maybe it will work if someone can tell me how to pass a variable back:

add_action('wp_insert_post', array(&$this, 'process_images'));
    function process_images($results){
    //global $emptynew;
        if($results['post_status'] == 'inherit'){
          $attachment = array(
          'post_parent' => $emptynew,
        );
        wp_update_attachment_metadata( $results['ID'],  $attachment );
       };
    }

In my page where people post (theme page)

get_currentuserinfo();
$loggedInNow = $current_user->ID;

$emptynew = wp_insert_post(array(
    'comment_status' => 'closed',
    'post_title' => 'waiting to be edited by user '.$loggedInNow,
    'post_content' => '',
    'post_author' => $loggedInNow,
    'post_status' => 'draft',
    'post_type' => 'post',
    )
);
 <form action="<?php echo home_url('/').'thank-you/'; ?>" method="post">
                <label for="title">Title: </label><input size="80" type="text" name="postTitle" /><br />
<?php
wp_editor($contentFromPage, 'responsesubmit', $settings = array('media_buttons' => true));
?>
 <input type="hidden" name="postempty" value="<?php echo $emptynew; ?>" />
 <br /><input type="submit" value="Submit" />
  </form>

In the page where the post is processed (theme page)

<?php
                //information sent from the response pages that have the template Response Template page
get_currentuserinfo();
$loggedInNow = $current_user->ID;
$response = wp_insert_post(array(
'ID' => $_POST['postempty'],
'comment_status' => 'closed',
'post_title' => $_POST['postTitle'],
'post_content' => $_POST['responsesubmit'],
'post_author' => $loggedInNow,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'post_type' => 'post'
);