carlbenton

Here is a fix to the above code so the category list will display the full list of categories (rather than just those that have posts).

Change the following line:
<?php wp_dropdown_categories ('name=category_id'); ?>
to:
<?php wp_dropdown_categories ('hierarchical=1&hide_empty=0&name=category_id'); ?>

mor10,
I have made much more progress on this topic, so I thought I would post the info here. Firstly, to show a dropdown of the posts, add the following function to the bottom of the “plugins/nextgen-gallery/admin/functions.php” file, just before the closing “?>”:

/**
 * {@internal Missing Short Description}}
 *
 * @since unknown
 *
 * @param unknown_type $default
 * @return unknown
 */
function ngg_dropdown_posts( $default = 0 ) {
	global $wpdb, $post_ID;
	$items = $wpdb->get_results( $wpdb->prepare("SELECT ID, post_title FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_type = 'post' AND post_status != 'trash' ORDER BY menu_order") );

	if ( $items ) {
		foreach ( $items as $item ) {
			if (!empty ( $post_ID ) ) {
				if ( $item->ID == $post_ID ) {
					continue;
				}
			}
			if ( $item->ID == $default)
				$current = ' selected="selected"';
			else
				$current = '';

			echo "\n\t<option class='level-0' value='$item->ID'$current> " . esc_html($item->post_title) . "</option>";
		}
	} else {
		return false;
	}
}

Then, in the “plugins/nextgen-gallery/admin/manage-images.php” file, change the line:
<?php parent_dropdown($gallery->pageid); ?>
to:
<?php ngg_dropdown_posts($gallery->pageid); ?>

This gives you a drop-down list of the posts that are NOT trash, and works just as the page link would.

Also, if you want to have an option to create a post as well with a selectable category option, then again in the “plugins/nextgen-gallery/admin/manage-images.php” file, change the following code:

<?php if(current_user_can("publish_pages")) : ?>
				<tr>
					<th align="left">&nbsp;</th>
					<th align="left">&nbsp;</th>
					<th align="right"><?php _e('Create new page', 'nggallery') ?>:</th>
					<th align="left">
					<select name="parent_id" style="width:95%">
						<option value="0"><?php _e ('Main page (No parent)', 'nggallery'); ?></option>
						<?php parent_dropdown (); ?>
					</select>
					<input class="button-secondary action" type="submit" name="addnewpage" value="<?php _e ('Add page', 'nggallery'); ?>" id="group"/>
					</th>
				</tr>
				<?php endif; ?>

to:

<?php if(current_user_can("publish_posts")) : ?>
				<tr>
					<th align="left">&nbsp;</th>
					<th align="left">&nbsp;</th>
					<th align="right"><?php _e('Create new post', 'nggallery') ?>:</th>
					<th align="left">
					<?php wp_dropdown_categories ('name=category_id'); ?>
					<input class="button-secondary action" type="submit" name="addnewpost" value="<?php _e ('Add post', 'nggallery'); ?>" id="group"/></th>
				</tr>
				<?php endif; ?>

and in the “plugins/nextgen-gallery/admin/manage.php” file, add the following code after the if (isset ($_POST['addnewpage'])) { if block:

if (isset ($_POST['addnewpost']))  {
		// Add a new post

			check_admin_referer('ngg_updategallery');

			$category_id      = esc_attr($_POST['category_id']);
			$gallery_title  = esc_attr($_POST['title']);
			$gallery_name   = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT name FROM $wpdb->nggallery WHERE gid = '$this->gid' ");

			// Create a WP post
			global $user_ID;

			$post['post_type']    = 'post';
			$post['post_content'] = '[nggallery id=' . $this->gid . ']';
			$post['post_parent']  = 0;
			$post['post_author']  = $user_ID;
			$post['post_status']  = 'publish';
			$post['post_title']   = $gallery_title == '' ? $gallery_name : $gallery_title;
			$post['post_category'] = array($category_id);
			$post = apply_filters('ngg_add_new_post', $post, $this->gid);

			$gallery_pageid = wp_insert_post ($post);
			if ($gallery_pageid != 0) {
				$result = $wpdb->query("UPDATE $wpdb->nggallery SET title= '$gallery_title', pageid = '$gallery_pageid' WHERE gid = '$this->gid'");
				nggGallery::show_message( __('New gallery post ID','nggallery'). ' ' . $pageid . ' -> <strong>' . $gallery_title . '</strong> ' .__('created','nggallery') );
			}
		}