1. Create a directory "upload" next to directory "galleries" in your Piwigo installation, with write access.
2. Install pLoader on your computer, start it and fill the connection settings : your gallery URL, your username and password.
3. Drag'n drop photos from your directory browser into pLoader photo selection.
4. Create a category and select it.
5. Select some photos.
6. Click on the green arrow to transfer photos in your gallery

Congratulations! You have successfuly created the first category of your photo gallery.

Quick Start

1. Create a directory on your computer.
2. Copy some photos inside this directory, resize them for web display. Warning: the name of directories and files must contain only letters, figures, "-", "_" or ".". No blank space, no accentuated characters.
3. With a FTP client, copy your directory in the "galleries" directory of your Piwigo installation.
4. Logon your gallery and go to Administration » Pictures » Thumbnails to create missing thumbnails.
5. Go to Administration and click on the big Synchronization button.

Congratulations! You have successfuly created the first category of your photo gallery.

Directories and files organization

• Category directories are in the Piwigo directory "galleries". Here follows the directory tree of a very small gallery (but using many features) :

  .
  |-- admin
  |-- doc
  |-- galleries
  |   |-- category-1
  |   |   |-- category-1.1
  |   |   |   |-- category-1.1.1
  |   |   |   |   |-- category-1.1.1.1
  |   |   |   |   |   |-- pwg_high
  |   |   |   |   |   |   +-- wedding.jpg
  |   |   |   |   |   |-- thumbnail
  |   |   |   |   |   |   +-- TN-wedding.jpg
  |   |   |   |   |   +-- wedding.jpg
  |   |   |   |   +-- category-1.1.1.2
  |   |   |   +-- category-1.1.2
  |   |   |-- category-1.2
  |   |   |   |-- pookie.jpg
  |   |   |   +-- thumbnail
  |   |   |       +-- TN-pookie.jpg
  |   |   +-- category-1.3
  |   +-- category-2
  |       |-- piglet.gif
  |       |-- pwg_representative
  |       |   +-- video.jpg
  |       |-- thumbnail
  |       |   +-- TN-piglet.jpg
  |       +-- video.avi
  |-- include
  |-- install
  |-- language
  |-- template
  +-- tool

• Each directory under "galleries" produces a category. There is no limit on deepness.
• Basically, an element is represented by a file. A file can be a Piwigo element if its extenstion is among file_ext configuration parameter possibilities (see include/config_default.inc.php file). A file can be a picture if its extension is among picture_ext configuration parameter possibilities.
• Picture elements must have an associated thumbnail (see section below about thumbnails)
• Picture elements can have a high quality file associated. As for wedding.jpg in the example above. No prefix on the high quality picture.
• Non picture elements (video, sounds, file texts, what you want...) are by default represented by an icon corresponding to the filename extension. Optionaly, you can associate a thumbnail and a representative file (see video.avi in the example above).
• Warning: the name of directories and files must contain only letters, figures, "-", "_" or ".". No blank space, no accentuated characters.
• Once files, thumbnails and representatives are correctly placed in the directories, go to : Administration » Categories » Synchronize

Thumbnails

• Each photo must have its thumbnail.
• Thumbnails are stored in the sub-directory "thumbnail" of the category directory. The thumbnail has the same filename as the corresponding photo, with TN- as prefix.
• Advise: use an external module for thumbnails creation.
• Even if it is not recommended (image quality, web server resource load), you can use Administration » Pictures » Thumbnails page to create thumbnails.
• Give write access on all category directories.

• You can forbid access to categories. Switch the category access type to "private" if you want to manage permissions.
• You can set a category to private by editing a single category (Administration » Categories » Manage » edit) or by setting options to your whole category tree (Administration » Categories » Properties » Public / Private).

• Once the category is private, you can manage permissions for groups and users with 3 screens:

  • Administration » Identification » Users » permissions action (one link per user)
  • Administration » Identification » Groups » permissions action (one link per group)
  • Administration » Categories » Manage » edit category permissions action (one link per category)

• Groups is a convenient way to set permissions for a list of users.
• Create groups in Administration » Identification » Groups and associate users to this group in Administration » Identication » Users.
• A user can belong to several groups. Authorization is stronger than forbiddance : if user "jack" belongs to groups "family" and "friends", and that only group "family" can see category "Christmas 2003" category then "jack" will be able to see "Christmas 2003".

Users can upload their photos too.

1. Authorize upload on any physical categories (Administration » Categories » Manage » edit or Administration » Categories » Properties » Upload). Virtual categories can't receive any upload.
2. Give write access on corresponding directories.

Photos uploaded by users are not directly visible on the website. An administrator must validate uploaded photos in Administration » Pictures » Waiting.

• Photos are displayed in the category corresponding to the file directory.
• You can also display a picture in several categories, without duplicating the file on your web server. Associate the photo to any category from the photo editing screen (that any administrator can reach from the photo page on the gallery side).
• Virtual categories are based on this concept: they have no corresponding directory. Create virtual categories from Administration » Categories » Manage.

• As soon as you created your gallery, modify default display properties in Administration » Configuration » Default. Every new registered user will use these default configuration settings.
• If you have any question, Piwigo community will welcome you on its forum.