====== Albums Management ======

Albums are the structure of your gallery.

==== Virtual albums ====

Piwigo allows you to create virtual albums where no directory corresponds to this album in the filesystem. This is rather a logical organization registered in the database.  You can create virtual albums on the album management administration screen [Administration > Albums > Manage].

==== Physical albums ====

If you use the //FTP + synchronization// method to add photos in your Piwigo gallery, then you have some physical albums.

A physical album is represented by a directory at any level in
the directory //galleries//. If your website is not local to
your computer, you will have to use a FTP client to manage your albums
directory, otherwise you can create/move/delete directories
locally. Piwigo does not create directories for albums in
//galleries//.

Each album can contain as many child-levels as you wish.

**Warning** : //thumbnail//, //pwg_high//,
//pwg_representatives// are reserved directory names for
Piwigo. Don't use them for your albums.

**Warning** : the name of directories and files must be composed of
letters, figures, "-", "_" or "." : {[a-zA-Z][0-9]-_.}. No blank space, no
accentuated characters. This restriction is necessary because some web
browsers does not support non ASCII or blank characters in filenames to
display (pictures for instance).

==== Tips ====

A way to distinguish between albums is by their content:

  * __child album__ : contains photos
  * __parent album__ : contains child albums

By the way, empty albums are automatically hidden.

Even if Piwigo handles albums that are parent and child at the same time, you are strongly advised to
decide between parent **or** child for each album .