Piwigo.org

thany · 2025-03-17 01:53:14

Hi all, first time user here.

I have successfully installed Piwigo on my local server. It was a breeze to do it on Unraid. But I have a few points to make after playing around with it for an hour.

About the admin interface:

* Really well done overall!
* The main thing I'm missing is to easily open the images contained within an album. Currently it seems to be quite a few clicks to get there. Also it goes to the "batch manager" screen, where the images indeed are, but it's confusing to use *that* screen in place of a dedicated listing screen.
* In the options there's this "Page banner" HTML snippet, but it took me a good while to figure out where that snippet "goes". You have to go into the theme, and enable it from there. So that also means not all themes support that snippet, presumably. I think this should probably be an option in the theme config.
* I haven't figured out what "Mail theme" does. It looks like dark/light mode, but I can't detect any change whatsoever when switching it.
* The maintenance options feel a bit disconcerting to me. If they're there, they must be neccesary at some point, I reckon? Can't these actions happen automatically when they're needed? With respect, I don't want to have to tell Piwigo *how* to do its job.

About the album pages:

I'm only testing, so far, while logged out. That's how I intent to share albums and pictures. So everything pertains to the guest user.

* Overall it feels old-fashoined. That's both good and bad. It's certainly fast. But there's just something that makes it feel like a grown-up project that started in 2005 and was never really brought to the next level. I know, it's difficult to put my finger on it. I've been a webdeveloper since before 2000, so I know my fair share of oldie-worldie websites. And it has that feeling. It's not the colours, so a theme probably doesn't fix that. Anyway, let's leave this one for now.
* The language option for the guest user doesn't do anything. Instead, it turns out it *only* takes the browser language to select from the activated languages. The user setting seems to be completely useless. I guess that's actually fine for guest users, but for me as a first timer, it's confusing to see why the language doesn't change after changing that setting.
* The metadata button doesn't do anything, other than adding `&metadata` to the url. I'm not sure what's supposed to happen, but I'm pretty sure it should do more than nothing.
* Can't hide the "powered by Piwigo" banner at the bottom. With all due respect, I'm not miffed that it's there in the first place, but does it need to take up that much space?
* Clicking on a picture in the detail view might open a modal with it in full resolution. Modals are super easy to create, these days.
* Here's a big one. When in the admin panel I saw the languages, I was pretty excited at first! But then I found that image titles & descriptions are not actually multilangual. That is a serious missed oppertunity. So language really only changes the UI language, to which (with respect) I shrug and carry on in English. It doesn't really do much for public facing pages. If you could add multilingual titles & descriptions, it'd be a real jewel. (I also recognise that it will be a LOT of work)
* Animations should be disabled with `prefers-reduced-motion` is set to `reduce`. This can be done in a media query. Being sensitive to motion myself, I am immediately triggered when I see motion in a website when I have clearly told it not to. Any and all motion should be disabled, as you cannot know the severity of a user's condition.
* No dark/light mode switch, but it also doesn't take it automatically from browser/OS setting. So I had to set the theme to be always dark.
* Last but not least, the theme option "square thumbnails" doesn't work. Thumbnails always display in whatever aspect ratio the original image is.

That's it for now. Just wanted to share my experience. Hopefully these things can be addressed, and maybe some don't have to be.

Also bare in mind that, again, I'm a first time user. Please assume default options, no extra themes or plugins, no weird configs. When the question is "what are your such-and-such settings/setup?", the answer is likely to be "whatever the default is".

Last edited by thany (2025-03-17 01:55:54)

Katryne · 2025-03-17 14:58:53

Thany, there are as many different requirements for a website as there are webmasters. Piwigo can be configured in many ways, and owing to a great number of plugins and themes, can be adapted to many needs. As for themes, it not, well not only, a question of colours (there is css for that). Themes can vary in display, format and layout. Some include specific features, such as a slideshow. Browse the forums, install extensions, test everything and ask specific questions: there will always be someone, amateur or professional, who can help you.

thany · 2025-03-19 22:28:27

Thank you for your confidence. Could you please recommend some plugins that, given my experience, would fit my expectations more?

On top of that, I do have to emphasise that some of the points I made really do feel like bugs to me. I could be wrong. But I also feel like a first time user with a good level of technical skills, should be able to figure out the options, whereas I didn't, for some of them. I firmly believe that a user shouldn't have to have deep knowledge of a system to use and understand it. And Piwigo certainly isn't bad in regard, but I do feel there's some low-hanging fruit. The kind of fruit that I understand, like any other developer, is easily overlooked by someone who already knows the system like the back of their hand.

Last edited by thany (2025-03-19 22:29:05)

Katryne · 2025-03-19 22:48:29

I've got 60 plugins ... And I use the Bootstrap Darkroom theme which is the most responsive I've found. For a start, you should install and enable Local Files Editor and Admin tools plugins. But I think they are included in the zip.

Enabling plugins i quite easy and can be done via the administration, without ftp : from the Plugin menu link in the admin sidebar, you can download, install, configure the plugins you need.

Local file Editor enables the webmaster to modify the Piwigo in various aspects without the changes be erased with the next core update.

Admin tools will be displayed as a top menu bar visible to the administrator and will give a quick access to various administration functions, which will differ according to the page you are viewing. That's were you will find the direct editing access to the photo for instance.

Try a little and come back to ask.

dummer-esel · 2025-03-20 10:33:42

Based on your experience with Piwigo, here are some plugins that could address your concerns and enhance your experience:

Admin Interface Improvements

Extended Description – Adds more flexibility for descriptions, including multilingual support.
Admin Tools – Enhances the admin interface with more direct access to images.
Additional Pages – Helps with adding and managing custom pages, which might make the UI feel more structured.

User Experience & Album Display

Modus Theme – Offers a more modern UI and includes dark mode support.
SmartAlbums – Allows more dynamic album management.
Advanced Metadata – May improve the metadata display issue.
Language Switch – Helps with proper language selection instead of relying on the browser setting.
RV Thumb Scroller – Improves image navigation by adding a smooth scrolling feature.

Customization & Accessibility

Perso Footer – Allows you to modify or remove the "Powered by Piwigo" footer.
Fotorama – Provides a better full-screen viewing experience with a more modern lightbox.
Simple Grey – A minimalist, modern theme that may help reduce the "old-fashioned" feeling.
Adaptive Menus – Enhances menu handling for a more intuitive experience.

(thanks ChatGPT ;-))

plg · 2025-03-20 19:59:56

Hi thany,

thany wrote:
* The main thing I'm missing is to easily open the images contained within an album. Currently it seems to be quite a few clicks to get there. Also it goes to the "batch manager" screen, where the images indeed are, but it's confusing to use *that* screen in place of a dedicated listing screen.

I think I understand what you mean. Let me rephrase (and tell me if I'm wrong) : the administration is not designed to "browse" photos. And it's true. You have to "manage photos" to get the list of photos. I don't know if it's a real issue and if it should be "fixed".

thany wrote:
* In the options there's this "Page banner" HTML snippet, but it took me a good while to figure out where that snippet "goes". You have to go into the theme, and enable it from there.

That is very specific to the "modus" theme. I know it's the default theme, but it was not the default theme when it was released.

thany wrote:
* I haven't figured out what "Mail theme" does. It looks like dark/light mode, but I can't detect any change whatsoever when switching it.

It's when Piwigo sends an email. You can only see that in your inbox. In the future, we plan to remove this setting and let your email software decides to use dark mode or not.

thany wrote:
* The maintenance options feel a bit disconcerting to me. If they're there, they must be neccesary at some point, I reckon? Can't these actions happen automatically when they're needed? With respect, I don't want to have to tell Piwigo *how* to do its job.

Piwigo already does many actions automatically. Unfortunately sometimes you need to fix things and that's where the maintenance actions are useful. I talk about actions like "update albums" or "update photos".

There are other actions like "purge...". That's up to you as an administrator. For example purging cache is a matter of preference between using more disk space or using more CPU.

thany wrote:
* Overall it feels old-fashoined. That's both good and bad. It's certainly fast.

Well yes, Piwigo was designed in the early 2000ies. And yes, pages load fast. Maybe that's because the gallery side is not full javascript loaded.

Next items later ;-)

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#1 2025-03-17 01:53:14

First time experience

#2 2025-03-17 14:58:53

Re: First time experience

#3 2025-03-19 22:28:27

Re: First time experience

#4 2025-03-19 22:48:29

Re: First time experience

#5 2025-03-20 10:33:42

Re: First time experience

#6 2025-03-20 19:59:56

Re: First time experience

thany wrote:

thany wrote:

thany wrote:

thany wrote:

thany wrote:

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