Description
Heirloom Gallery is a self-hosted WordPress plugin for organizing, preserving, and sharing your photo collections with complete privacy. Your photos stay on your server. No cloud uploads, no data collection, no tracking.
Keep your family photos secure and organized with:
– Unlimited photo uploads
– Smart people tagging and album organization
– EXIF data extraction (date + camera info)
– Private shareable galleries with access control
– User permission management
– Photo restoration from trash
– Bulk image actions and management
– Gallery analytics and engagement tracking
All data stays on your server. No external cloud services or API calls. No fees beyond hosting.
Free Features
- Upload and organize unlimited photos
- Create albums and manage collections
- Tag people in photos for easy discovery
- Set gallery visibility to private or public
- Restore deleted photos from trash (within a time window)
- User role management (3 user roles)
- Advanced user role management with capability overrides
- Responsive design for mobile viewing
- View engagement analytics (views, likes, comments)
Add-Ons
Extend Heirloom Gallery with powerful add-ons:
Custom Fields Add-on
Add unlimited custom metadata fields to your Heirloom Gallery photos.
* Create unlimited custom metadata fields (text, textarea, number, dropdown)
* Position fields above or below standard image metadata
* Drag-and-drop field reordering
* Full field management via admin dashboard
Engagement Add-on
Add likes and comments to your Heirloom Gallery photos.
* Enable likes and comments on photos
* Track engagement analytics (views, likes, comments)
* User permissions via role-based access control
* Users can edit and delete their own comments
Security & Privacy
- All photos stored locally on your WordPress server
- No external API calls or cloud syncing
- WordPress permission system integration
- Nonce-based AJAX request protection
- User access control basid on user capabilities
- Proper file type validation
- Prepared SQL statements throughout
Support
For detailed help and documentation:
– Visit our Knowledge Base
– Report issues on GitHub
License
This plugin is licensed under the GPL v2 or later. See LICENSE.txt for details.
Dependencies
Third-Party Libraries:
– Dropzone.js (v5.x) – JavaScript file upload library
– License: MIT
– Repository: https://www.dropzonejs.com/
– Included as: /assets/js/dropzone.min.js (minified)
– Source: https://github.com/dropzone/dropzone
Plugin Source Code:
– All plugin JavaScript files (dashboard.js, gallery.js, gallery-admin.js) are non-minified source code included directly in the plugin for transparency and maintainability.
– All PHP source code is unobfuscated and available within the plugin directory.
– No build tools are required; the plugin works directly from the included source files.
Screenshots
Installation
- Download the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository
- Upload to
/wp-content/plugins/or install through WordPress admin - Activate the plugin through the WordPress Plugins menu
- Navigate to the new “Gallery Manager” page to get started uploading and organizing your photos
FAQ
-
Will my photos be backed up to the cloud?
-
No. Heirloom Gallery keeps all your photos on your server only. We don’t upload, sync, or backup photos anywhere else.
-
Yes! You can share individual photos, albums, or personal albums. Each share gets a unique private link that you can send to anyone to view those images. You can deactivate shares at any time to stop access.
-
What photo formats are supported?
-
JPG, PNG, WebP, and GIF are fully supported. Note: iPhone photos often come in HEIC format, which has limited compatibility across browsers and devices. Convert them to JPG or PNG for best results.
-
What metadata can I track for photos?
-
Heirloom Gallery tracks comprehensive metadata for each photo including title, caption, date taken, location, certainty level, albums, and people tags. For users who need additional custom fields, the Custom Fields Add-on allows you to create unlimited custom metadata fields.
-
Is there a file size limit?
-
By default, the WordPress file upload limit applies (usually 32MB). Admins can adjust this in Settings.
-
How do I restore deleted photos?
-
Deleted photos go to trash. Go to the Trash section in your dashboard and restore them. After a certain period, they can be permanently deleted.
-
Can multiple people manage the gallery?
-
Yes! Heirloom Gallery includes role-based user management. You can add multiple users and customize what each role can see and do. Restrict specific capabilities like uploading, deleting, sharing, or editing to maintain control over who has access to what.
-
Can I perform bulk operations on photos?
-
Yes! Bulk actions save time when managing large collections. You can select multiple photos and quickly add an album, tag people, add location data, or set the date taken all at once.
-
What happens to the EXIF data in my photos?
-
Heirloom Gallery automatically extracts and uses certain EXIF data from your photos, including the date taken and camera information when available. You can disable EXIF data extraction in the plugin settings if you prefer.
-
Does the plugin work on mobile?
-
Yes! Heirloom Gallery is fully responsive and works on all devices including mobile phones. However, managing the gallery is typically easier on a tablet or larger screen. Viewing shared galleries works great on mobile.
-
Do I need the add-ons to use Heirloom Gallery?
-
No! Heirloom Gallery is a fully functional plugin on its own with everything you need to organize, tag, and share your photos. The add-ons (Custom Fields Add-on and Engagement Add-on) are optional enhancements for power users who want additional capabilities.
-
Do you offer support?
-
For detailed documentation and help, visit our knowledge base at https://wpheirloom.com/gallery/docs/
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Heirloom Gallery – Private Media Archive” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Heirloom Gallery – Private Media Archive” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release
- Full-featured photo organization with smart people and album tagging
- Private shareable galleries with complete user permission control