Picture Gallery – Frontend Uploads & Image Editor

FAQ

Which languages are included?

The plugin includes these translations: Spanish (es_ES), Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR), French (fr_FR), Dutch (nl_NL), German (de_DE), Arabic (ar), Italian (it_IT) and Romanian (ro_RO). WordPress selects the site language for visitors and each user’s chosen language for the dashboard and block editor. Arabic follows WordPress’s right-to-left direction. Translations cover plugin controls and messages, not visitor-submitted picture titles or descriptions. WordPress.org language packs take precedence when installed.

Translation disclaimer: translations are provided as is. They were created with machine assistance and may contain inaccuracies, so please review them for accuracy before relying on them for your audience. Corrections and new languages are welcome through the support forum.

Can AI agents inspect my galleries?

On WordPress 6.9+, enable Read-only AI-agent integration in Picture Gallery > Options > Server. It is disabled by default, including on upgrades. The rest of the plugin still supports WordPress 6.5+.

The registered abilities are picture-gallery/search-pictures and picture-gallery/get-picture. They require an authenticated WordPress user with read permission and apply the same picture visibility, ownership, gallery, membership and extension veto rules as image browsing. Search published pictures or your own pictures (including your own unpublished items), filter by title/text search and gallery slug, or find missing picture-local alternative text/captions. Inspection returns current title, caption, description, picture-local alt text, publication status and processing state. Missing alt is not replaced with a guessed description. Responses contain no image-file URL fields, physical paths, arbitrary post metadata, journal secrets or pending replacement text from review journals.

Search accepts scope (published or mine), search, gallery, needs_text (any, alt, caption), per_page (1–25, default 10) and page (0–20, default 0). Results are ordered by descending ID and filtered for access before pagination. At most 1,000 candidates are examined per call; scan_limited means narrow the search rather than assuming the results are exhaustive. No hidden-picture IDs or total counts are returned. get-picture requires picture_id.

For MCP access, separately install the WordPress MCP Adapter and configure an authenticated compatible client using its documentation. The adapter’s default server exposes these abilities through its discovery and execution tools. A Site Manager OAuth connection does not automatically authenticate this separate endpoint. Picture Gallery adds no AI provider, account registration or outbound AI requests; your chosen client controls any further processing of the text it receives.

These abilities cannot edit, publish, upload, purchase content, delete files or start thumbnail repair/import. Turning the setting off removes registration on subsequent requests and denies execution through an already resolved ability. WordPress Abilities API REST access uses authenticated GET requests; client connection and credential requirements are managed by WordPress/the adapter. Abilities and MCP compatibility do not require an MCP server for normal gallery use.

Is the gallery and image editor free?

Yes. The included gallery layouts, local PhotoSwipe viewer, frontend uploader and image tools work without a paid account. Optional companion plugins and VideoWhisper services have their own terms.

What does my hosting need?

WordPress 6.5 or newer and PHP 8.2 or newer. Image tools use WordPress’s available GD or Imagick backend. Available memory, supported formats and image dimensions determine which files can be processed. Processing limits reject oversized work rather than promising unlimited editing. No FFmpeg or streaming server is needed for picture editing.

What can users edit?

Authorized owners can crop, resize without enlarging, rotate in quarter turns and flip horizontally or vertically. Crop coordinates follow the rotation and flips. Every save starts from the normalized master, avoiding repeated edits to a compressed preview. JPEG and PNG are editable; animated GIF editing is unavailable. Edit content opens the included picture details editor: title, caption, description, alternative text, and selection of existing categories and tags. Text changes use plain text; unchanged existing formatting is retained. The optional MicroPayments content-management link remains available separately for membership and monetization.

Will edits change a public picture before approval?

Users without the required publish permission send edits for review. Existing public media stays unchanged. An authorized moderator opens the picture’s editor to approve its pending generation. Restore original composition follows the same review rules. Picture details have a separate review submission: published details stay visible by default until approval. Under Display, administrators can choose to move published pictures to draft when users without publishing permission edit their details. The frontend warns before saving; approval restores the previous publication state. Moderators use Edit content to review and approve the submitted values. Changes made independently through the WordPress editor invalidate stale approval.

Can I preview the layouts before choosing site settings?

Yes. Enable Administrator frontend demo switcher under Display. Administrators get a closable Gallery preview box on listing pages. Choose Styled Tiles, Responsive grid or Picture cards and menu or dropdown filters, then Apply. Only that administrator’s current view changes; global settings are not saved and ordinary visitors cannot use the preview controls. Blueprint demos enable it automatically.

How do I recover an interrupted image edit?

First use the editor’s save-status check before trying another save. Administrators can inspect Picture Gallery > Image Edit Journals. Recovery acknowledges an already committed generation or places a complete candidate into pending review only if its base media and owner are unchanged. It never repeats a partly processed recipe. Active/orphaned media locks, changed sources, incomplete candidates and ambiguous older records require manual review; no forced takeover is offered.

Can I clean up old edit files?

Files are retained indefinitely by default. In Image Edit Journals, explicitly abandon unfinished work where appropriate, then allow cleanup for a terminal edit. This starts a fresh seven-day hold. Preview the edit again after the deadline before applying cleanup. Only proven, unchanged, disconnected edit files and their own header-only attachments are eligible. Originals, masters, previews, active/pending/previous generations and shared or ambiguous files stay protected. Older journals without creation evidence remain retained. No automatic deletion runs. Compact request receipts remain to prevent replay; edit-history and owned-file limits still apply to retained work.

Will my existing pictures still work after updating?

Yes: existing posts, URLs, authors, galleries and media are preserved. Encountered pictures are inventoried on demand, with a small queued batch for listings/views and immediate inventory on authorized editing. Missing or ambiguous files require administrator repair instead of a destructive guess. Existing explicit layout/click choices remain; select PhotoSwipe under Display to enable it for those listings.

Why are thumbnails not all the same size?

Previews are never stretched beyond their available pixels. When thumbnail settings change, encountered outdated thumbnails queue a bounded refresh; the administrator thumbnail tool can advance the rest. Small originals remain small. Cards reserve room for text; Responsive grid keeps a tighter image-focused presentation.

Can listings show ratings and likes?

Yes, with the optional Rate Star Review plugin and its Picture Gallery integration enabled. Available star ratings appear in listings. Voting also requires the picture post type and the picture’s category to be enabled in Rate Star Review. Its login, retract-vote and optional payment rules still apply. Compact layouts show votes above stars at the lower left; cards place them beside the image.

Can I restrict access or sell pictures?

Gallery rules and supported membership integrations control listing/viewer authorization. They do not protect direct public upload URLs. Use an appropriate protected-file delivery solution if preventing direct downloads is required.

What happens when a picture is deleted?

Media is retained by default, including after permanent picture deletion, plugin deactivation or uninstall. Media Maintenance provides inventory/backfill previews and an opt-in policy for future deletions. Purge waits at least 24 hours and requires a separate cleanup batch. Shared, changed, ambiguous and legacy files without creation provenance are preserved. On multisite, physical media cleanup remains disabled because site-local scans cannot establish cross-site ownership.

What happens after an interrupted upload?

Use Check / resume upload or Retry same file with its original fields instead of starting another copy. A request identity prevents duplicate imports; changed bytes/fields conflict. Member self-service requires the original login session. Upload Journals lets administrators inspect and recover eligible unfinished work to pending review, or explicitly abandon unchanged unpublished drafts. Media retention defaults to indefinite; opt-in abandoned-upload cleanup has a fresh seven-day hold and separate preview/apply steps. Recovery requires the original single processing host, working local locks and unchanged storage; changed hosts or ambiguous state require review.

Does the plugin send images to an external service?

Gallery browsing and image editing run locally. The optional reCAPTCHA service is described below. Images are not sent to an external image editor. Companion plugins and theme services have their own disclosures.

Guest form validation and privacy

Each guest form has its own controls and nonce. Shortcode owner, gallery, category, tag, description and email settings are authoritative; submitted hidden fields cannot override them. Errors preserve valid text fields and ask the visitor to select the picture again. The ordinary HTML form works without JavaScript when reCAPTCHA is disabled. All guest submissions remain pending, including submissions from a logged-in administrator.

The default attempt limit is 20 per connection per hour, including failed form and verification attempts. It uses the web server connection address, ignores forwarded browser headers, and stores only a keyed address hash, count and expiry in a non-autoloaded counter. Counters expire after one hour; subsequent guest attempts with the attempt limit enabled remove up to twenty expired counters. Expired records can remain stored until that later cleanup. Set Guest Upload Attempts per Hour to 0 to disable this tracking. The separate Limit Uploads per IP setting counts existing guest pictures, including pending, draft and trashed items; uploader email and IP metadata remain with those pictures. Shared connections share limits. Configure trusted client addresses at the web server when using a reverse proxy.

Google reCAPTCHA v3 is optional and loads only on guest form pages after an administrator configures a site key. Google’s browser script receives visitor/browser information and issues a token for action vwpg_guest_upload; submitting the form sends that token and the configured secret from the server to Google’s verification endpoint with an eight-second timeout. Missing, failed, low-score, wrong-action, wrong-host or malformed verification responses block intake. See reCAPTCHA, Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms. Disable the site key to remove this integration. No uploader email, description or image bytes are sent by the plugin’s verification request.

Durable guest uploads and browser receipts

Guest uploads use a signed browser-bound form and WordPress admin-post transport. The server reloads the matching shortcode from its stored page/post content before accepting a new request and before promoting processed media. Browser-submitted owner, gallery or hidden defaults never grant authority. Changed/removed forms, unreadable/password-protected content, stale grants and a different browser/login context stop processing. Guest forms must be declared in normal readable post/page content; dynamically injected widget/template/builder forms without a matching stored declaration fail safely and need a supported integration.

A successful or authorized failed POST redirects with HTTP 303 to a GET receipt. Reloading a receipt performs no image processing or publication. Each browser/form retains the same request identity across reloads and lost POST responses; an exact retry acknowledges its existing picture and changed bytes/metadata conflict. Check upload reads its state; Resume stored upload is a separate nonce-protected POST, always pending for unfinished guest work. Do not start another copy after uncertainty. If the original intake is missing, select the same picture and original field values; otherwise contact the administrator with the upload reference. Active workers, replaced temporary locks, changed files/roots and human-edited drafts require review. Recovery uses the same single-host safeguards as member journals.

Submit another picture is an explicit POST after completion or abandonment. An atomic private current-request pointer prevents an old tab from silently replacing a newer request. Guest upload cookies are site-specific, HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax and Secure on HTTPS, expire after seven days, and contain only a random browser secret. Logged-in receipts additionally depend on that WordPress login session. Clearing cookies, switching browsers/logins or expiring the browser cookie loses self-service access; administrator journal inspection remains available. Exclude guest-form pages from full-page caches: the plugin sends private/no-store headers, and a cached grant from another browser is rejected.

Guest receipts reveal no picture/file URL, private picture ID, email, description or raw browser secret. Authorized validation failures preserve bounded text in one ten-minute feedback transient per browser/form, without file bytes, CAPTCHA tokens or nonces; expired stored transients may await WordPress cleanup. Successful feedback clears those text fields. The shared private upload journal retains source relationships, request fingerprints and submitted guest title/email/IP/metadata under the existing retention policy. Minimal current-request pointers, completion receipts and cleanup tombstones are retained to prevent duplicate replay; do not delete these records independently. Administrator recovery/abandonment/retention also supports owner ID 0 guest drafts. Deactivation/uninstall preserve this history and media.

Moderator notification is attempted at most once after the guest picture commits. An interrupted claimed delivery is not sent again automatically, so mail can be missed; Upload Journals shows its notification state for administrator review. No automatic retry sends duplicate mail. Older authenticated integrations retain their existing responses; durable recovery requires a stable request identity.

Where can I report an issue, request a feature or discuss custom development?

Contact VideoWhisper through support and consultation to report problems, suggest features or discuss custom development for your website. Include your WordPress/PHP versions and steps to reproduce a problem. Do not include passwords or private media in public reports.

Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?

Please report security bugs found in the source code of the Picture Gallery plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure  Program. The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.