Make a Custom Web Gallery with Piwigo
If you’re a visual artist or someone that builds up a digit of images, you could have a last notice for a behavior net gallery on your website. There’s added than one means to go around inventing one – you can hand-code it, gain gain utilization of of a plugin on a content management unit (CMS), or gain gain utilization of of devoted gallery software agenda. Piwigo is an extensible, open-source image gallery software agenda that you can install on VPS and webhosts. In this devise-up, we’ll step through mounting and arranging a behavior net gallery through Piwigo.
- Installing Piwigo
- Installing Piwigo on a VPS
- Fetching Initiated With Grossing gain gain utilization of of of Piwigo
- Configuring Piwigo
- Installing Plugins in Piwigo
- Suggested Plugins for Piwigo
Installing Piwigo
The easiest means to receive started through Piwigo is by mounting it on a mutual webhost. One of the paybacks of Piwigo over multitudinous other image gallery web servers is that it intakes PHP. This renders it simplified to sprinted even on contraptions whereby you can’t access the root consumer.
To get started, version a brand-distinguished database in your webhost readjust panel. If your landmark intakes cPanel, go to the MySQL Databases sector to execute so.

Gain sure to contain a consumer to the brand-distinguished database and grant it unanimously the privileges on the database.
After you’ve install a database, mounting Piwigo couldn’t be less complicated. Your Web arranging rep could lug out an automated installer, yet I advise retrieving Piwigo applicable from the police download web page to make certain that you receive the latest iteration.
Gist the Piwigo .zip record on your Downloads magazine, after that xerox the “piwigo” folder to the root of your mutual webhost magazine. In my dilemma, I will gain gain utilization of of my FTP guy to send out it to my webhost root.

Open a brand-distinguished browser tab, after that read to your mutual webhost’s domain name equalized through by the route to your Piwigo magazine. Since I’ve duplicated mine to my webhost’s root magazine, I lone last notice to lug out “/piwigo/install.php” at the end of my URL.
This will carry up the installation and installation display display purge for Piwigo. Administer the accuracies of your MySQL database, along through the username and password for your manager account.

Open a brand-distinguished browser tab, after that read to the URL of your Piwigo instance to contemplate if it’s functioning satisfactorily.
Nice to become aware: Piwigo is just one of the multitudinous gallery software agenda cheats today. Inspect out our checklist of the ideal self-hostable image galleries to browse through which one is applicable for you.
Installing Piwigo on a VPS
Aside from mounting on a mutual webhost, it’s also you can not surprisingly envision to sprinted Piwigo on a devoted VPS box. Executing this provides you readjust and flexibility over the routines that sprinted along with Piwigo. In this sector, I will install Piwigo on an Ubuntu 24.04 server.
Tab: mounting Piwigo on its exquisitely own VPS necessitates an pertinent DNS A record for your machine that times to its IPv4 address.
Inauguration by rendering sure that your unit is currently up-to-date:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Mount the dependences for your Piwigo instance by dashing the functioning together through command:
sudo apt install nginx php mariadb-server imagemagick ffmpeg php-fpm php-mbstring php-gd php-mysql php-imagick php-xml unzip
Switch to the root consumer, sprinted initially installation fast for MariaDB, after that go within the MariaDB console:
sudo -s sudo mariadb-secure-installation sudo mariadb -u root

Tab: the installation manuscript for MariaDB will ask you a shebang of inquiries around how you pine to peg your database. For most instances, it’s guard to embrace the manuscript’s default merits.
Wreaking the database and dashing Piwigo
Once within MariaDB, version a raw database for your Piwigo instance:
CREATE DATABASE piwigo;
Sprinted the functioning together through command to version a brand-distinguished consumer and settled its sanctions to access the brand-distinguished Piwigo database:
CREATE USER 'youruser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'userpassword'; GRANT ALL ON piwigo.* TO 'youruser'@'localhost';

Press Ctrl + D to leave the MariaDB console, after that sprinted the functioning together through command to version the landmark config record for Piwigo:
sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/piwigo
Paste the functioning together through block of code within your brand-distinguished landmark config record:
server { listen 80; server_name YOUR-ROOT-DOMAIN.HERE; root /var/www/piwigo; index index.html index.htm index.php; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } location ~ .php$ { include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf; fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock; } location ~ /.ht { deny all; } }
Conserve your brand-distinguished config record, after that version a symbolic web linkage from the “/and so on/nginx/spots-available” to “/and so on/nginx/spots-permitted.”
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/piwigo /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

Navigate to your server’s webroot magazine, after that download the .zip record for Piwigo:
cd /var/www/ wget -O piwigo.zip https://piwigo.org/download/dlcounter.php?code=15.1.0
Gist the whole Piwigo installation on the webroot magazine, after that settled its pertinent sanction and residential detritus:
unzip /var/www/piwigo.zip sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/piwigo sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/piwigo
Permit both the PHP-fpm and Nginx solutions to prelude your Piwigo instance:
sudo systemctl enable --now php8.3-fpm.service sudo systemctl disable --now apache2.service sudo systemctl enable --now nginx.service
Authenticate that Piwigo is dashing satisfactorily by opening a net web page and perusing to your domain name name.
On a side chit: execute you have an old Raspberry Pi just congregating dust? Detect out how to convert your Pi applicable into a stretch image earlier-up agency.
Fetching Initiated With Grossing gain gain utilization of of of Piwigo
At this point, you now have a functioning Piwigo instance dashing on either your webhost or VPS. To prelude making utilization of it, click the I pine to contain photographs button on your gallery homepage.

Executing this will carry up the monitoring web page for Piwigo whereby you can upload and configure elements of your instance. Click the Cook up a initially cd button to prelude your digital net gallery.

Administer a name for your brand-distinguished cd, click Cook up and Pick to go applicable into your abum config web page.

Either click the Add Images button or drag the photographs that you pine to upload to your server on the cd webpage.
Once you have the photographs that you pine in the Piwigo web page, click Inauguration Upload to get started the upload protocol.
Once you’ve had at the exquisitely least one cd, you can browse through your Piwigo URL and venerate the gallery.

Configuring Piwigo
By default, Piwigo monikers a brand-distinguished net gallery as “Simply one more Piwigo gallery.” You’ll not surprisingly pine to variation this generic title. To execute so, click the Admin button on the gallery’s upper applicable edge.

Pick Arrangement -> Substitutions on the disclaimed sidebar.

Administer the brand-distinguished name of your Piwigo gallery on the Gallery title textbox, after that click Conserve placements to use it.

Modifying the Gallery Pointer in Piwigo
Unconcerned from equalizing the gallery name, it’s also you can not surprisingly envision to variation the wonderful appearances of your Piwigo instance. For that, click the Notions style on the admin web page’s disclaimed sidebar.

In here, you can either pick the default motif or permit an sluggish motif on your net gallery. For instance, clicking Ensconced in activity on the Prodigal motif will ranked it on your instance’s motif checklist.

Tab: you can also burden a motif be the default for your gallery by clicking the “Package as Default” button.
Better, Piwigo also offers a catalog of spick-and-expectations ultimately-party motifs that you can install for your gallery. To access this, click the Add brand-distinguished motif tab on the Notions config web page.

Scroll through the ultimately-party motifs, after that click Mount on the one that you pine.
Ultimately, go to your instance’s motif checklist, after that click Ensconced in activity to contain it to your vivacious motif collection.
Installing Plugins in Piwigo
There are two ways to install plugins in Piwigo. Initially, you can gain gain utilization of of the concocted-in plugins utilization, which takes treatment of extension installation and management. Second, you can by hand install your extension by replicating it to Piwigo’s plugins magazine.
To gain gain utilization of of the concocted-in unbiased, read to the Plugins style on your instance’s Security web page.

Click the Add a brand-distinguished plugin tab to wonderful appearances at the available expansions for your Piwigo gallery.

To by hand install a plugin, initially go to the police plugin web page for Piwigo and wonderful appearances for an extension that you pine to install. In my dilemma, I longed to gain gain utilization of of the “Town” plugin to contain consumer submissions to my gallery.

Download the plugin .zip record, after that transmit it to your Piwigo instance. For instance, the functioning together through command intakes SCP to transmit the plugin archive to my VPS:
scp ~/Downloads/community_15.a.zip ramces@mte-ubuntu-server:~
Attend your Piwigo instance, after that glide and remove the plugin’s .zip record to your gallery’s plugins magazine:
sudo cp ~/community_15.a.zip /var/www/piwigo/plugins sudo cd /var/www/piwigo/plugins sudo unzip ./community_15.a.zip && sudo rm ./community_15.a.zip
Tab: if you’re dashing Piwigo on a VPS, render sure that your webserver can read your plugins folder: sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/piwigo/plugins
.
Authenticate that you’ve posed your brand-distinguished plugin satisfactorily by seeing the Plugins web page on your Piwigo admin display display purge.

Suggested Plugins for Piwigo
With that in mind, I’ll bold some of the plugins that I’ve spotted handy on while tinkering my personal Piwigo instance.
1. PersoFavicon
You could be sold to uploading your exquisitely own favicon to a website and watching it illustrate up immediately in your browser. Regretfully, this doesn’t job in Piwigo. To gain gain utilization of of your exquisitely own favicon in Piwigo, install the PersoFavicon plugin.
Once mobilized, it will illustrate up in your manager sidebar under Plugins. Click on it to upload a favicon in .ico format.

2. Ingrained Video clips
Ingrained Video clips lets you installed exterior video documents in enlargement to images in your Piwigo gallery. At the minute, it assistances any video unborn from YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.
To contain video clips to your albums, click the Postures button underneath the Ingrained Video clips plugin box. Executing this will carry up the config web page for Ingrained Video clips. The plugin consumer interface lets you contain one video at a time by URL.

Tab: ticking the Add movie burden checkbox will contain filmstrip pubs on the sides of your embeds to substantiate that the gallery entry is a video record.
3. Expiration Day
Expiration Day is a cool plugin that imposes fast images on your Piwigo gallery. It offers an automated image deletion unit and the aptitude to vivacious you when it runs out. As a personal seclusion-cognizant victim, I uncover this extension highly inestimable provided that it permits me to have finer readjust over how I share photographs digital.
To gain gain utilization of of this plugin, go to your Piwigo instance’s admin web page and upload a brand-distinguished image.

Once used, click Handle this settled of photographs, after that pick the images that you pine to settled the timer on.
Scroll down to the Activities sector, pick “Expiration Day” on the dropdown menu, after that lug out the date when you pine your images to run out.

4. Town
Town is a raw plugin that addresses Piwigo’s single-consumer emphasis. It elongates the gallery’s multi-consumer assistance and permits them to version folders and upload images on your Piwigo instance. Coupled through reputable access readjust amenities, Town is a last notice to-have plugin for any guy that needs to prelude a joint image cd.
To receive started through Town, go to your Piwigo instance’s plugins web page, after that click Postures underneath the plugin box.
Click Add a sanction, after that settled the sanctions you pine for your gallery. In my dilemma, I pine unanimously clients to be able to upload to the “maketecheasier” folder.

5. Piwigo-openstreetmap
Piwigo-openstreetmap is a handy plugin that displays the GPS information embedded on progressive-day JPEG images. To acquire this, the plugin intakes OpenStreetMap information to illustrate the exact place of whereby you took your photographs. This renders it a nice chum to a GPS monitoring server such as uLogger.
Once the plugin is up and dashing, piwigo-openstreetmap have to job applicable out of the box. If you currently have images in your gallery through a geolocation tag, the plugin will applicable away display display purge a map reflecting whereby you took your photographs.

I have been making utilization of Piwigo for a pair of months and it’s become my preferred Web-based image gallery software agenda. Handling a behavior net gallery through Piwigo is surprisingly raw, from arranging photographs and albums to modernizing your installation.
Situating out how to install and gain gain utilization of of Piwigo as an digital gallery for your photographs is just the initially intervene inventing your exquisitely own self-intended lookout on the net. Dive much deeper applicable into the magical human being of self-arranging by checking out how a other novelist turned his Raspberry Pi applicable into a exclusive Net Archive.
Photo debt: Glenn Carstens-Peters using Unsplash. Unanimously alterations and screenshots by Ramces Red.