Piwigo 15 release: what’s new?

Claire Michard on November 19, 2024

You won’t have missed it: Piwigo version 15 was released on October 22, 2024, and is now deployed on all piwigo.com accounts! Improved user management, system activities, overhauled batch management: this article reviews the main new features of this version.

Table of contents

User management: lots of new features for administrators

We know that some of you manage hundreds of users in your Piwigo. Sometimes you need to create new users on a regular basis, or manage users who create their account from your web gallery. With Piwigo 15, we’ve thought of you and made some major improvements to user management. We hope you enjoy it.

Sort users by name or creation date

It’s something many of you have been waiting for, especially if you manage many users in your Piwigo: with one click, you can now sort the list of users by name or creation date, in ascending or descending order, by clicking on the column heading.

New user creation window

Previously, when you had to create a user in administration, you had no access to any options for customizing his account: you then had to modify the user to change his status, his confidentiality level, assign him a group…

Now you can do all this in one go in the user creation window.

New password policy

Until now, when creating a new user, you had to generate their password, which was sent to them by email. We’ve completely changed this process to a more standard and secure system.

With Piwigo 15, once a user has been created, an email is automatically sent to them with a link to create their password before their first connection. If Piwigo ever fails to send the email (yes, this communication channel is far from 100% reliable), an administrator can regenerate a password initialization link and send it to the user by any means. And it is still possible for the administrator to choose another user’s password.

Redesign of the user modification window

The user modification form gets a new design. Clearer, simpler, easier for plugins to add features thanks to tabs.

Ability to change the main Piwigo user

You can now change Piwigo’s main user from the administration. Until now, the only way was to edit the ‘webmaster_id’ parameter in the local configuration. Only one webmaster can be chosen as the main user. It is represented in the list by a crown-shaped icon.

Improved filters in the user list

In the user list, the number of users corresponding to a filter is now displayed, and filters without results are deactivated.

New feature: system activities

Users with webmaster status will see a new tab appear in Piwigo’s Maintenance menu: the System Activities tab. A useful screen for monitoring all “technical” activities on your Piwigo: plugin installation, updates, maintenance operations…

Batch management: what’s new

Batch management unit mode redesign

Are you familiar with the batch manager, which lets you make mass modifications to a selection of files in your Piwigo? Then you probably know the “unit mode” option: a tab that lets you edit the information on each file in your selection independently.

We have completely redesigned this screen to improve its design and ergonomics.

More room for the image, optimized space, more information and actions available for each photo… And what’s more, active filters are kept at the top of the screen and can be modified at any time.

Batch manager unit mode in Piwigo 14
Batch manager unit mode in Piwigo 15

Assign a selection to several albums at once

With batch management, you can now associate your photo selection with several albums in a single action.

New PDF reader

With Piwigo 15, PDF files will open directly in your gallery, using your browser’s PDF reader. For the moment, this only works on the Modus and Bootstrap Darkoom themes.

New search engine features

New filters are available in the gallery search engine. You can now filter photos by rating, file size, ratio (portrait, landscape, square), height, width and creation date.

If you filter photos by date of creation, you can now choose a custom date range, which can be a year, a month, a day, or a combination of all three. Smart icons help you define the right filters.

The search engine has also been significantly improved. You can now change the value of a filter at any time, without having to start a new search.

For example, if you have already applied the filter “Added by: John” filter, you can replace the selection with ”Added by: Paul”. And if you have another filter active, such as “File format: MP4”, you’ll only see users who have added MP4 files in the “Added by” filter. It’s a real step forward in terms of user experience, and we hope you enjoy it.

Other Piwigo 15 news

  • The album selection tool has been improved, making it much quicker and easier to associate a photo with several albums. And you can do it right from the add photos page.
  • Optimized album list: the album manager loads in milliseconds, regardless of the number of albums in your Piwigo.
  • The album search function is available directly in the album list, without having to go to a dedicated tab.
  • More details on each new feature in the Piwigo 15 release note.

So, what do you think? We hope you like all these new features!

Get a sneak preview of Piwigo 14

Claire Michard on September 13, 2023

piwigo beta 14

Piwigo version 14 was released in beta 1 at the end of June 2023, followed by beta 2 in August. The biggest news in this version is a complete overhaul of the gallery search engine. Preview this feature in this article, and if you like, test it out and let us know what you think!

How to test Piwigo 14?

First of all, here are the main new features of Piwigo 14:

  • A complete overhaul of the gallery’s advanced search function
  • An overhaul of the Album page in administration
  • The ability to choose which administrators will be notified when a new user registers on the gallery
  • New icons for files not supported in Piwigo
  • Support for HEIC and WebP files

The feature that required the most work was the new advanced search. It required a lot of thought in terms of ergonomics, design and technical aspects.

And that’s precisely why we need your opinion!

If you can install Piwigo yourself on your environment, you can download Piwigo 14 in beta 2 at this address. Don’t hesitate to give us your feedback on the test forum.

If you can’t install Piwigo yourself, no problem: contact us at contact@piwigo.com. We’ll then give you early access to Piwigo 14, so you can test it and give us your feedback. Of course, this will have no impact on your Piwigo account.

Being a beta tester is the best way to help us get a new version up and running. But it also allows you to get involved and contribute to a Piwigo that really meets your needs!

What’s new in Piwigo 14

Gallery search redesigned

For now, when you enter text in your gallery’s search box, you’re taken to the results, but you can’t refine your search. 

The same applies if you use the detailed search: once the search results are displayed, you can’t modify your criteria or add new ones.

With Piwigo 14, we’re completely reinventing the way you search for content on your gallery!

Whatever search you need to make, you have access to a single page that displays both the criteria and the results.

search piwigo 14

Several criteria are currently available: 

  • text
  • tag
  • date added
  • album
  • user who added photo
  • author
  • file type (PNG, JPG, MP4…)

If you’re not interested in certain filters, you can hide them with a single click.

choose filters piwigo 14

From an album or tag page, you can launch a search that will apply to the batch already selected.

search in album piwigo 14

Watch this animation to see the new search in action.

recherche piwigo 14

NB: Don’t confuse this new search with the filters that can be set up using the Tag Groups plugin (read more in this article). In future, the two screens will be merged, but this is not yet the case.

Redesign of the album manager in administration

We’ve completely reworked the ergonomics of the album page in administration.

album manager piwigo 14

The aim was to make information more visible regardless of screen size. A “save” button is always visible at bottom right, and actions (open album, add photos, delete album, etc.) are accessible from icons at top right.

New icons for files unsupported by Piwigo

When you add a file to Piwigo for which a thumbnail cannot be generated (Word, Excel, Zip…), a modern, self-explanatory icon will now be displayed.

icons files piwigo 14

Choose which administrators are notified when a new user registers

If you have many administrators but don’t want them all to be notified when a new user subscribes, you can filter with a user group.

Support for HEIC and WebP files

HEIC is a photo format available on Apple devices since the release of iOS 11. This format generates images of higher quality than JPEG images, while taking up less space thanks to advanced compression technology.

WebP is a very popular image format on the web, as it enables very high quality images and animations to be displayed on a site, at a much smaller size than JPG or PNG formats.

Both formats will be supported by Piwigo from version 14 onwards.

And that’s it! What do you think of this new version? Don’t forget to contact us by email if you’d like to test the new multi-criteria search in preview!

What’s new in Piwigo 13?

Claire Michard on November 10, 2022

Available for download since October 11th, Piwigo 13 has been recently deployed on all customer accounts hosted on Piwigo.com. Let’s take a look at what’s new in this release, which focuses on the user experience!

Read More

Piwigo 2.7 on Piwigo.com

Pierrick Le Gall on September 29, 2014

As of November 24th 2014, 97.07% of Piwigo.com accounts have been upgraded to Piwigo 2.7

Piwigo 2.7 has been released 5 days ago. You can read 2.7 Release Notes to have full details about new features and improvements. Many of you already have already asked us how they can get it on their Piwigo.

A notification email when your Piwigo is automatically updated to version 2.7

A notification email when your Piwigo is automatically updated to version 2.7

On Piwigo.com, you don’t manage updates, so it’s useless to try by yourself. The update to Piwigo 2.7 will be applied automatically without any action from you. Then you are notified by email with a summary of changes. We have started to update Piwigo.com accounts.

Don’t forget to be patient :-). Piwigo 2.7 has been released but it doesn’t mean all plugins and themes are already compatible with this new version. The update can be performed once all your active plugins/themes are available in Piwigo 2.7. So if you want Piwigo 2.7 quickly, make sure you deactivate plugins you don’t really use.

Piwigo 2.6 on Piwigo.com

Pierrick Le Gall on January 30, 2014

As of March 12th 2014, all Piwigo.com accounts have been upgraded to Piwigo 2.6.

Some of you already know that Piwigo 2.6 has been released a few days ago (and even a bug fixing version 2.6.1). Once you have seen the 2.6 Release Notes, you naturally ask how to get this new version on your Piwigo.com.

New user manager in Piwigo 2.6: faster and easier to user

New user manager in Piwigo 2.6: faster and easier to user

Be patient. Yes Piwigo 2.6 has been released but it doesn’t mean all plugins and themes are already compatible with this new version. Many of them have been updated, so we’re going to start working on Piwigo 2.6 for Piwigo.com. We have a few changes to apply, such as the account manager (subscription, referrals, data retrieval).

On Piwigo.com, you don’t manage updates, so it’s useless to try by yourself. The update to Piwigo 2.6 will be applied automatically without any action from you. Then you are notified by email with a summary of changes. The update can be performed once all your active plugins/themes are available in Piwigo 2.6. So if you want Piwigo 2.6 quickly, make sure you deactivate plugins you don’t really use.

Stay tuned

Plugin Automatic Size replaces Autosize

Pierrick Le Gall on June 12, 2013

As described on previous post, plugin Autosize had too many problems. Anyway the feature of automatic photo size is an excellent one. Plugin Automatic Size is taking over, with a much simpler code (simpler code = less bug).

Plugin Automatic Size is now available for Piwigo 2.4 and 2.5 on Piwigo.com. Considering many users are still blocked on Piwigo 2.4 because they use Autosize, in the coming days we will change the upgrade script for accounts: if Autosize is activated, it will automatically be deactivated and Automatic Size will be activated. This will allow the upgrade to version 2.5.

Piwigo 2.5 on Piwigo.com

Pierrick Le Gall on March 7, 2013

As usual each time a major new version of Piwigo is released (version 2.5 this time) many Piwigo.com users ask how to upgrade. It’s nice to see how motivated you are! But you will have to be patient. As said on blog post Piwigo 2.4 and upgrade on Piwigo.com :

On Piwigo.com, you don’t manage updates, so it’s useless to try by yourself. The update to Piwigo 2.4 will be applied automatically without any action from you.

Version 2.5 is a much smaller step than version 2.4 was. It means that plugins and themes are simpler to adapt and that upgrades will occur sooner. I hope first photo galleries will be upgraded in less than 2 weeks.

New on Piwigo 2.5: as long as your thumbnail is not ready, we display a default icon.

New on Piwigo 2.5: as long as your thumbnail is not ready, we display a default icon.

Once your gallery is upgraded to version 2.5, you are notified by email with a summary of changes. The main advice to have your Piwigo upgraded to 2.5 as soon as possible: deactivate plugins you don’t really use.

For now, discover changes introduced in Piwigo 2.5.

Piwigo 2.4 and upgrade on Piwigo.com

Pierrick Le Gall on June 24, 2012

A few users of Piwigo.com have also subscribed to the newsletter on Piwigo.org and of course, since last friday they know about Piwigo 2.4 availability. Several of you have already asked us how to update their gallery.

 
On Piwigo.com, you don’t manage updates, so it’s useless to try by yourself. The update to Piwigo 2.4 will be applied automatically without any action from you. The next question is “when?”. Here follow a few details about how Piwigo is updated on Piwigo.com.

First we must slightly adapt and test Piwigo for Piwigo.com architecture. You must understand that on a given server, thousands independant galleries are installed but they are all running on the very same source code. This is what we call a “massively multisite” Piwigo.

Then we install Piwigo 2.4 on Piwigo.com and we start to switch galleries, one by one. Of course updates are automatic. What makes your gallery updated earlier or later? It mainly depends on the extensions you use. Indeed even if Piwigo 2.4 was released two days ago, most of the extensions are not compatible with 2.4 yet.

Progressively extensions are made compatible with Piwigo 2.4 and we install them on Piwigo.com. The upgrade script detects the extensions you use and if all the extensions are available on Piwigo 2.4, then it upgrades your gallery. Maybe it would be good that you deactivate all the extensions you don’t really use, if you want to upgrade as soon as possible.

Now you understand the process we use, but it doesn’t really answer your question “when?”!. Let’s go back in time and see how fast was the upgrade to Piwigo 2.3 on Piwigo.com: the first galleries were upgraded after 3 weeks and the latest after 8 weeks. Considering that version 2.4 brings much more changes than version 2.3, it would be a real performance if we finish with the same delay.

Once your gallery is upgraded to version 2.4, you are notified by email with a summary of changes. To sum up: be patient, Piwigo 2.4 and its major changes are coming soon on your gallery!

Theme Simple, album description under thumbnail

Pierrick Le Gall on January 30, 2012

Small update on theme Simple today. This update brings bug fixing such as centering photo on slideshow but also a new display option. On the albums page, it is now possible to display album title and description under the album thumbnail and not only next to the album thumbnail.

Piwigo and theme Simple: album description can be displayed under the album thumbnail

Piwigo and theme Simple: album description can be displayed under the album thumbnail

Piwigo and theme Simple: by default description is displayed next to the album thumbnail

Piwigo and theme Simple: by default description is displayed next to the album thumbnail

To configure theme Simple, open screen [Administration > Configuration > Themes] and click on the “Configuration” link in the Simple box.

Link to configure your theme in the administration

Link to configure your theme in the administration

This update automatically implies bug fixing and new option on child themes Simple White and Simple Black.

Theme Stripped version 2

Pierrick Le Gall on January 20, 2012

Theme Stripped, born only one year ago but already very popular among Piwigo users, is now updated to version 2. This theme was created by Julien Capitaine (aka Zaphod), amateur photographer, user and talented contributor to Piwigo. Version 2 brings improvements on graphical and layout sides.

1. 3 Styles

In the theme configuration, you can change the Interface style. You can chose between original, white and black. Style original looks like Stripped version 1. New styles white and black, which only differ by color, bring a different layout, especially on the photo page:

Piwigo and theme Stripped version 2, style White: whatever the height of your screen, the photo is centered.

Piwigo and theme Stripped version 2, style White: whatever the height of your screen, the photo is centered.

 

Piwigo and theme Stripped version 2, style White: information tabs are sticked on the bottom and when opened, the information are displayed over the photo.

Piwigo and theme Stripped version 2, style White: information tabs are sticked on the bottom and when opened, the information are displayed over the photo.

 

2. Photo Preloading

Stripped version 2 optionally offers to preload photos. For example, when a visitor opens the first photo in an album, then Stripped will automatically preload the next 5 photos. Number “5” can be modified. Result = faster browsing.

3. Optional Frame

Another new option in the configuration of Stripped: you can deactivate frame around thumbnails.

Piwigo with theme Stripped version 2, style Black: frame around thumbnails.

Piwigo with theme Stripped version 2, style Black: frame around thumbnails.

Piwigo with theme Stripped version 2, style Black: no frame around thumbnails.

Piwigo with theme Stripped version 2, style Black: no frame around thumbnails.

The very same option is available for the “web size” photo, which now becomes optional.

4. Navigation Arrows

In addition to navigation arrows that appear on top of the photo (that’s optional), Stripped version 2 can display two big arrows on the border of your screen, with a fixed position. See the first screenshot of this post.

5. Navigation Thumbnails

With Stripped version 1, it was possible to move from one photo to another by clicking on next/prev thumbnails. This feature disappears with version 2 because the required code was too complex and this feature was rarely used (navigation thumbnails remain available with other themes of course).

Now you can test new themes Stripped White and Stripped Black on Piwigo.com multiple themes demo →

Piwigo Version 2.3, Major Upgrade

Pierrick Le Gall on November 2, 2011

The vast majority of Piwigo.com galleries have now been upgraded to Piwigo 2.3. Our automatic upgrade tool has sent a notification email to each user as soon as his gallery gets upgraded.

 

So what’s new in your photo gallery with this major upgrade?

  • New design for the plugin manager
  • Many improvements on the photo upload manager
  • New sorting method for best rated photos
  • Better “lost password” feature for the members of your gallery and the  administrators don’t need to ask Piwigo.com support for a new password
  • Merge tags
  • Regenerate the websize photos and thumbnails
  • Crop thumbnail (square or panoramic)
  • New options for theme Stripped

Discover the full list of new features on Piwigo 2.3 release notes (screenshots and video inside).

PS: a few galleries are still running on Piwigo 2.2. This is the case if you use a Gally theme or if your main language is Chinese or Spanish. Please be patient, as soon as we have the compatible missing extensions, the automatic upgrade script will notify you.