Version: 1.2.0
HiGallery displays photo folders from your STRATO HiDrive account as albums on a WordPress website.
Images are not imported into the WordPress Media Library.
All files remain stored in HiDrive and are retrieved on demand via a WordPress REST proxy.
This plugin is designed for users who manage photo collections outside WordPress and want to avoid Media Library duplication.
- Folder-based albums sourced directly from HiDrive
- No Media Library imports
- WordPress-native REST integration
- Optimized for performance and large collections
- Explicit, documented security model
- Display albums using shortcodes
- Display albums using a Gutenberg block
- Automatic detection of sub-albums and images
- Dynamic “All albums” view via shortcode
- Public REST proxy for image delivery
- Configurable album cover images
- Lazy loading for images
- Short-term caching to reduce API load
HiGallery supports two rendering methods with different behavior.
Example:
[higallery_all_albums]
- Albums are loaded dynamically at runtime.
- The current HiDrive folder structure is queried when the page is viewed.
- Newly added albums become visible automatically (subject to cache TTL).
Recommended when fully dynamic behavior is required.
- Album selection is stored as static block attributes.
- When “Select all albums” is chosen, the album list is saved at block configuration time.
- Newly added albums do not automatically appear in existing blocks.
- To include new albums, the block must be edited and saved again.
This behavior is inherent to how Gutenberg blocks serialize configuration data.
- HiGallery uses a short internal cache (approximately 5 minutes).
- HiDrive remains the source of truth.
- New albums usually appear within a few minutes.
If page caching or a CDN is used, additional delay may occur. Exclude gallery pages from page caching if immediate visibility is required.
HiGallery exposes a public REST proxy endpoint to retrieve images and album data from HiDrive.
Important properties:
- The endpoint is intentionally public.
- No WordPress login is required for read-only access.
- Requests are strictly limited to the configured HiGallery root folder.
- Content outside this root folder is not accessible.
This model is suitable for public galleries. It is not intended for members-only or private content.
Users should configure a dedicated HiDrive folder containing only content intended for public display.
- WordPress 6.0 or higher
- PHP 8.0 or higher
- STRATO HiDrive account with API access
- Upload the
higalleryfolder to/wp-content/plugins/ - Activate the plugin via the WordPress admin panel
- Configure HiDrive access in the HiGallery settings
- Add a shortcode or Gutenberg block to a page
This repository is intended for development and issue tracking.
End users should install HiGallery via WordPress.org when published.
GPLv2 or later