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Album Management

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fjb2020 edited this page Jan 23, 2026 · 1 revision

Managing Albums and Album Sets

Overview

This plugin is able to manage albums and album sets on Piwigo.

LrC uses Published Collection Sets and Published Collections to manage photographs it publishes via Publish Services. These are analogous to Piwigo albums and sub albums with the following differences:

  • Piwigo allows an album to contain both photographs and sub-albums.
  • Lightroom Classic does not allow this:
    • A Published Collection Set may contain only child Published Collection Sets or Published Collections, but no photographs.
    • A Published Collection may contain photographs, but no child collection sets.
    • Piwigo allows multiple albums with the same name under the same parent album.
    • Lightroom Classic does not allow this:
      • Published Collections with the same name may exist only if they have different parent Collection Sets.
      • During import, any albums with duplicate names under the same parent are ignored.

The plugin can:

  • Import an existing Piwigo album structure into Lightroom Classic (LrC).

    • If a Piwigo album contains sub-albums, a corresponding Published Collection Set is created in the LrC Publish Service.
    • If a Piwigo album contains only photographs (that is, no sub-albums), or is empty, a Published Collection is created in the LrC Publish Service.

  • Create Special Collections to overcome the LrC constraint that prevents Published Collection Sets from containing photographs.

  • Link an existing published collection sets and published collections structure to a Piwigo host, creating any missing Piwigo albums and creating necessary links between the two.

  • manage the Piwigo album structure directly from Lightroom Classic:

  • Create new albums containing photographs

    • Right-click in the Publish Service and choose:
      • Create Piwigo Album…
      • Create Piwigo Album (Smart Collection)…

  • Create new albums intended to contain sub-albums

    • Right-click in the Publish Service and choose:
      • Create Piwigo Album (Set for sub-albums)…

  • Convert an album containing phototgraphs to one containing sub-albums

  • Rename Albums, and manage descriptions and privacy settings

    • Right-click on an album and select Edit Piwigo Album
    • Full details

  • Re-parent albums

    • Drag and drop Published Collections or Collection Sets to a new parent.

  • Delete albums

    • Right-click and select Delete…

Special Collections

The plugin provides an optional Special Collections feature

  • A Special Collection named [Photos in <Collection Set Name> ] is created for each Published Collection Set.
  • This Special Collection is linked to the corresponding parent album in Piwigo.
  • Any photos placed in the Special Collection are published directly to the parent Piwigo album.
  • Special collections cannot be re-named or re-parented.

Converting Published Collections

  • Convert a Published Collection to a Published Collection Set + Special Collection
  • Library ▸ Plug-in Extras
  • Creates a Special Collection within the new set and moves photos from the old collection into it.
  • Enables sub-albums under an album initially intended for photos only.

Album Naming Constraints

  • Piwigo allows multiple albums with the same name under the same parent album.
  • Lightroom Classic does not allow this:
    • Published Collections with the same name may exist only if they have different parent Collection Sets.
  • During import, any albums with duplicate names under the same parent are ignored.

Changes Made Directly in Piwigo

Piwigo has no awareness of Lightroom Classic’s collection structure or constraints. As a result:

  • Changes made directly to the album structure in Piwigo are not automatically reflected in Lightroom Classic.

Re-running the Import Albums Operation

The Import Albums routine may be run at any time.

When re-run:

  • Any new Piwigo albums that are missing from this Publish Service are imported, subject to the constraints described above.
  • The following limitations apply:
    • If a sub-album has been added in Piwigo to an album that previously had no sub-albums, an error is reported and the album is not imported.
    • Albums with duplicate names under the same parent are ignored.
    • Published Collections that no longer have corresponding Piwigo albums are not removed.
    • If the Synchronise Album Descriptions option is enabled then album descriptions set in Piwigo are imported as plain text only.
      • formatting is not imported from Piwigo
    • Album permission settings (public/private) are imported

Re-running the Check and Link Piwigo Structure Operation

The Check and Link Piwigo Structure routine may be run at any time:

  • Exisitng collections will be unaffected.
  • Any missing Piwigo albums will be created.
  • Links between LrC collections and Piwigo albums will be checked and updated if necessary.

Re-running the Create Special Collections Operation

The Create Special Collections routine may be run at any time:

  • Existing Special Collections are left unchanged.
  • Special Collections are created for any Published Collection Sets added since the last run of this option.
  • See also Special Collections

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