Recently I'm using this workflow:
- Register a custom taxonomy for attachments
Use some code to add the feature of mass assign taxonomy terms to uploaded images
(Because I do these 2 tasks frequently I've created a plugin that implement them and more see here)
Create in a plugin a shorcode that looks like [gallery_term tag="landscapes, still_life"]. This shortcode takes the tag(s) passed as shorcode param and use them in a WP_Query with meta_query to retrieve images and output them.
Once done I need only to upload images and assign them a tag for every gallery to which they belongs (using my plugin for bulk assignment it's a cinch). The create a post (or a page, or a cpt) and use the shortcode. That's all.
This workflow is absloutely powerful and flexible:
- I can have galleries wherever I want: in pages, in posts, in custom post types, even in sidebar. I can use post (or pages or cpt) title, content, taxonomies & custom meta for gallery details.
- I can simply use the featured image as cover image for the gallery.
- Photos can belong to different taxonomies, and so to different galleries, without have to upload them multiple times or have to add image informations multiple times.
- All the features are implemented only via wp core features: solid and future proof!
A great piece of my workflow is done by the shortcode function, that is something like this:
add_shortcode( 'gallery_term', 'show_gallery_term' );
function show_gallery_term( $atts ) {
extract( shortcode_atts( array(
'tax' => 'media-tag', // this is the name of taxonomy registered by my plugin
'tags' => '',
'qv' => '', // query vars
'template' => 'gallery.php', 'item_template' => 'gallery-item.php',
'wrap' => 1, 'wrap_class' => 'gallery-wrap',
'class' => 'gallery', 'item_class' => 'gallery-item',
'th_size' => 'thumb',
'link' => 1, 'link_size' => 'full', 'link_rel' => '', 'permalink' => ''
), $atts ) );
// parse query vars
$qv = wp_parse_args($qv, 'order_by=menu_order&posts_per_page=-1&post_mime_type=image/jpeg,image/gif,image/jpg,image/png');
// force some query vars
$qv['post_type'] = 'attachment';
$qv['post_status'] = 'inherit';
$qv['paged'] = get_query_var('paged') ? : 1;
// the taxonomy query
if ( $tax && in_array( $tax, get_object_taxonomies('attachment')) && ! empty($tags) ) {
$qv['meta_query'] = array( array(
'taxonomy' => $tax, 'field' => 'slug', 'terms' => $tags, 'operator' => 'IN'
) );
}
$images = new WP_Query($qv);
if ( $images->have_posts() ) {
$template = apply_filters('def_gallery_template', $template);
global $gallery_query, $gallery_atts;
$gallery_query = $images;
$gallery_atts = $atts;
ob_start();
if ( ! locate_template($template, true, false) ) { // use a template file to display gallery
if ($wrap) echo '<div class="' . esc_attr($wrap_class) . '">';
echo '<ul class="' . esc_attr($class) . '">';
$item_template = apply_filters('def_gallery_item_template', $item_template);
while ( $images->have_posts() ) :
$images->the_post();
if ( ! locate_template($item_template, true, false) ) { // use a template file to display gallery items
echo '<li class="' . esc_attr($item_class) . '">';
$th = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_the_ID(), $th_size);
$title = esc_attr( get_the_title() );
$rel = $link_rel ? ' rel="' . esc_attr($link_rel) . '" ' : '';
$link_format = '<a href="%s" title="%s"%s>';
if ($link) { // link to another size
$big = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_the_ID(), $link_size);
printf($link_format, $big[0], $title, $rel);
} elseif ( $permalink ) { // link post attachment permalink
printf($link_format, get_permalink(), $title, $rel);
}
printf('<img src="%s" alt="%s" width="%d" height="%d" />', $th[0], $title, $th[1], $th[2]);
if ( $link || $permalink ) echo '</a>';
echo '</li>';
}
endwhile;
echo '</ul>';
if ($wrap) echo '</div>';
}
unset($gallery_query, $gallery_atts);
wp_reset_postdata();
return ob_get_clean();
}
}
This function provide huge flexibility, in fact:
- I can use the file
gallery.php in current theme to output my
gallery (using global $gallery_query variable). If I want to use
another template I can change it passing name via shortcode param or
via a filter.
- Is possible don't use any template for all gallery, but use a template for
any gallery item. The default is
gallery-item.php but again I can
change it via shortcode or via filter. Using this template the
attachment post is accessible in the global $post variable, so all
template tags works
- Is also possible don't use any template at all and let function output the html. In this case a lot of options let configure the resulting html.
- If one is lazy can use shortcode in like this:
[gallery_term tag="atag"] and do not create any template file... it works!
- The workflow is javascript agnostic: In the theme is possible enqueue the desired script go wild with it. Want to chang theme and chang script: no problem at all!
