Why can I not add photos from media library to a gallery?

Hi,

It’s basically that WordPress could implement something, but it mightn’t fit everyone’s usage. So rather than push everyone down one way of doing things the kind people at WordPress left it so it was very flexible. This means one can (if they have the coding ability) develop their own once off solutions which allows for a near endless way of doing things.

By doing it this way, WordPress has given rise to a plethora of Gallery Plugins, each with their own way of doing things, but each equally good in their own right. You basically need to find the one that suits you best.

My preference in order to manage my galleries is NextGen Gallery. It’s extendable and excellent at what it does.

Hope this helps you.
Thanks,
Harry

I second that, NextGen is one of most popular plugins listed here and used.

I installed it but it still seems that you can’t take images from your Media Library, you need to upload so the whole problem is still there. Galleries I can make, but take images from the media library is apparently very hard to fix.

Or am I missing something?

Well NextGen is effectively another Media Library, but has better image management for large quantities of photos. I’d recommend using it.

Marcus is correct, NextGen does not have any way to pull individual images off the server, just complete folders. Seems very short-sighted to me as well, I always hoped Mr. Rabe would fix that.

The problem with developing an app/plugin used by thousands of people is that you’ll invariably run into some people who would it expect it to work differently.

The reason it doesn’t and I’m pretty sure will never alter the Media Library is because in future the database structure could change, thus the plugin could end up incorrectly altering the database and borking it entirely. The plugin offers the feature of importing existing files on the server. Which is quite handy. I think the plugin in this regard operates as expected. It also allows someone to maintain a photo gallery, and then keep the media library for videos/documents as well as other images for use in posts. This is just my opinion on why it is actually a good thing that the Gallery is separate from the Media Library, I see it as a distinct advantage.

I would suggest either taking the approach of investigating a number of other solutions available, and measuring them against your ideal expected solution. For the initial short term pain you could find long term gain.

It is quite possible to add a single image from a gallery…use a created gallery to add items…when posting, use the NextGen Gallery button in the Kitchen Sink and you see the options to add a single pic…also, this plugin is not used by thousands, it is used by many millions…

Didn’t want to overstate it, I guessed millions, but didn’t have actual figures ??

I know about adding an image in a post, nothing wrong with that. It’s when you are creating a new gallery, there is no way to grab existing single images from other galleries or from your already uploaded images. I don’t see how grabbing one of those images can, ummm… bork?… the database any more than grabbing it from your hard drive or any other url. Get it, apply a unique name, save it, done.

I admit I could be missing a step, but it seem do-able.

It seems very doable, so instead of posting critically about it, why don’t you do it and give the code to the plugin developer for the next release?

This post started about a particular problem, I offered a possible solution based on the facts give and this has now descended into criticising both my suggestion as well as a 3rd party plugin.

I feel like I have to justify the plugin, it’s a damn good plugin. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. It doesn’t bother me.

Sorry for trying to help, I’ve learned my lesson to not volunteer my services again.

As the starter of this post I just have to say I am happy for the different suggestions and explanations so whatever people say to criticize you, I don’t agree. I just accept the facts why this can’t be done and still feel it should be some way for wordpress to go around it.

What you could do is with NextGen gallery is to only upload through that and use galleries I guess but it’s still complicated and messy. Would be so easy if wordpress just fixed so you can add photos from media library. I do not know much about coding but compared to other websites it should be very doable.

Thanks for explaining ??

I didn’t say criticise me, I said criticising the suggested solutions ?? I’m sure there is a workaround.

@marcusgrip
You’ve probably worked this out by now but anyway it may be helpful for someone – I’ve just been having a play around with the built in WP gallery function and to address your initial question, I don’t think it’s necessary to ‘upload’ your pictures again so (you have multiple copies of the same pic) to create a new gallery.

The other way (though it’s a little unintuitive and I think where improvement could be made without imposing constraints or affecting the flexibility of WordPress) is to add the existing photos you want to be in your ‘gallery’ to the new post from the media library as per usual. You’ll then find the gallery tab appears in the media uploader. Click on this and choose your gallery options and insert.

Then you’ll have to delete the code for the photos you have inserted but leaving the gallery shortcode there.

In order to add extra images to this gallery you’ll need to add them to the post, then delete the code again – leaving the original gallery shortcode in place. You will find your new photos are now in the gallery.

This does seem a little bizarre to me. I can’t really see how including a facility within the gallery tab to add images directly from the media library to a gallery could have any negative effect.

It may be one of those things that is not on the list of priorities for WP development or there may well be other considerations.

I’ve used NextGen on a number of sites and it’s a great plugin, however, for many people it adds layers of complexity and management when all they want is a simple way to add a basic gallery.

The built in WP gallery functionality is so close to doing that it would be great to see some small improvements made.

Notwithstanding the above, full credit to WP dev team and all plugin developers everywhere for making WordPress awesome.

This. I’ve been using WordPress for 5 years, and hoped with every release that this awkwardness would be fixed. Just a check box by each image and an “add to gallery” button. NextGen is a bloated and unnecessary addition for many sites.

Consider all of the themes that now rely on a gallery of attachments to display images.