Donna Peplinskie (a11n)

Chuck Grimmett

Kim Clow

Fernando Fernandes

Dave Whitley

Automattic Special Projects

oh_hello

Kathryn Presner

Vegard S.

racheleliza

luisasacchetto

<p>Album Importer for Google Photos lets you quickly import images from a public Google Photos album into your WordPress site and show them as a gallery. Add the block to any post or page, paste a Google Photos album URL, and start the import — the images are added to your Media Library and displayed automatically.</p>
<h4>Basic Usage</h4>
<ol>
<li>Create or edit a post/page where you want the gallery.</li>
<li>Add the “Google Photos Album” block.</li>
<li>From Google Photos, share your album and copy the public link.</li>
<li>Paste the album URL into the block.</li>
<li>Click Start Import.</li>
<li>Wait for completion — the gallery is created automatically.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Album URL Format</h4>
<p>Use a publicly shared Google Photos album URL, for example:</p>
<pre><code>https://photos.app.goo.gl/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
</code></pre>
<h3>External services</h3>
<p>This plugin relies on Google Photos (a third-party service operated by Google LLC) to read and import publicly shared album content. No data is sent to any external service unless an authorized user explicitly provides a Google Photos album URL to the plugin. There are two entry points that trigger requests to Google:</p>
<ol>
<li>The “Album Importer for Google Photos” block in the post/page editor — pasting an album URL and clicking “Start Import”.</li>
<li>The “Import from Google Photos” button that the plugin adds to the media-selection modal of core Image, Gallery, Cover, and Media & Text blocks — pasting an album URL into the modal and clicking “Load album”.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Google Photos</h4>
<p>What it is and what it is used for: Google Photos is Google’s photo hosting and sharing service. The plugin uses it to fetch the contents of a publicly shared album so the images can be saved into the WordPress media library and rendered as a gallery.</p>
<p>What data is sent and when:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Verify the album (server -> Google).</strong> When an authorized editor pastes an album URL and triggers verification (clicking “Start Import” in the block, or “Load album” in the media-library modal), the plugin makes a server-side HTTP GET request to the album URL on <code>photos.google.com</code> or <code>photos.app.goo.gl</code> to retrieve the album’s public HTML page and parse the list of image URLs.</li>
<li><strong>Render thumbnail previews (browser -> Google).</strong> After verification returns the list of images, the plugin renders thumbnails directly in the editor by setting each image URL as the <code>src</code> of an <code><img></code> tag. This causes the editor user’s browser to make HTTP GET requests to <code>lh3.googleusercontent.com</code> for each thumbnail.</li>
<li><strong>Filename inference (server -> Google).</strong> For each image to be imported, the plugin makes a server-side HTTP HEAD request to <code>lh3.googleusercontent.com</code> to read the <code>Content-Disposition</code> header (the import continues even if this request fails).</li>
<li><strong>Image download (server -> Google).</strong> For each image, the plugin issues a server-side HTTP GET request to <code>lh3.googleusercontent.com</code> to download the image bytes and store them as a WordPress media attachment.</li>
<li>No user credentials, account information, or telemetry are collected or transmitted by the plugin. The only data the plugin sends is the album URL the editor pastes (and the derived image URLs from that album).</li>
</ul>
<p>Use of Google’s services is subject to Google’s terms:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://policies.google.com/terms" rel="nofollow ugc">Google Terms of Service</a></li>
<li><a href="https://policies.google.com/privacy" rel="nofollow ugc">Google Privacy Policy</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Source Code</h3>
<p>The full, unminified source code for this plugin — including the JavaScript and CSS sources used to generate the compiled files in <code>assets/js/build/</code> and <code>blocks/build/</code> — is publicly available on <a href="https://github.com/a8cteam51/importer-google-photos" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.</p>
<p>Build tools and instructions:</p>
<ul>
<li>JavaScript and CSS are built with <code>@wordpress/scripts</code> (webpack) via npm.</li>
<li>PHP dependencies are managed with Composer.</li>
<li>To build the plugin from source, clone the repository and run:
<ol>
<li><code>npm ci</code></li>
<li><code>npm run build</code></li>
<li><code>composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader</code></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>A <code>build.sh</code> script in the repository produces a distributable ZIP that mirrors the version published here.</li>
<li>JavaScript and SCSS sources are located in <code>assets/js/src/</code> (e.g. <code>style.scss</code>) and <code>blocks/src/album/</code> (e.g. <code>editor.scss</code>). They are compiled by <code>@wordpress/scripts</code> into the <code>assets/js/build/</code> and <code>blocks/build/</code> directories.</li>
</ul>


Album Importer for Google Photos

Import Google Photos albums into your WordPress media library and display them in a beautiful gallery block.

Jan Zeman

<p>Shared Albums for Google Photos (by JanZeman) allows you to easily display publicly shared Google Photos albums in your WordPress posts and pages using a simple shortcode. The plugin uses the modern Swiper library to provide a beautiful, touch-enabled gallery experience.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This plugin is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google LLC. Google Photos™ is a trademark of Google LLC.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Google Photos Gallery And Slider</strong> – Display public Google Photos albums as responsive galleries or sliders</li>
<li><strong>Photo And Video Support</strong> – Supports both images and videos from shared Google Photos albums</li>
<li><strong>Fullscreen Viewer</strong> – Mobile-friendly fullscreen viewing with touch gestures, keyboard controls, and slideshow support</li>
<li><strong>Photo Info Overlays</strong> – Dynamic placeholders for counters, filenames, dimensions, dates, and EXIF data</li>
<li><strong>Download And Link Buttons</strong> – Optional inline and fullscreen action buttons</li>
<li><strong>Performance Features</strong> – Lazy loading, progressive loading, caching, and large album support</li>
<li><strong>Shortcode Playground</strong> – Admin-only sandbox on the Settings page for experimenting with <code>[jzsa-album]</code> shortcodes and previews</li>
<li><strong>Mosaic Strip</strong> – Optional mosaic thumbnail strip alongside the main viewer, including a fullscreen mosaic mode</li>
</ul>
<p>Many more customization parameters and samples are available on the plugin’s Settings & Onboarding page.</p>
<h4>How It Works</h4>
<p>The plugin fetches your public Google Photos album and creates a responsive gallery. Simply paste the share link from Google Photos into the shortcode.</p>
<h4>Security & Error Handling</h4>
<ul>
<li>SSRF protection – validates Google Photos URLs</li>
<li>Proper output escaping for XSS prevention</li>
<li>WordPress coding standards compliant</li>
<li>Swiper library bundled locally</li>
<li>User-friendly error messages for invalid album links</li>
</ul>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<h4>Basic Usage</h4>
<pre><code>[jzsa-album link="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOg3EA51ATc_YWHyfcffDCzNZFsVTU_uBqSEKFix7LY80DIgH3lMkLwt4QDTHd8EQ?key=RGwySFNhbmhqMFBDbnZNUUtwY0stNy1XV1JRbE9R"]
</code></pre>
<h4>Common Example</h4>
<pre><code>[jzsa-album link="https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOg3EA51ATc_YWHyfcffDCzNZFsVTU_uBqSEKFix7LY80DIgH3lMkLwt4QDTHd8EQ?key=RGwySFNhbmhqMFBDbnZNUUtwY0stNy1XV1JRbE9R" mode="slider" corner-radius="16" show-link-button="true" show-download-button="true"]
</code></pre>
<h4>Shortcode Parameters</h4>
<p>The only required parameter is <strong>link</strong> – the Google Photos share URL.</p>
<p>All other parameters are optional.</p>
<p>This readme intentionally keeps shortcode examples short to avoid drift.</p>
<p>For the complete and current parameter reference, defaults, inheritance rules, a very very large number of customization parameters, many samples, and the shortcode playground, use the plugin’s <strong>Settings & Onboarding</strong> page in WordPress admin:</p>
<pre><code>Settings -> Shared Albums for Google Photos
</code></pre>
<h4>Getting Your Album Share Link</h4>
<ol>
<li>Open Google Photos and select an album</li>
<li>Click the share button (or three-dot menu > Share)</li>
<li>Click “Create link” or “Get link”</li>
<li>
<p>Copy the album share link and paste it into the shortcode:</p>
<p>[jzsa-album link=”https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNxLo…”]</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Important:</strong> The album must be public (shared via link) for the plugin to access it.</p>
<h3>Credits</h3>
<ul>
<li>Uses <a href="https://swiperjs.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Swiper</a> – MIT License</li>
<li>Uses <a href="https://plyr.io/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plyr</a> – MIT License</li>
<li>Developed by Jan Zeman</li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy Policy</h3>
<p>This plugin does not collect or store any user data.</p>
<h4>Use of external Google services</h4>
<ul>
<li>The plugin fetches public Google Photos album pages from <code>https://photos.google.com</code> and image files from <code>*.googleusercontent.com</code> in order to render the galleries.</li>
<li>Only publicly shared album links are supported; the plugin has no access to private albums or any content that is not already available via a public share link.</li>
<li>The plugin does not collect, store, or transmit user credentials or personal data. It only caches album HTML and image URLs in WordPress transients for performance, and this cache is stored locally in your WordPress database.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Support</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Bug reports:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/JanZeman/shared-albums-for-google-photos/issues/new" rel="nofollow ugc">Open an issue on GitHub</a></li>
<li><strong>Feature requests:</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/janzeman-shared-albums-for-google-photos/" rel="ugc">Post on the support forum</a></li>
<li><strong>Leave a rating:</strong> <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/janzeman-shared-albums-for-google-photos/reviews/#new-post" rel="ugc">Review on WordPress.org</a></li>
<li><strong>Buy Me a Coffee:</strong> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/janzeman" rel="nofollow ugc">buymeacoffee.com/janzeman</a></li>
</ul>


Shared Albums for Google Photos (by JanZeman)


I was excited to see your plugin in the new section here and downloaded it. to check it out.



It was an easy install with good instructions with easy-to-understand shortcodes.  It took a while to get the yellow and red banners away, but I learned more about the shortcode with each try.  If I may offer an opinion on some of the features, I liked the image quality and speed.  I ran through most of the shortcodes; I was hoping gallery mode meant a grid of images with pagination.  In carousel mode, I feel it would be best, if clicking on one of the 3 panel images, it took you to that particular image's full, non-cropped image.



I am not sure if any of these suggestions could be accomplished by shortcode, but I thought I would give you some feedback.  Appreciate your work!






Nice, but ...

Display publicly shared Google Photos albums with a modern, responsive Swiper-based gallery viewer.

Album Importer for Google Photos vs Shared Albums for Google Photos (by JanZeman)