mbergann

This plugin creates a video-gallery for youtube- or vimeo-videos or direct video-file-links by simply defining the gallery with shortcodes. 
The Videos will be opened in a lightbox.
By default the “<a href="https://photoswipe.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">PhotoSwipe</a>“-Lightbox of Dmitry Semenov is used. 
(at the moment it is the only one)
This plugin is really simple and clean designed to be easily extendable. 
* there is a “src/VideoProvider”-directory where every Video-Platform (like youtube or vimeo) is defined in an own php-class implementing a class-interface. 
* there is a “src/Lightbox”-directory where every lightbox is defined in an own php-class, implementing a class-interface 
* there is a “src/Shortcodes”-directory where the “[video-gallery]”-Shortcode is defined – that is where the magic happenes – but there is no need to edit this file.
<h4>Parameters and video-provider-specific specials</h4>
All parameters – general parameters and also video-provider-specific parameters are set directly in the [[video-gallery]]-Shortcode.
<h4>general</h4>
 parameter 
 description 
 default
 lightbox 
 name of the lightbox-class that should be used 
 PhotoSwipe
<h4>Youtube</h4>
 parameter 
 description 
 default
 yt_nocookie 
 use youtube-nocookie.com instead of youtube.com in video-links to be GDPR(DSGVO)-save 
 true
<h4>Vimeo</h4>
In vimeo the preview-image-URL doesn’t use the video-ID – so you need to make an API-request to get the image-URL. 
In this API-call we also get the original title of the video. 
For this reason we need the php CURL extension. 
The thumbnail will be taken from the API-response. 
When no manual video-title is defined, the video-provider-class uses also the original video-title from API-response automaticly.
<h3>Extending the Plugin</h3>
You can easily extend the Plugin by writing your own classes for Video-Platforms or other Lightboxes – you just have to implement the Interfaces.

Video-Link-Gallery

Video-Gallery defined by shortcodes for youtube, vimeo and direct links, opening videos in a lightbox (default-lightbox: "PhotoSwipe")

Global AI

Global AI Gallery creates clean, functional galleries on any WordPress site:
<ul>
<li>Dedicated Custom Post Types for Galleries and Albums</li>
<li>Responsive Grid layout (1–6 configurable columns)</li>
<li>PhotoSwipe 5 lightbox with keyboard, arrow and touch swipe navigation</li>
<li>YouTube support — paste a URL and the plugin handles the thumbnail and playback</li>
<li>Native Elementor widget</li>
<li>Schema.org ImageGallery markup for SEO</li>
<li>Accessible — ARIA, focus trap, screen-reader friendly</li>
<li>Multi-language ready — Polylang/WPML compatible, .pot file included</li>
<li>No external dependencies — everything is vendored, no CDN calls</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pro Version</h4>
The Pro add-on (sold separately) adds Masonry, Justified and Carousel layouts, Vimeo and self-hosted videos, premium lightbox with zoom/share/download, animated filters, interactive albums, and premium templates. Learn more at https://globalai.software/plugin-global-ai-gallery
<h3>External services</h3>
This plugin connects to YouTube to display video content that the site administrator has chosen to add to a gallery or album. No data is sent unless an admin explicitly adds a YouTube URL to a gallery item.
YouTube thumbnail lookup (i.ytimg.com) 
When a gallery item is a YouTube video, the plugin requests the thumbnail URL from <code>https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<video-id>/maxresdefault.jpg</code> (with a fallback to <code>hqdefault.jpg</code>) using <code>wp_remote_head()</code>. Only the video ID is sent in the URL. The result (a URL string) is cached locally for 24 hours via WordPress transients to avoid repeat requests. 
– Data sent: the YouTube video ID that the administrator added. 
– When: the first time a gallery containing that video is rendered, and every 24 hours after the cache expires. 
– Service provider: Google LLC. 
– Terms of service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms 
– Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
YouTube embed iframe (youtube.com or youtube-nocookie.com) 
When a visitor opens a YouTube video in the lightbox, the browser loads the embed from <code>https://www.youtube.com/embed/<video-id></code> — or, if the “Use youtube-nocookie.com” setting is enabled (Settings → Global AI Gallery), from <code>https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/<video-id></code>. This is a standard browser iframe; the plugin does not perform any server-side request. 
– Data sent: the YouTube video ID, plus whatever YouTube itself collects from the visitor’s browser (User-Agent, Referer, cookies — unless the cookieless host is used). 
– When: only when a visitor actually plays a YouTube video on the page. 
– Service provider: Google LLC. 
– Terms and privacy: same links as above.
The plugin does not contact any other external service. No telemetry, analytics, license servers, or auto-update endpoints are called by this Free version.
<h3>Security</h3>
This plugin exposes one public REST endpoint to support deferred rendering of galleries from the frontend without requiring a logged-in user:
<pre><code>GET /wp-json/global-ai-gallery/v1/render/<id> — returns the HTML for a single published gallery. The endpoint declares `permission_callback => __return_true` (public) because a published gallery is public content by definition, exactly like the post that embeds it. The handler then enforces a real read-permission check before rendering anything:
</code></pre>
1. <code><id></code> is sanitised with <code>absint()</code> and validated to be a positive integer before reaching the handler. 
2. The post must exist and be of the <code>gawpg_gallery</code> custom post type; otherwise a 404 <code>WP_Error</code> is returned. 
3. Read access is checked the same way WordPress core checks it (<code>WP_REST_Posts_Controller::check_read_permission()</code>): a <code>publish</code> gallery is readable by anyone, but any non-public status (draft, pending, private, future, trash) only renders when the current user actually has read access to that specific post (<code>current_user_can( 'read_post', $id )</code>) — otherwise 404. 
4. Password-protected galleries are never rendered without the password. <code>post_password_required()</code> is honoured (respecting the <code>wp-postpass</code> cookie), returning a 401/403 <code>WP_Error</code> when the password has not been entered. 
5. The endpoint only returns rendered HTML; it never reads or writes user data, options, transients, or any other server state.
This is the same content the visitor can already see by visiting the gallery’s public page or any post that embeds it via the shortcode, so making the endpoint authenticated would add no privacy or security benefit.

Global AI Gallery

Image and video gallery with premium PhotoSwipe lightbox and a native Elementor widget. Accessible, SEO-ready, YouTube support.

Video-Link-Gallery vs Global AI Gallery