Compiler user manual

NAME

ldgallery - a static web gallery generator with tags

DESCRIPTION

ldgallery is a static gallery generator which turns a collection of tagged media files into a searchable web gallery.

The ldgallery compiler program processes pictures and aggregates metadata from plain text sidecar files to generate an indexed version of the gallery. It can optionally output a static web viewer along, which allows the content to be presented and searched through from a JavaScript-enabled web browser. This client-side web application does not require any special software on the server’s side.

COMMAND

ldgallery [--input-dir ./] [--output-dir ./out] [--with-viewer]

Available options are:

-i, --input-dir DIR: Gallery source directory. Defaults to the current directory.
-o, --output-dir DIR: Generated gallery output path. Must be distinct from the source directory. Defaults to ./out.
-x, --output-index FILE: Generated gallery index output path. Defaults to <output-dir>/index.json.
-g, --gallery-config FILE: Gallery configuration file. Defaults to <input-dir>/gallery.yaml.
-r, --rebuild-all: Invalidate cache and recompile everything. By default, the compiler skips items which haven’t changed based on their modification time.
-c, --clean-output: Remove unnecessary files from the output directory.
-w, --with-viewer[=DIR]: Deploy either the bundled or the given static web viewer to the output directory. The compiled gallery itself is then placed in <output-dir>/gallery.
-h, --help: Display help message.
--version: Print version information.
--numeric-version: Print just the version number.

INPUT GALLERY STRUCTURE

A gallery source directory contains the gallery items and their sidecar metadata files, optionally grouped inside sub-directories.

Thumbnails can be associated to items by suffixing their name with “_thumbnail”, followed by an image file extension. Directory thumbnails can be placed within their respective directories themselves, without any prefix.

An example input gallery directory structure could be as follows:

./example-gallery
├── DSC0001.jpg ----------------- a picture
├── DSC0001.jpg.yaml ------------ its associated sidecar metadata file
├── Some directory -------------- a directory grouping gallery items
│   ├── _directory.yaml --------- directory sidecar metadata file
│   ├── _thumbnail.jpg ---------- a thumbnail for its parent directory
│   ├── DSC0002.jpg
│   ├── DSC0002.jpg.yaml
│   ├── song.ogg
│   ├── song.ogg.yaml
│   └── song.ogg_thumbnail.jpg -- a thumbnail for song.ogg
└── gallery.yaml ---------------- gallery settings file

METADATA SIDECAR

File metadata are read from sidecar files of the same name, with the “.yaml” extension appended. Metadata contained within item files themselves (e.g. Exif fields for pictures) are ignored.

Directory metadata are read from sidecar files named “_directory.yaml” located within the directory.

When a sidecar file is absent or a particular key omitted, values are set as empty or to their fallback value specified below.

title: Title of the item. Defaults to the name of the file or directory.
datetime: ISO 8601 zoned date and time. Defaults to the last modification time of the file itself, or the most recent modification date of a directory’s items.
description: Optional description for the item. Rich text formatting is possible through the use of the GitHub Flavoured Markdown syntax.

tags: List of tags for the item. Tag categories can be defined using prefixes separated by “:” (colon). Tags specified in a directory metadata sidecar are applied to all items within that directory.

GALLERY CONFIGURATION

The gallery settings reside in a file named gallery.yaml located at the root of the gallery’s source directory.

Gallery configurations options are:

galleryTitle: Title of the gallery. Defaults to “ldgallery”.
includedDirectories[]: Glob patterns of directory names to include in the gallery. Defaults to [“*”] (matches all directory names).
excludedDirectories[]: Glob patterns of directory names to exclude from the gallery. Defaults to [] (none).
includedFiles[]: Glob patterns of file names to include in the gallery. Defaults to [“*”] (matches all file names).
excludedFiles[]: Glob patterns of file names to exclude from the gallery. Defaults to [] (none).
includedTags[]: Glob patterns of tags to include in the gallery. Items with no tags can be matched with the empty pattern. Defaults to [“*”] (matches all tags, includes untagged items).
excludedTags[]: Glob patterns of tags to exclude from the gallery. Defaults to [] (none).
tagCategories[]: Top-level tag categories. Defaults to [] (none).
tagsFromDirectories.fromParents: Automatically generate tags from the name of parent directories, looking up in the hierarchy as far as indicated by this parameter. Defaults to 0 (does not generate tags from parent directories).
tagsFromDirectories.prefix: Prefix to use for tags automatically generated from the parent directories’ names.
thumbnailMaxResolution.width: Maximum width in pixels of the item thumbnails, 400 by default.
thumbnailMaxResolution.height: Maximum height in pixels of the item thumbnails, 300 by default.
pictureMaxResolution.width: Maximum width in pixels of the picture items, unlimited by default.
pictureMaxResolution.height: Maximum height in pixels of the picture items, unlimited by default.

LICENSE

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html.

ldgallery

LDGALLERY(1) ldgallery