How to create a WordPress gallery from an XML file

Product:

WonderPlugin Portfolio Grid Gallery Version 13.6 or above

Tutorial:

This tutorial will guide you how to create a WordPress gallery from an XML file with the WonderPlugin Portfolio Grid Gallery.

Step 1 - Create an XML file

Using XML allows you to define a playlist of images and videos outside of your WordPress. For example, if your image and video files are hosted on Amazon S3, you can use the XML file to directly define the image and video URL and display them in the gallery.

An XML file is actually a text file, the format of the gallery XML file is as follows:

<list>
  <item>
    <type>0</type>
    <image>https://www.wonderplugin.com/xmlgallery/dog.jpg</image>
    <thumbnail>https://www.wonderplugin.com/xmlgallery/dog.jpg</thumbnail>
    <category>animal</category>
    <title>Dog</title>
    <description></description>
    <altusetitle>false</altusetitle>
    <alt>Image alt</alt>
    <lightbox>true</lightbox>
    <weblink></weblink>
    <linktarget></linktarget>
  </item>
  <item>
    <type>0</type>
    <image>https://www.wonderplugin.com/xmlgallery/dog2.jpg</image>
    <thumbnail>https://www.wonderplugin.com/xmlgallery/dog2.jpg</thumbnail>
    <category>animal</category>
    <title>Dog2</title>
    <description></description>
    <altusetitle>false</altusetitle>
    <alt>Image alt</alt>
    <lightbox>false</lightbox>
    <weblink>https://www.wonderplugin.com</weblink>
    <linktarget>_blank</linktarget>
  </item>
  <item>
    <type>2</type>
    <video>https://www.youtube.com/embed/c9-gOVGjHvQ</video>
    <image>https://img.youtube.com/vi/c9-gOVGjHvQ/0.jpg</image>
    <thumbnail>https://img.youtube.com/vi/c9-gOVGjHvQ/0.jpg</thumbnail>
    <category>video</category>
    <title>YouTube</title>
    <description></description>
    <altusetitle>false</altusetitle>
    <alt>Image alt</alt>
    <lightbox>true</lightbox>
  </item>
</list>

The above XML adds three items to the gallery: two images and one YouTube video. The available XML keys are as follows:

Key	Description
type	0: image 1: mp4 video 2: YouTube video 3: Vimeo video
image	image URL
thumbnail	thumbnail image URL. If the key is not defined or the value is empty, it will use the image URL as the thumbnail URL.
mp4	URL for mp4 video
video	YouTube or Vimeo URL. This key is only valid for YouTube and Vimeo videos. For mp4 videos, use the key `mp4`.
title	image title
description	image long description
altusetitle	If this option is false, it will use the `alt` value for the image alt attribute, otherwise, it will use the `title` value
alt	image alt attribute. This key is only valid when the option `altusetitle` is false.
lightbox	Whether to display the image in a lightbox popup
weblink	Goto the weblink on clicking the thumbnail in the gallery. This option is only valid when the `lightbox` is false.
linktarget	Target of the web link. The value `_blank` will open the weblink in a new tab or page.
category	The category slug of the item. The category must have been defined in the plugin. If the item belongs to multiple categories, seperate them with `:`, for example: `category1:category2`

Step 2 - Upload the XML file to your web server and add the XML file to the plugin

After you have created the XML file, FTP/upload the file to your web server and get the http:// or https:// URL address.

You can open the URL with your web browser, make sure the URL is working and the XML output is correct.

Once you have confirmed the URL is correct, in the plugin, step 1, click the button "Import XML" and enter the URL address.