Lens – WordPress Media Library Folders & File Manager vs Media Library Assistant

POWERFUL MEDIA LIBRARY FOLDER ORGANIZATION PLUGIN FOR WORDPRESS Lens is the ultimate media library folders solution that transforms your WordPress media library into a well-organized, easy-to-navigate system. Say goodbye to endless scrolling through thousands of images, videos, and documents. Whether you’re managing a small blog or a large enterprise website, Lens provides the tools you need to organize, search, and manage your media files efficiently. Unlock all features with Lens Pro. 🎁 FREE FEATURES Organize Your Media Library • Unlimited Folders & Subfolders: Create unlimited nested folders and subfolders to organize your media files exactly the way you want • Dual View Modes: Switch between Tree View (hierarchical folder structure) and Explorer View (visual grid layout) for flexible navigation • Drag & Drop Interface: Intuitive drag-and-drop functionality for moving files and folders effortlessly • Bulk Operations: Move, delete, or organize thousands of files at once with real-time progress tracking • Context Menu: Right-click folders for quick access to common actions like rename, move, delete, and more • REST API Support: Integrate Lens with external applications using secure API keys and full WordPress REST API endpoints Search & Navigation • Sidebar Search: Search folders directly within the sidebar with real-time filtering • Search Modes: Toggle between “All” (search across all folders) and “Current” (search within current folder view) • Smart Highlighting: See matching text highlighted in search results for quick scanning Organization Tools • Cut, Copy & Paste: Use familiar keyboard shortcuts to move folders efficiently • Favorites: Star your frequently used folders for instant access • Folder Details: View comprehensive folder information including item counts, creation dates, and more • Open in New Tab: Open any folder in a new browser tab for easier multitasking • Move to Trash: Safely remove folders and media without permanent deletion • Trash Management: Restore or permanently delete items from the trash when you’re ready • Undo/Redo: Easily revert changes with undo functionality (Cmd/Ctrl+Z to undo, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo) Seamless Integration • Native WordPress Integration: Works perfectly with the WordPress media library • Organize From Anywhere: Assign and update folder locations for your media from anywhere in WordPress – posts, pages, WooCommerce products, or the media library • Post & Page Editor Integration: Manage and organize folders directly from your post, page, or product editor • Page Builder Support: Compatible with Elementor, Gutenberg, WPBakery, Divi, Beaver Builder, and more • WooCommerce Ready: Organize product images with ease directly from product editor • Multisite Ready: Built for WordPress Multisite with clean installs and complete network cleanup on uninstall • CDN & Cloud Compatible: Works perfectly with CDN and offload plugins — no setup or configuration needed • Responsive Design: Manage your media library from any device – desktop, tablet, or mobile REST API Integration • Secure API Keys: Generate unique API keys for external applications • Full REST API Support: Access, create, update, and organize folders and media programmatically • Granular Permissions: Control access per key – read-only, write-only, or full read/write • External App Integration: Connect Lens with CRMs, DAM tools, automation platforms, mobile apps, or custom dashboards • JSON Responses: Clean, standardized WordPress REST API endpoints for seamless development • Advanced Developer Tools: Hooks, filters, and customizable access policies for complete flexibility 💎 PRO FEATURES Automation & Bulk Tools • Auto Organize: Automatically organize your entire media library in one click • Upload Complete Folders: Upload entire folder structures directly from your computer with all files and subfolders intact • Import Folders: Bulk import nested folder structures from CSV, JSON, XML, or ZIP files • Export Folders: Export your entire folder structure or selected folders as ZIP files for backups or migrations • Duplicate Detection: Automatic duplicate detection and conflict resolution during imports Advanced Search & Navigation • Quick Switch: Press Cmd/Ctrl+K to instantly navigate to any folder from anywhere in your media library • Advanced Filters: Filter folders by color, lock status, and more using simple syntax (e.g., color:blue, locked:yes) • Filter Chips: Visual filter chips make it easy to see and remove active filters • Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts: Personalize shortcuts for every action to match your workflow Visual Organization • Folder Colors: Add colors to your folders for easier visual organization and instant recognition • Color Filtering: Quickly find folders by color to navigate your library faster Security & Permissions • Locked Folders: Password-protect folders and optionally hide media files from public access • Role-Based Permissions: Control who can access, edit, or delete folders and files by user role • User-Level Permissions: Grant or restrict access for individual users without changing WordPress capabilities • Fine-Grained Access Control: Manage who can create, move, lock, or share folders with precise control Compression & Archiving • Compress Folders: Turn any folder into a ZIP file for easy downloads and backups • Extract ZIP Files: Upload ZIP files and extract them directly into your folder structure • Download & Export: Download folders as ZIP files or export your entire media library in one click for backups and easy migration to another site Sharing & Collaboration • Share Links: Share folders with expiring download links • Password Protection: Protect shared folders with passwords • Download Limits: Set limits on how many times files can be downloaded • Share Analytics: Track views and downloads with share activity analytics Transform your media library management with Lens Pro! 🎯 PERFECT FOR • Photographers managing large image collections • Content creators organizing video and audio files • E-commerce sites with extensive product images • Agencies managing client media assets • Bloggers keeping content organized • Multi-author sites requiring access controls • Enterprise websites with thousands of media files 🚀 PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZED • Lightning Fast: Optimized code ensures smooth performance even with thousands of files • Efficient Loading: Lazy loading and pagination keep your media library responsive • Database Optimization: Minimal database impact with efficient queries • Caching Support: Compatible with popular caching plugins • Minimal Resource Usage: Light footprint on server resources 🔌 SEAMLESS INTEGRATION Lens works perfectly with: • WordPress Media Library (native integration) • Post & Page Editors (manage folders directly from post/page/product editor) • Page builders (Elementor, Gutenberg, WPBakery, Divi, Beaver Builder) • E-commerce plugins (WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads) • Form plugins (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms) • Gallery plugins (NextGEN, Envira, FooGallery) • CDN & Cloud Storage (works seamlessly with offload plugins – no configuration needed) • File management plugins • Multisite networks (complete multisite support with network-wide cleanup) 🔌 COMPATIBILITY WordPress Themes: • Avada – #1 selling website builder for WordPress • Divi – Elegant Themes’ visual page builder • The7 – Most customizable WordPress theme • Enfold – Responsive multi-purpose theme • Bridge – Creative multipurpose WordPress theme • BeTheme – Biggest WordPress theme with 700+ pre-built websites • Uncode – Creative multiuse & WooCommerce theme • Flatsome – #1 best-selling WooCommerce theme • Salient – Creative multipurpose theme • Jupiter X – WordPress website builder • X Theme – Ultimate WordPress theme • Newspaper – Best-selling news & magazine theme Page Builders & Editors: • Elementor – The leading WordPress website builder • Gutenberg – WordPress native block editor • Divi Builder – Elegant Themes’ visual page builder • Beaver Builder – Drag-and-drop WordPress page builder • WPBakery Page Builder – Frontend and backend page builder • Classic Editor – WordPress classic editing experience E-Commerce: • WooCommerce – The most popular eCommerce solution for WordPress • Easy Digital Downloads – Complete eCommerce solution for selling digital products Multilingual & Translation: • WPML – The WordPress multilingual plugin • Polylang – Making WordPress multilingual • TranslatePress – Translate your entire site directly from the front-end • Weglot – Translate your WordPress site in minutes SEO Plugins: • Yoast SEO – The #1 WordPress SEO plugin • Rank Math – SEO plugin for WordPress • All in One SEO – The original WordPress SEO plugin Performance & Caching: • WP Rocket – Most powerful caching plugin • W3 Total Cache – Web performance optimization framework • LiteSpeed Cache – All-in-one site acceleration plugin Image Optimization & CDN: • Smush – Optimize, compress and lazy load images • ShortPixel – Image optimization & compression plugin • Cloudflare – Cloudflare plugin for WordPress Backup & Security: • UpdraftPlus – Backup and restoration made easy • Wordfence – WordPress security plugin • Jetpack – Security, performance, and growth tools And many more! Lens works seamlessly with virtually any well-coded WordPress theme or plugin. If you experience compatibility issues with any tool, please contact our support team and we’ll be happy to help. 🛡️ SECURITY & COMPLIANCE Lens places a paramount focus on security and data protection. We are committed to implementing robust security measures and adhering to recognized industry standards to protect your media library and sensitive content. Security Measures: • Regular Security Audits: Continuous security testing and vulnerability assessments • Secure Code Practices: Following WordPress coding standards and security best practices • Data Protection: Secure file handling and encrypted storage options for sensitive folders • Access Control: Granular permission system to restrict unauthorized access • Regular Updates: Timely security patches and compatibility updates • WordPress Security Integration: Full compatibility with leading WordPress security plugins Compliance & Privacy: • GDPR Compliant: Full compliance with data protection regulations • Privacy First: No data collection or tracking – all data stays on your server • Database Security: Efficient database queries with sanitized inputs to prevent SQL injection • User Data Protection: Role-based access ensures users only see what they’re authorized to access Reliability: • Regular Compatibility Testing: Tested with each WordPress release for seamless updates • Backup Compatible: Works with all major WordPress backup solutions • Error Handling: Graceful error handling to prevent data loss • Transaction Safety: Database operations use transactions to ensure data integrity We encourage responsible security disclosure. If you discover a security vulnerability, please contact us directly at [email protected] so we can address it promptly. ♿ ACCESSIBILITY BEST PRACTICES Lens offers accessibility tools and enhancements to help you provide a better experience for all users. Including semantic HTML5, full keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, and ongoing improvements across all features and interfaces. 🌐 MULTILINGUAL & RTL SUPPORT Lens supports multiple languages and RTL (Right-to-Left) layouts for users worldwide. It’s fully compatible with WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress, Weglot, and more. To contribute a translation, add a new language via translate.wordpress.org. See the WordPress.org translation guide for instructions on how to translate and localize the plugin. Privacy Policy Lens does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data or user information. All folder structures and organization data are stored locally in your WordPress database. The plugin does not: • Track user behavior • Send data to external servers • Use cookies • Connect to third-party services For more information about how WordPress handles media files, please refer to the WordPress Privacy Policy. Support For support and feature requests, please visit: • Support Forum: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/lens-media-library-folders • Contact Us: https://lensforwp.com/contact Contributors & Developers “Lens – WordPress Media Library Folders” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Developed and maintained by Neonic Join Our Community Stay connected and get the most out of Lens: • Leave a review on WordPress.org • Join our community forum to connect with other users • Subscribe to our newsletter for plugin updates and WordPress tips Your feedback and ratings help us improve and grow. If you find Lens helpful, please consider leaving a review! If you need a specific feature or have suggestions, please reach out to us through the contact form on our site at https://lensforwp.com/contact or email us directly at [email protected]. We love hearing from our users!

The Media Library Assistant provides several enhancements for managing the Media Library, including: Complete support for ALL taxonomies, including the standard Categories and Tags, your custom taxonomies and the Assistant’s pre-defined Att. Categories and Att. Tags. You can add taxonomy columns to the Media/Assistant listing, filter on any taxonomy, assign terms and list the attachments for a term. The Media/Assistant admin screen displays more attachment information such as parent information, file URL and image metadata. Provides many more listing columns (more than 20) to choose from. You can also add columns to display custom field values. Provides additional view filters for MIME types and taxonomies, and features to compose custom views of your own. Inline “Bulk Edit” and “Quick Edit” areas; update author, parent and custom fields, add, remove or replace taxonomy terms for several attachments at once. Works on the Media/Add New screen as well. Works with the popular Admin Columns plugin for even more Media/Assistant screen customization. IPTC, EXIF (including GPS), XMP and PDF metadata can be assigned to standard WordPress fields, taxonomy terms and custom fields. You can update all existing attachments from the Settings page IPTC/EXIF tab, groups of existing attachments with a Bulk Action or one existing attachment from the Edit Media/Edit Single Item screen. Twelve hooks provided for complete mapping customization from your theme or plugin code. You can view and/or download this PDF document with more information: Mapping File Metadata to WordPress Fields with Media Library Assistant Attachment metadata such as file size, image dimensions and where-used information can be assigned to WordPress custom fields. You can then use the custom fields in your [mla_gallery] display and you can add custom fields as sortable, searchable columns in the Media/Assistant submenu table. You can also modify the WordPress _wp_attachment_metadata contents to suit your needs. Complete control over Post MIME Types, File Upload extensions/MIME Types and file type icon images. Fifty four (54) additional upload types, 112 file type icon images and a searchable list of over 1,500 file extension/MIME type associations. Complete control over Intermediate Image Sizes, used by WordPress to generate and access intermediate image sizes for Media Library items. The [mla_gallery] shortcode, used in a post, page or custom post type to add a gallery of images and/or other Media Library items (such as PDF documents). MLA Gallery is a superset of the WordPress [gallery] shortcode; it is compatible with [gallery] and provides many enhancements. These include: 1) full query and display support for WordPress categories, tags, custom taxonomies and custom fields, 2) support for all post_mime_type values, not just images 3) media Library items need not be “attached” to the post, and 4) control over the styles, markup and content of each gallery using Style and Markup Templates. Twenty-eight hooks are provided for complete gallery customization from your theme or plugin code. The [mla_tag_cloud] shortcode, displays a “cloud” of the “most used” terms in your Media Library where the size of each term is determined by how many times that particular term has been assigned to Media Library items. Twenty-five hooks are provided for complete cloud customization from your theme or plugin code. The [mla_term_list] shortcode, displays hierarchical (and flat) taxonomy terms in list, dropdown control or checklist formats. Twenty hooks are provided for complete list customization from your theme or plugin code. The [mla_custom_list] shortcode, displays flat/cloud lists, dropdown controls and checkbox lists of custom field values. Twenty-seven hooks are provided for complete list customization from your theme or plugin code. The [mla_archive_list] shortcode, displays flat/cloud lists and dropdown controls of date-based values. Twenty hooks are provided for complete list customization from your theme or plugin code. Powerful Content Templates, which let you compose a value from multiple data sources, mix literal text with data values, test for empty values and choose among two or more alternatives or suppress output entirely. Support for WPML and Polylang multi-language CMS plugins. MLA has earned a place on WPML’s List of Recommended Plugins. Works with Photonic Gallery, Justified Image Grid, Jetpack and other plugins, so you can add slideshows, thumbnail strips and special effects to your [mla_gallery] galleries. Works with WordPress Real Media Library: Media Library Folder & File Manager (Lite and Pro) to organize your files into folders, collections and galleries. This combination enhances both the Media/Assistant admin submenu and the [mla_gallery] shortcode. Works with CatFolders – WP Media Folders (Lite and Pro) to categorize media files better and faster. This combination enhances both the Media/Assistant admin submenu and the [mla_gallery] shortcode. Enhanced Search Media box. Search can be extended to the name/slug, ALT text and caption fields. The connector between search terms can be “and” or “or”. Search by attachment ID or Parent ID is supported, and you can search on keywords in the taxonomy terms assigned to Media Library items. Works in the Media Manager Modal Window, too. Taxonomy and custom field support in the ATTACHMENT DETAILS pane of the Media Manager Modal Window and Media/Library Grid view. The Assistant is designed to work like the standard Media Library pages, so the learning curve is short and gentle. Contextual help is provided on every new screen to highlight new features. NOTE: Complete documentation is included in the Documentation tab on the Settings/Media Library Assistant admin screen and the drop-down “Help” content in the admin screens. You can find a stand-alone version of the Documentation on my web site: Media Library Assistant Documentation I do not solicit nor accept personal donations in support of the plugin. WordPress and its global community means a lot to me and I am happy to give something back. If you find the Media Library Assistant plugin useful and would like to support a great cause, consider a tax-deductible donation to our Chateau Seaview Fund at the ALS Network. Every dollar of the fund goes to make the lives of people with ALS, their families and caregivers easier. Thank you! Acknowledgements Media Library Assistant includes many images drawn (with permission) from the Crystal Project Icons, created by Everaldo Coelho, founder of Yellowicon. Many thanks to Aurovrata Venet, Il’ya Karastel and Kristian Adolfsson for testing and advising on the multilingual support features! The Example Plugins The MLA example plugins have been developed to illustrate practical applications that use the hooks MLA provides to enhance the admin-mode screens and front-end content produced by the MLA shortcodes. Most of the examples are drawn from topics in the MLA Support Forum. The Documentation/Example Plugins submenu lets you browse the list of MLA example plugins, install or update them in the Plugins/Installed Plugins area and see which examples you have already installed. To activate, deactivate or delete the plugins you must go to the Plugins/Installed Plugins admin submenu. The Example plugins submenu lists all of the MLA example plugins and identifies those already in the Installed Plugins area. In the submenu: the “Screen Options” dropdown area lets you choose which columns to display and how many items appear on each page the “Help” dropdown area gives you a brief explanation of the submenu content and functions the “Search Plugins” text box lets you filter the display to items containing one or more keywords or phrases bulk and rollover actions are provided to install or update example plugins the table can be sorted by any of the displayed columns Once you have installed an example plugin you can use the WordPress Plugins/Editor submenu to view the source code and (with extreme caution) make small changes to the code. Be very careful if you choose to modify the code! Making changes to active plugins is not recommended. If your changes cause a fatal error, the plugin will be automatically deactivated. It is much safer to download the file(s) or use FTP access to your site to modify the code offline in a more robust HTML/PHP editor. You can use the “Download” rollover action to download a plugin to your local system. Once you have made your modifications you can copy the plugin to a compressed file (ZIP archive) and then upload it to your server with the Plugins/Add New (Upload Plugin) admin submenu. If you do make changes to the example plugin code the best practice is to save the modified file(s) under a different name, so your changes won’t be lost in a future update. If you want to retain the file name, consider changing the version number, e.g. adding 100 to the MLA value, so you can more easily identify the plugins you have modified.