--- title: "Using FooGallery User Uploads to Create an Interactive Community Gallery" id: "197602" type: "post" slug: "user-uploads-community-gallery" published_at: "2026-11-02T16:47:51+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-02T16:47:52+00:00" url: "https://fooplugins.com/user-uploads-community-gallery/" markdown_url: "https://fooplugins.com/user-uploads-community-gallery.md" excerpt: "What do you do when you want to create an interactive community notice board, but you don’t want to spend hours every day curating it? That was our predicament when it come to setting up our Black Friday page this..." taxonomy_category: - "Practical Tips" - "WordPress Gallery" taxonomy_post_tag: - "foogallery" - "User Uploads" - "wordpress" --- [WordPress Gallery](https://fooplugins.com/category/wordpress-gallery/) , [Practical Tips](https://fooplugins.com/category/practical-tips/) # Using FooGallery User Uploads to Create an Interactive Community Gallery Author**[Tam Vincent](https://fooplugins.com/about-us/tam-vincent/)** Reviewed By**Elvis Omondi** Created**November 2, 2026** Last Updated**November 2, 2026** ![How we created an interactive community gallery with FooGallery User Uploads](https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/user-uploads-community-gallery.jpeg) What do you do when you want to create an interactive community notice board, but you don’t want to spend hours every day curating it? That was our predicament when it come to setting up our [Black Friday page](https://fooplugins.com/black-friday/) this year. Every year, we exchange deals with a host of other WordPress-related businesses, giving our readers access to BFCM savings from the wider WordPress community. But every year, we spend hours and hours of valuable time uploading the deals to the site. And while we get to show you an impressive number of deals, we end up with a slow page that visitors need to scroll through endlessly to find the deals they want. In an effort to both save time, and create an effective (and attractive) means for guests to find relevant deals, we decided to put our own plugins to use. If this problem sounds familiar, or you’ve dealt with something similar before, read on to find out how we configured FooGallery PRO and the User Uploads add-on to give us the ideal solution. ## Creating a Custom Gallery with FooGallery FooGallery is designed to be more than just a photo or video gallery; a concept we explored when setting up our [FooPartners page](https://fooplugins.com/foopartners/) . Here we use FooGallery to link back to trusted friends and partners from the WordPress industry. For our Black Friday page, we decided to do something similar, although slightly more complex. Essentially, we wanted to use a gallery to display and link to the deals other WordPress businesses were running, while using filters and paging to keep the gallery tidy and searchable. [https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/User-uploads-BFCM-gallery.png](https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/User-uploads-BFCM-gallery.png) The first step was to set up our gallery. For this, there were a few upfront requirements: - A clean, simple layout that puts the focus on the offer. Our [Portfolio layout](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/wordpress-portfolio-gallery/) was the obvious choice – it shows captions and descriptions below the image and keeps the page neat and ordered. - **Filtering**. With so many deals on offer over the Black Friday period, we needed some way to help users find what they needed. With FooGallery’s [multi-level filtering](https://fooplugins.com/documentation/foogallery/pro-expert/multi-level-filters/) we could narrow down the deals effectively. - **Paging**: One long page of deals, even with filters and lazy loading, wasn’t going to work. [Paging](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/pagination/) helps take some of the stress off the page load and makes the gallery more manageable, for a better user experience. - **Deal buttons**: While the thumbnails are clickable in FooGallery, we also wanted a button to make it clear that users could click through to the deal page. With the ecommerce features in [FooGallery PRO Commerce](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/pro-commerce/) , we could add this to all gallery items. As we were linking to external pages, we also needed a way to ensure links opened on a new page and not in a lightbox (as is usually the case when building a gallery). To do this, we needed to disable the lightbox and set the thumbnail link to open a custom URL. This meant the deal for Infinite Uploads, for example, would open their Black Friday deal page in a new tab. [https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Custom-URL-thumbnail-link.png](https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Custom-URL-thumbnail-link.png) Once the gallery was set up, we added it to our Black Friday page. But we still needed a way for people to add their deals, without it being a manual task from our end. This is where the User Uploads add-on came in handy. ## Adding User Uploads for Automated Submissions The [FooGallery User Uploads add-on](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/user-uploads/) does what it says on the box; it allows users to upload items to a gallery from the frontend of your site. This was an essential part of creating our Black Friday gallery as it would automate most of the process, while keeping submissions all in one place. User Uploads has proved to be a popular add-on for users wanting to create a community gallery, or as a way to gather image submissions. The submission form allowed people to add an image and fill in specific fields, such as title, description, email, and so on. It was also possible to set a limit on both the file size and the number of images someone could submit. Our use case was similar to this, but we found that the add-on needed some upgrades to meet our requirements. To begin with, our gallery images were only going to be logos or small graphics, and with the potential for a large number of entries, we didn’t want file sizes to be too big. So we built in client-side optimization, meaning that uploaded images were first optimized in the client’s browser before being uploaded. You could also now set the output quality, maximum width and format, giving you more control over the images added to your gallery. [https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Client-side-optimization.png](https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Client-side-optimization.png) We also needed new fields where users could include additional information. Rather than using specific field names that would only apply to our scenario, we added two generic fields. Plus we added an email form so we could notify people that we had received their submissions (along with the existing Accepted and Rejected emails already in place). The field labels can all be overridden, which we used to obtain the information we needed for each Black Friday listing. The result was a simple form that users could submit, along with an optimized logo, that would automatically populate the entry in the gallery (once it had been moderated). [https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/User-Uploads-Form-BFCM.png](https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/User-Uploads-Form-BFCM.png) The next step was to add the upload form to the page and let visitors know how to submit. Then, once entries came in, it was a simple process to moderate them: - We received an email notifying us that an upload had come in. - Heading in to moderation, we could view each entry and approve or reject, if needed. - We then checked the gallery to ensure uploads were added correctly. As we were using tag filters for the gallery, we needed to check that the correct tags had been added and these were applied to the filtering. ### Adding a Social Element to the Gallery As a last step, we also made use of [FooGallery Social](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/social/) . This wasn’t an essential part of creating the Black Friday gallery, but we thought it would add a fun, interactive element to the page. The FooGallery Social add-on gives you the ability to add likes, shares and downloads to a gallery. However, as we weren’t opening any of the thumbnails in a lightbox, sharing and commenting wouldn’t be applicable. So we simply added the Like button to the gallery thumbs, gving visitors and WordPress companies the chance to like the different offers. [https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/FooGallery-social-likes.png](https://fooplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/FooGallery-social-likes.png) The setup for this gallery took us a bit longer than expected. But this was only because we needed to add features to User Uploads. Once this was done and the gallery was in place, the actual adding of entries to our Black Friday gallery was simple, and far less time consuming than in previous years. The gallery is also condensed, with the filtering in place to help visitors easily find what they’re looking for. Aesthetically, it is a far more attractive way to present Black Friday offers, and using the gallery means we’ve cut down on the size of the page, which has resulted in a faster load time and better user experience. ## Would this Setup Work for You? We set the BFCM gallery up for a very specific use case: it is essentially a moderated, self-serve listings board where partners upload a logo, add a short description and link, tag it so it lands in the right group, and we approve it before it goes live. Howver, there are plenty of other ways this configuration could be used to improve other workflows. - **Wedding and event vendor directories.** Venues, wedding planners, and photographers can let preferred suppliers (e.g. florists, caterers, DJs, cake makers) submit their own logo, a short pitch, and a booking link, tagged by category. Offering it as a “you list us, we list you” exchange would suit any industry built on referrals. - **Chamber of commerce and local business showcases.** Business associations, town centre groups, and tourism sites can run a member directory or a seasonal offers board. Members upload their own logo and deal, tags group them by sector, and the admin approval step keeps it clean and on point. - **[Photography contests](https://fooplugins.com/photo-contest-plugin-wordpress/) and community challenges.** Camera clubs, photography educators, and stock or print sites can collect themed entries (think “Autumn Light”, or “Street 2026”), with tags for categories and moderation before publishing. This also pairs naturally with the Social add-on for shares or likes; contest organisers can even use likes as a way of determining the winner. - **Customer “made with” showcases for ecommerce.** Craft supply, yarn, paint, or woodworking stores can invite customers to upload photos of finished projects, tagged by product or technique, with a link back to the product used. That gives the store fresh user-generated content and social proof without the owner sourcing every image. - **Charity auction and fundraiser catalogues.** Nonprofits and schools can have donors submit photos and descriptions of auction items or sponsored prizes, grouped by tag (e.g. experiences, gift cards, artwork). Approval lets organisers vet each item, and the result doubles as a public thank-you wall for sponsors. These are just a few of the ways you could use this configuration. But was is clear is that this workflow can provide a visual, community gallery, without making additional work for the website owners. ## Get Started on Your Community Gallery If this is the type of gallery you want on your WordPress site, here are the tools you would need to get started. - FooGallery. You can make this work with FooGallery Free, but this would limit your access to certain features such as the filtering and advanced pagination. For this you would need FooGallery PRO Expert. Then if you wanted to add the button, other ecommerce features, or watermarking, you would need FooGallery PRO Commerce. - User Uploads add-on. The element that automates the gallery and creates the community aspect is FooGallery User Uploads. With the ability to build a form, set up response emails, and moderate entries, this add-on eliminates much of the hard work. You do need FooGallery installed to make it work, but you can use it with any FooGallery plan, including free. - Social add-on. If you want to add likes, shares and/or comments, the FooGallery Social add-on can be used to do this. Again, it works with any FooGallery plan. Ready to get started? [Explore your FooGallery and FooGallery add-on options](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/) . Looking for an all-in-one solution? The [FooGallery Studio bundle](https://fooplugins.com/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/studio-bundle/) gives you FooGallery PRO Commerce, plus the User Uploads, Social and Client Proofing add-ons, all under one license. ![Image](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20801%20528'%3E%3C/svg%3E) FooGallery · WordPress gallery plugin The Best WordPress Gallery Plugin FooGallery is an easy-to-use WordPress gallery plugin with stunning gallery layouts and a focus on speed and SEO. [Explore FooGallery →](/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/) [View Pricing](/foogallery-wordpress-gallery-plugin/compare-plans/) About the Author [https://fooplugins.com/about-us/tam-vincent/](https://fooplugins.com/about-us/tam-vincent/) [Tam Vincent](https://fooplugins.com/about-us/tam-vincent/) Tam spends her time developing content for FooPlugins, helping customers and keeping the website in top-notch condition.