Library for Craft CMS
Installation
Requirements
- Craft CMS 5.3 or later
- PHP 8.2 or later
Library needs nothing beyond Craft itself: no other Composer packages and no build step.
Install
composer require justinholtweb/craft-library
php craft plugin/install library
Or find Library in the Craft Plugin Store and install it from there.
Installing creates Library's own database tables and nothing else. It does not touch your volumes, your folders or your files, and it writes nothing to project config.
What you get straight away
Out of the box, before you configure anything:
- A Library heading in the asset index sidebar, which fills in as you add collections.
- A Missing alt text source under that heading, listing every image with no alternative text.
- Collection and Orientation rules in the asset filter toolbar.
- A Library panel in the sidebar of every asset's edit screen.
- A Collections column you can add to any asset index table view.
Your first collection
- Go to Library → Collections and click New collection.
- Give it a Name. The Handle fills itself in from the name. You use the handle in templates.
- Optionally nest it under another collection, give it a Colour, and write a short Description of what belongs in it.
- Save. The collection now appears under Library in the asset index sidebar.
To file assets, select some in the asset index and choose Add to collections from the actions menu. To file a single asset, tick its collections in the Library panel on its edit screen. See Usage for the rest.
Editions
Lite is free and covers the taxonomy: collections, the filters, the sidebar sources and the everyday bulk actions. Pro costs $79, with a $59/year renewal. It adds everything that needs to read the whole site or touch files on disk: usage tracking, the audit screens, duplicate detection, renaming, cross-volume moves and upload rules.
| Lite | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $79, $59/year renewal |
| Collections: nesting, colours, descriptions | Yes | Yes |
| Collections in the asset index sidebar and in asset selector modals | Yes | Yes |
| Missing alt text sidebar source | Yes | Yes |
| Collection and Orientation filter rules | Yes | Yes |
| Library panel on the asset edit screen: collections | Yes | Yes |
| Collections index column | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk actions: add to and remove from collections | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk action: set alt text from the filename or title | Yes | Yes |
craft.library Twig API (except usageCount) | Yes | Yes |
Console: alt/report, alt/fill, audit/prune | Yes | Yes |
| Is used anywhere and Has duplicate copies filter rules | — | Yes |
| Used in index column and "Used in" list on the asset panel | — | Yes |
| Audit screens: unused files, duplicates, alt text | — | Yes |
| Duplicate detection and merging | — | Yes |
| Bulk action: rename files with a pattern | — | Yes |
| Bulk action: move to another volume | — | Yes |
| Upload rules, including the default alt text source for new uploads | — | Yes |
| Usage tracking as content is saved, and reference-tag scanning | — | Yes |
Console: usage/scan, usage/unused, audit/hash, audit/duplicates | — | Yes |
craft.library.usageCount() | — | Yes (null on Lite) |
Edition checks happen on the server as well as in the navigation. If you bookmark an Audit page while trialling Pro, it stops working when you switch back to Lite. It does not keep working just because the URL is still in your history.
Switching editions
Change edition from Settings → Plugins or the Plugin Store, as with any Craft plugin. Nothing is lost going either way. Collections and their contents are the same in both editions. Usage rows, file hashes and upload rules stay in the database while you are on Lite and are used again when you return to Pro.
Uninstalling
php craft plugin/uninstall library drops Library's tables. Collections, upload rules, recorded
usage and file hashes go with them. Your assets, folders and files are untouched. Library never
moves or deletes a file except when you run Move to volume or Merge into original
yourself.