mPhotos

mPhotos makes your local photo collection available as a lightning fast virtual grid in a self-hosted web application.

Installation

Docker

Map your originals and thumbnails directories in docker-compose.yml under volumes: and then run:

• docker-compose up -d

Local

Specify your originals directory and where you would like your thumbnails to be created in a new file .env.

• ORIGINAL_PHOTOS - Originals directory (string), defaults to '/originals'
• GENERATED_THUMBNAILS - Thumbnail directory (string), defaults to '/thumbs' (will be created recursively if not present)

Optional: Use *THUMBNAIL_SIZE and MEDIUM_SIZE (int) variables to tweak size of thumbnails and images used in PhotoSlider. The METADATA_FILE and ERRORS_FILE (string) can also be specified, defaults to 'metadata.json' and 'errors.log';

Then run:

• npm install
• npm run host

Development

Define variables in .env and then run:

• brew install ffmpeg-full
• npm install
• npm run dev

Design goals

Performance

Primary goal is great performance with a large amount (>10 000) of photos. This is primarily solved by using a virtual grid with small webp optimized thumbnails. A server that uses an ssd for thumbnail cache also never hurts. Has been tested using regular harddisks with good performance. 5GHz Wifi is strongly recommended though.

Simplicity

Secondary goal is ease of use. Other then being pretty simple (showing photos), this means that the entire library is considered a read-only archive. This also means that the following features will probably not be implemented:

• Editing metadata
• Photo enhancement or modification

Mobile-friendly

As I'm mostly using my phone for image handling, this is also where most of the effort is concentrated.

Usage

• Click the DatePicker in the top right to display a list of all known photo dates. Click on a date to go to that date in the grid. Note: List of dates is scrollable.
• Swipe down in the Photoslider to close. Swipe up to show details for current photo. Swipe left or right to switch photo.
• Click on Options to get a list of zooming, sorting and filtering options. Zoom levels (number of photos per row), depends on viewport width.
• Photos that are marked as trash are not deleted on server, only tagged for deletion at a later, optional stage. They will only be shown in the trash album.

Future ideas

• Check integrity of photos on-demand or batched
• Virtual albums
• Global search for photo content, place taken, text content or people
• Map view
• Login
• Facial recognition