Collections

Included in Free - This feature is available in the free version of MediaVerse.

Save and curate media from anyone on your site into personal boards - like Pinterest boards, but for your community’s photos and videos. Unlike an album, which holds only your own uploads, a collection can hold anyone’s media.

What You Can Do

• Save any public media item with one click: to your Favorites on the free plugin, or to a collection of your choice with MediaVerse Pro
• Create multiple collections for different themes or moods (e.g., “Travel Inspiration”, “Black and White”)
• Let smart rules fill a collection automatically, or (with MediaVerse Pro) curate one by hand
• Smart collections stay fresh automatically - tag a rule once and the collection updates itself
• Show a collection to everyone (Public) or only to logged-in members (Members)
• Browse your saved collections from your media dashboard

How It Works (for Users)

Steps 2-4 use the collection picker that Save opens, which comes with MediaVerse Pro. On a free-only site, Save puts the item straight into your private Favorites collection, and you can create a smart collection from My Media > Collections.

1. When you find a photo you love, click the Save button (bookmark icon) below it
2. Choose an existing collection from the dropdown, or click New Collection to create one
3. Give your new collection a name and choose who can see it (Public or Members), then click Create
4. The photo is added instantly - you’ll see the bookmark icon turn solid to confirm
5. Find all your collections under My Media > Collections in your dashboard
6. To manage a collection, open it and click Edit to rename it, reorder items, or remove ones you no longer want
7. To share a collection, copy the link from the collection page

For Site Owners

1. Collections are available to all users with upload access once MediaVerse is activated
2. To embed a collection on any page, use [mvs_collection id="456"] (there is no Collection block)
3. Smart collections are especially useful for curated showcase pages - create a smart collection filtered by a tag and embed it on your homepage
4. Manage all collections from MediaVerse > Collections in wp-admin
5. Use the Collection Settings meta box on any collection post to set its smart rules

Collection Types

Type	Description
Manual	You add specific media items by hand. Items are stored in the wp_mvs_favorites table with the collection ID.
Favorites	Every member has one, created the first time they open their collections. It holds everything they saved or favorited, is always private, and cannot be deleted.
Smart	Rules-based. The collection resolves its item list dynamically at request time based on criteria like tag, category, media type, or date range.

Displaying a Collection

Shortcode:

[mvs_collection id="456"]
[mvs_collection id="456" columns="3" per_page="20"]

Attribute	Default	Description
id	(required)	Collection post ID
columns	3	Grid columns to display
per_page	20	Maximum number of media items to show

If no id is provided, the shortcode outputs an error message. If the collection post is not published, the shortcode shows “Collection not found.”

REST API Endpoints for Collections

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/mvs/v1/collections	List collections
POST	/mvs/v1/collections	Create collection
GET	/mvs/v1/collections/{id}	Get collection with resolved items
PUT	/mvs/v1/collections/{id}	Update collection
DELETE	/mvs/v1/collections/{id}	Delete collection
GET	/mvs/v1/collections/{id}/items	List the media in a collection, paginated
PUT	/mvs/v1/collections/{id}/rules	Set the smart rules

Creating a Smart Collection via API

curl -X POST https://yoursite.com/wp-json/mvs/v1/collections \
  -H "X-WP-Nonce: YOUR_NONCE" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Nature Photos",
    "rules": [
      { "key": "tag", "value": "nature" },
      { "key": "media_type", "value": "image" }
    ],
    "privacy": "public"
  }'

Collection Meta Box

In the WordPress admin, each mvs_collection post has a Collection Settings meta box that lets you define smart rules without using the API. The available rules are media type, tag, category, author, date after, date before and privacy. Saving any rule makes the collection a smart collection.