WPMediaVerse

The media layer your community site is missing. Custom database tables, AI moderation, direct messaging, and a full social layer — without requiring BuddyPress. The only WordPress media plugin that doesn't store uploads in wp_posts.

Built by vapvarun & Wbcom Designs

Try Live Demo · Download Free · Get Pro · Documentation · Announcement

Why WPMediaVerse? Every other WordPress media plugin (rtMedia, MediaPress, BuddyBoss Media) stores uploads in wp_posts. On active communities, that table grows into tens of thousands of mixed rows. WPMediaVerse uses 22 dedicated, indexed MySQL tables — media queries never touch your posts, pages, or products. Performance stays predictable at 100,000+ media items.

What's New in 2.4.0

Documents get a real home, and My Media becomes a set of addressable sections.

• New: A document drive per member (with Pro) — folders, trash and restore, targeted sharing to a member or a role, in-drive search. Documents are deliberately not photos and do not live in the media library.
• New: use_mvs_documents capability answers "may this member have a document library at all", separately from whether they may upload and from whether a given file is readable. Granted to every role by default, because it arrives on a feature that already shipped.
• New: Every My Media section is a URL (/my-media/<slug>/), painted server-side on first load. Editing your profile became a section, which returned about 110px at the top of every visit.
• Improve: Documents admin gained a single view and edit screen, writing through the same path the REST API uses so the two cannot drift.
• Fix: Album IDs are evicted from mvs_media_index. Albums had been writing wp_posts IDs into a table whose primary key auto-increments for media — on a site where uploads have outrun post IDs, creating an album overwrote a real photo's slug and privacy.
• Fix: A missing vendor/ took the whole site down rather than the plugin. Runtime dependencies now ship under libs/ and the autoloader is hand-written, so there is no Composer autoloader that can go missing.

Full release notes · Changelog (below)

What Can You Build?

WPMediaVerse is designed to power any media-centric WordPress site:

Feature Overview

Upload & Storage

• Drag & drop uploader with MIME validation and size limits
• Automatic EXIF GPS stripping for privacy protection
• Duplicate detection via file hash
• Extension blocklist and double-extension blocking
• Storage driver pattern — local default, extensible to S3, BunnyCDN, or custom via filter (Pro)
• Organized file storage in wp-content/uploads/wpmediaverse/

Media Organization

• Albums — Ordered collections with cover images, drag-to-reorder, auto-cover fallback
• Playlists — Audio albums with sequential playback
• Smart Collections — Auto-curated based on rules (type, tag, date range, author)
• Stories — Time-limited Instagram-style media with auto-cleanup via WP Cron
• Tags & Categories — Full taxonomy support with tag cloud, merge, rename, and autocomplete

Privacy & Access Control

• Access rules engine supporting: role, capability, membership, purchase, subscription, redemption code
• Signed URLs with HMAC-SHA256 for time-limited, gated media delivery — every thumbnail surface routes through signed URLs as of 1.1.3
• Range request support for video/audio streaming through signed URLs
• Lock overlay block with blurred preview for paywalled content
• Payment bridge with hooks for Stripe/WooCommerce integration

Direct Messaging

• 1:1 private messaging between users
• Group conversations with multi-user participants
• Read receipts with per-user last-read state
• Message reactions, edit, delete (within configurable window)
• Media attachments via existing upload pipeline
• BP notification dispatch + REST polling transport

Social Layer

AI-Powered Moderation

• OpenAI Vision (GPT-4) for automatic content analysis and tagging
• Provider abstraction — bring your own AI via mvs_ai_providers hook
• Budget tracking with monthly limits and cost-per-analysis controls
• Auto-actions: flag, hide, or reject based on moderation score
• Admin moderation queue with approve/reject workflow
• Async processing via Action Scheduler (sync fallback when unavailable)

BuddyPress Integration

Deeply integrated with BuddyPress — all features activate automatically when BP is detected:

Additional BP features:

• Activity media attachment — Photo/Video button in "What's New" form (1-6 per post)
• Multi-image grid layout in activity stream (Facebook-style)
• Full-viewport lightbox on activity media — images, video player, audio player (reactions, comments, favorites, share)
• BP notifications for reactions, comments, mentions, and DMs
• Media count badge on profile tab ("Media 49")
• Activity filter dropdown includes Media Uploads

Gutenberg Blocks

12 blocks, all powered by the WordPress Interactivity API — zero legacy JavaScript:

WPMediaVerse Pro adds 12 more blocks: the four layout feeds plus tournament, challenge, battle, leaderboard and compete-hub blocks.

Shortcodes

8 shortcodes — drop media features into any page or widget:

[mvs_gallery]                    Filterable media grid
[mvs_gallery columns="4" count="12" type="image" category="nature"]

[mvs_upload]                     Upload form
[mvs_upload max_files="10" show_privacy="true"]

[mvs_album id="123"]            Album viewer
[mvs_album id="123" columns="3" show_title="true"]

[mvs_player id="456"]           Media player
[mvs_player id="456" autoplay="false" loop="true"]

[mvs_stats]                      Stats dashboard
[mvs_stats views="true" downloads="true" reactions="true" top_media="5"]

[mvs_dashboard]                  User dashboard (My Media / Albums / Favorites)

[mvs_collection id="789"]       Smart collection viewer

[mvs_profile_edit]               In-place profile editor

Template Override System

Copy templates to your theme for full customization:

your-theme/wpmediaverse/
├── media-single.php     Single media item (social UI, owner actions)
├── album.php            Single album display
├── explore.php          Explore/archive page (search + tag cloud)
├── dashboard.php        User dashboard (My Media / Albums / Favorites)
├── messages.php         Direct message inbox + thread view
└── shortcodes/          Per-shortcode template parts

REST API

80+ endpoints across 18 controllers under mvs/v1/ for full headless/decoupled usage:

All endpoints support proper authentication (nonce + cookie), validation, rate limiting middleware, and error handling.

Admin Dashboard

WP-CLI Commands

wp mvs migrate                # Run pending database migrations
wp mvs prune-views            # Clean old view tracking records
wp mvs cleanup-expired        # Remove expired stories and grants
wp mvs reindex                # Rebuild the media index table
wp mvs cache-flush            # Clear all plugin caches
wp mvs moderation-stats       # Moderation queue counts
wp mvs import-rtmedia         # Import from rtMedia (use --dry-run first)
wp mvs stats                  # Media statistics overview

Webhooks

Outbound event webhooks for integrating with external systems:

• Events: media.uploaded, media.deleted, media.moderated, media.reaction, media.comment, media.purchased
• HMAC-SHA256 signed payloads for verification
• Async delivery via Action Scheduler
• Configurable URLs and secrets via Settings > Webhooks

Installation

From ZIP

1. Download the latest release
2. Upload to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
3. Activate

From Source

cd wp-content/plugins/
git clone https://github.com/vapvarun/wpmediaverse.git
cd wpmediaverse
composer install
npm install && npm run build

After Activation

1. Three pages are auto-created: Explore Media, My Media, Upload Media
2. Go to MediaVerse > Settings to configure upload limits, display, and permissions
3. (Optional) Add your OpenAI API key in Settings > AI & Moderation
4. (Optional) BuddyPress features activate automatically when BP is active

Architecture

wpmediaverse/
├── includes/
│   ├── Core/             Bootstrap, ServiceContainer, Migrator, TemplateHelpers
│   ├── PostTypes/        Album + Collection custom post types
│   ├── Taxonomies/       mvs_tag, mvs_category
│   ├── Services/         Upload, Storage, AI, Moderation, Stats, Cache, Album, GDPR, Health
│   ├── Social/           Reactions, Comments, Favorites, Mentions, Shares, Follows, Activity, Notifications, Reports
│   ├── Messaging/        DM service, controllers, REST polling transport, notification listener
│   ├── REST/             18 controllers + RateLimiter middleware
│   ├── Repository/       MediaRepository (single owner of media data access)
│   ├── Capabilities/     MediaCapabilities (role x capability matrix)
│   ├── Integrations/     BuddyPress (7 focused classes), Webhooks
│   ├── Admin/            Overview, Settings (5 classes), Stats, Moderation, MediaList, LogViewer, SetupWizard
│   ├── Blocks/           BlockRegistrar
│   ├── Shortcodes/       8 shortcodes
│   └── CLI/              WP-CLI commands
├── src/blocks/           12 Gutenberg blocks (JSX + Interactivity API)
├── templates/            Overridable frontend templates (album, explore, dashboard, messaging, single)
├── assets/
│   ├── css/              Frontend + admin stylesheets
│   └── js/               Card builders, BP activity media attachment
└── languages/            i18n ready (POT regenerated each release)

Design Principles

• Service Container — Lazy-loaded dependencies, no singletons or globals
• PSR-4 Autoloading — Clean namespace mapping via Composer
• Custom Tables — 21 indexed tables for fast queries without wp_posts/postmeta JOINs
• Interactivity API — 100% modern WordPress frontend, zero legacy JS
• Driver Pattern — Swap storage backends without changing core code (Pro)
• Hook-First — Filter/action hooks throughout for extensibility
• Privacy by Default — EXIF stripping, signed URLs, configurable access
• REST-Only Frontend — Zero admin-ajax.php calls from public-facing JS

Custom Database Tables (21)

All prefixed with {$wpdb->prefix}mvs_. Defined in includes/Core/Migrator.php.

Requirements

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this require BuddyPress? No. WPMediaVerse works standalone. BuddyPress features (activity, profile/group tabs, friend privacy, notifications) activate automatically when BP is detected.

Can I use this for a membership site? Yes. Use access rules (role, capability, or purchase-based) combined with signed URLs and the lock overlay block to gate premium media content.

What file types are supported? Images (jpg, png, gif, webp, svg), video (mp4, webm, mov) and audio (mp3, wav, ogg, flac), configurable in settings.

PDFs and other documents are deliberately not accepted by the media library — a contract is not a photo, and mixing them made both worse. New PDF uploads are refused there (UploadService::hard_refused_mimes()), while historical PDFs keep rendering. Documents have their own home instead: WPMediaVerse Pro 2.4.0 gives each member a document drive with folders, trash, sharing and search.

Can I import from rtMedia? Yes. Use wp mvs import-rtmedia --dry-run to preview, then run without --dry-run to import. Handles media, albums, album-media relationships, and engagement (reactions, comments, views) as of 1.2.0.

How do I add a custom AI provider?

add_action( 'mvs_ai_providers', function( $ai_service ) {
    $ai_service->register_provider( 'my-provider', new MyCustomProvider() );
});

Your provider must implement WPMediaVerse\Services\AIProviderInterface.

How do I add a custom storage driver?

add_filter( 'mvs_storage_driver', function() {
    return new MyS3Driver();
});

Your driver must implement WPMediaVerse\Services\StorageDriverInterface.

Changelog

1.1.3 — Apr 29, 2026

New

• Facebook-style fullscreen lightbox — full-viewport with full-resolution images. New "Lightbox Image Size" setting (Original / Large / Medium / Auto).
• Real video previews in grids — phone videos (MP4/MOV) get proper preview thumbnails extracted from the video itself; screen recordings without an embedded cover get a live first-frame browser preview.
• Activity images now have proper breathing room in BuddyPress activity cards.
• "Upload Page" admin setting (was missing in 1.1.2).

Improved

• Every thumbnail flows through signed URLs — album covers, grid items, lightbox previews, and BP activity media all consistently routed through the access-controlled signed-URL endpoint.
• Consistent grid layout regardless of media type (mixed photo/video/audio uploads have uniform card sizes).
• Lucide icon system across feeds, dashboards, lightbox, and BP activity stream.
• Album covers behave — auto-fallback to first photo, picking a cover persists.
• Trash icons only appear on owner's own profile/group tabs (never on public Explore/Albums/Collections).

Fixed

• Logged-in users can view shared media (privacy loggedin case was missing).
• Thumbnails always generate at all 3 sizes; small images backfilled from original.
• BP activity media renders reliably (two-layer recovery for stripped HTML).
• Lightbox Favorite button shows just one heart (no duplicated emoji prefix).
• Carry-over fixes from 1.1.2: 5-column grid renders 5 cols, Stats date filters update counts, new tags appear in tag cloud immediately, lightbox Share single icon, Favorite visible to all signed-in users.
• Demo data installer routes through real upload pipeline.

Under the hood

• Unified thumbnail pipeline shared by Free and Pro.
• Upload failures now visible to admins via error log instead of failing silently.
• Block editor blocks load correctly via WordPress Interactivity API on block-rendered pages.
• shared-ui-frame.css simplified by 160 lines after lightbox refactor (renamed from shared-ui-shell.css in 1.2.1).
• Hardened uninstall.

1.1.2 — Apr 22, 2026

• Fixed grid columns=5 rendering, Stats page date filters, tag cloud counts, lightbox Favorite/Share polish.
• New: Add Tag button, sortable Tag admin columns, mobile back buttons, 44×44 touch targets, iOS safe-area FAB, bottom-sheet modals, sticky single-media action bar, skeleton loaders, optimistic UI feedback, mobile tab snap-scroll, in-plugin Lucide icons, custom notification type filter.
• Fixed: tag bulk-delete error, tag pagination count, sort preserved through bulk actions, default Allowed File Types ticked on fresh install, album categories fully wired, demo cleanup removes seeded tags, per-upload privacy honored on every surface, full GDPR cascade on user delete.

1.1.1 — Apr 8, 2026

• Fixed single media interactivity (comments, reactions, favorites, follow, report).
• Signed URL serving wired across all media files.
• Anonymous lightbox view fixed (no more 401/403).
• Notification titles use mvs_media_index, not WordPress post title.
• Reaction counts properly sync to mvs_media_index on add/remove.
• Delete cascade cleans up all related rows.

1.1.0 — Apr 5, 2026

• Initial public release with full feature set.

→ Full release history on GitHub

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Run bash bin/ci-local.sh before pushing — it runs the same gates as CI (PHP lint matrix, PHPCS, PHPStan, duplicate-method sniff). Saves the round-trip to GitHub.
4. Commit your changes
5. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
6. Open a Pull Request

Local CI gate

bash bin/ci-local.sh           # full check
bash bin/ci-local.sh --quick   # default PHP only
bash bin/ci-local.sh --staged  # only against staged files

License

GPLv2 or later. See LICENSE.

Made with care by Wbcom Designs — Building BuddyPress & WordPress community solutions since 2016.