Ro-Photo

Go console application that generates a static photo gallery by scanning source directories, extracting EXIF metadata, and organizing photos into a date-based directory structure.

Overview

Ro-Photo reads from one or more source directories containing photos, parses EXIF data from each image, and produces a structured static gallery. The output is organized into a hierarchical directory layout based on the date each photo was taken:

output/
  thumbnails/
    2024/03/15/IMG_1234.jpg
  2024/
    03/
      15/
        IMG_1234.JPG
        IMG_1235.JPG
      22/
        DSC_0001.CR2
    07/
      01/
        P1000042.JPG
  Unsorted/
    IMG_0001.HEIC
  cameras/
  about.html
  index.html

Features

• YAML configuration — all settings defined in a single config file
• Multiple source locations — scan several directories in one run
• EXIF-based organization — photos are sorted by date taken (DateTimeOriginal), not filesystem timestamps
• Date-structured output — files are placed into /YYYY/MM/DD/FILENAME.EXT directories automatically
• Unsorted handling — photos without EXIF data are placed in an Unsorted/ directory
• Thumbnail generation — JPEG thumbnails created for all formats (including RAW) with proper EXIF orientation
• SQLite metadata database — all photo metadata is aggregated into a local SQLite database for fast querying, filtering, and search
• Static gallery generation — responsive Tailwind CSS gallery with dark theme, lightbox, and pagination
• Gallery-only mode — regenerate HTML pages from existing database without re-scanning

SQLite Database

During scanning, all photo metadata is stored in a SQLite database (photos.db by default). This provides:

• Fast lookups and filtering by date, camera model, lens, GPS coordinates, etc.
• Incremental updates — only new or modified files are re-scanned
• A queryable record of the entire photo library independent of the generated gallery

Schema overview:

Supported Formats

Standard Image Formats

RAW Formats

Gallery

The static gallery is built with Tailwind CSS, producing a responsive, modern interface that works on desktop and mobile. The generated HTML files reference a bundled Tailwind CSS build, so the gallery can be served from any static file host or opened directly from disk.

Generated pages include:

• Index — overview with year and camera cards
• Year / Month / Day — hierarchical date-based browsing with pagination (50 photos per page)
• Photo detail — full-size image with EXIF metadata (camera, lens, exposure, GPS) and prev/next navigation
• Camera — photos grouped by camera model with pagination
• Unsorted — photos without detectable EXIF data
• About — project info, usage manual, author, and gallery stats

Configuration

The application is configured via a YAML file:

title: My Photo Gallery           # gallery title shown in header, footer, and about page
author: John Doe                   # author name shown on the about page

sources:                           # one or more directories to scan for photos
  - /path/to/photos/camera
  - /path/to/photos/phone
  - /mnt/external/photos

output: /path/to/gallery           # directory where the gallery and organized photos are written
database: /path/to/photos.db       # SQLite database path (default: "photos.db")
templates: /path/to/templates      # path to HTML templates directory (default: "./templates")

Usage

ro-photo --config config.yaml

Command-line Flags

Examples

Full run — scan sources, extract EXIF, copy files, generate thumbnails, build gallery:

ro-photo --config config.yaml

Regenerate gallery only (useful after editing templates):

ro-photo --config config.yaml --gallery-only

Building

go build -o ro-photo .

Requirements

• Go 1.21+
• No CGO required — uses pure Go SQLite driver