wagtail-image-directories

Organize your Wagtail CMS media files into structured year/slug directories on disk with an interactive visual Image Navigator and bulk-action file manager in the Wagtail admin.

Features

• Structured Storage: Images are physically organized on disk as media/images/{year}/{slug}/filename.ext.
• Image Navigator: A dashboard grouped by root directories (years) with real-time statistics (file count, total size, last updated).
• In-place Drag & Drop Upload: Upload images directly into the targeted folder without page reloads.
• Bulk Operations: Select multiple images to move or delete with automatic disk cleanup.
• Directory Management: Create, rename, and merge directories right from the admin UI.

Installation

pip install wagtail-image-directories

Add to INSTALLED_APPS in your settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "wagtail_image_directories",
    ...
]

Configure your Custom Image Model

In your models file:

from wagtail_image_directories.models import AbstractDirectoryImage
from wagtail.images.models import AbstractRendition

class CustomImage(AbstractDirectoryImage):
    pass

class CustomRendition(AbstractRendition):
    image = models.ForeignKey(CustomImage, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name="renditions")
    class Meta:
        unique_together = (("image", "filter_spec", "focal_point_key"),)

Point Wagtail to your custom model in settings.py:

WAGTAILIMAGES_IMAGE_MODEL = 'your_app.CustomImage'

Run migrations:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Case Study & Background

Read the full story behind the migration and architecture on our blog: Vs-Svet.ru / ZenWay.ru.

Recommended Complementary Package

To enable seamless native image uploads directly inside your rich text editor with full directory awareness, check out our companion plugin: 👉 wagtail-prose-editor-images