Photo Gallery for Google Sites

Photo Gallery Solution for Google Sites

SimpleViewer Picasa gallery in Google Sites

After hours of research, I finally came up with a method for displaying Picasa photo gallery thumbnails in Google Sites.  The default Google Sites Picasa gadgets (single photo and album slideshows) were not flexible enough (in my humble opinion).

My solution was to utilize the new html hosting features of Google Drive and linking, via iframe, to the exported Picasa folder.  It requires a few steps, but the final product is impressive.  It even adapts (responsive) to mobile devices!

Here are the steps:

Get SimpleViewer app
In Picasa (desktop version)
  • From Picasa 3.9, export your photos as HTML
  • Choose the SimpleViewer template
In Google Drive
  • Upload the entire folder created in previous step to Google Drive
  • Set the folder permission sharing to public
  • Copy the folder ID
In Google Sites
  • Add iframe gadget to page
  • Set URL to "https://googledrive.com/host/YOURFOLDERID" *important
  • Resize gadget to best fit your website
  • Save page

Here's the finished Google Sites photo gallery which dynamically pulls in the html, scripts and images from my Google Drive:

https://sites.google.com/site/aneudesigninteriors/gallery

 Let me know what you think.

Updated on 3/25/2014
A few readers have had trouble finding the correct album URL. Here are are Google's help instructions: Host webpages with Drive

Note: The free version of SimpleViewer has a limit of 50 photos per gallery.
Patrick LaJuett
Patrick LaJuett operates a website design and marketing agency where he supports his clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy advisor.

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