WordPress Plugin Overview

With the Cloudinary WordPress plugin, you can upload and manage your images in Cloudinary directly from your WordPress interface. The plugin also supports automated (single-click) migration of all images from your existing posts to Cloudinary.

Once your WordPress images are stored in Cloudinary, you can take advantage of Cloudinary's transformation, optimization, and responsive image features as well as fast CDN delivery.

• Where to download the plugin?
• When are new versions of the plugin released?
• How do I link my Cloudinary account to WordPress?
• How do I synchronize my WordPress Media Library?
• What are the asset sync statuses displayed in my Media Library?
• How do I apply transformations to my resources?
• How do I make my images responsive?
• Can I delete assets in my Cloudinary Media Library?
• How do I generate a system report?
• How do I enable the DAM extension?
• How do I enable the Cloudinary status?
• How do I contact Cloudinary support if I have an issue?
• Useful links

Where to download the plugin?

You can download the plugin in the WordPress Marketplace. In case you would like to install the plugin manually, you can find the plugin in the Cloudinary GitHub.

When are new versions of the plugin released?

Usually, a new version is released during the first week of each month. However, a release can be delayed in case of issues detected during QA. 

In case an issue needs a hotfix, a hotfix can be done outside of the normal release schedule.

Each time the plugin is released, the WordPress changelog and the Github release page are updated with the new features and issues fixed by the release.

How do I link my Cloudinary account to WordPress?

When you install the Cloudinary plugin (v3 and above), you will see a wizard to connect and configure the plugin, you will need to enter the Connection string on the 2nd step of this wizard:

If you'd like to change your credentials, you can go in your General Settings under the Cloudinary plugin and re-launch the wizard where you will be able to switch the Connection string.

After entering your Connection string, please click on Next.

How do I synchronize my WordPress Media Library?

In your WordPress menu, under the Cloudinary plugin, you can access the Sync Settings by clicking on the Media Settings section, then the Sync tab in order to configure how to synchronize your WordPress Media Library. 

Sync Method

When you install the plugin, the Sync Method will be set to Auto Sync by default.

Auto Sync: After the plugin is installed, all the assets requested via the WordPress Media Library or when navigating your website will be automatically synchronized to your Cloudinary Media Library. When adding new assets to your WordPress Media Library, those assets will also be synchronized to your Cloudinary Media Library if you are uploading the assets via the WordPress Media Library.

Manual Sync: When adding new assets to your WordPress Media Library, in order to synchronize your assets to your Cloudinary Media Library, you can: 

• Hover over a specific asset you would like to synchronize and click on Sync and deliver from Cloudinary.
• Select a list of assets you would like to synchronize then select the Sync with Cloudinary bulk action and click on Apply.

Cloudinary Folder Path

This is a folder in your Cloudinary Media Library where the assets from your WordPress Media Library will be synced with.

Storage

When you install the plugin, the Storage will be set to Cloudinary and WordPress by default.

• Cloudinary and WordPress - This setting will store all assets in both Cloudinary and WordPress local storage. With this setting, if there are any issues with your Cloudinary account or if you choose to deactivate the Cloudinary plugin, your assets will be delivered directly from WordPress storage with no issues.
• Cloudinary and WordPress (low resolution) - This setting will store the original full resolution assets with Cloudinary and a lower resolution compressed version in WordPress, saving space in your local storage. With this setting, if you deactivate the Cloudinary plugin, your assets will be delivered at a much lower resolution directly from WordPress storage.
• Cloudinary only - This setting will store all assets in Cloudinary only. With this setting enabled, you need to manually sync your media back to WordPress before deactivating the plugin.

Re-Sync

Deleting an asset or moving an asset to another folder in your Cloudinary Media Library may lead to broken links. In your WordPress Media Library, you can hover over a specific asset you would like to re-synchronize and click on Re-sync to Cloudinary.

What are the asset sync statuses displayed in my Media Library?

• indicates the asset is fully synced with Cloudinary; it exists in both WordPress and Cloudinary and will be delivered using a Cloudinary delivery URL.
• indicates the asset syncing is currently syncing with Cloudinary.
• indicates the metadata and/or the breakpoints are currently syncing with Cloudinary.
• indicates the asset is not synced with Cloudinary. Any un-synced assets can be pushed to Cloudinary manually. Hover over the relevant asset and select the Push to Cloudinary option. Alternatively, to sync all assets you can perform a bulk-sync.
• indicates there was a problem syncing to Cloudinary. Hovering over the icon will show a message explaining the error. This will most likely be due to a file size limitation or an incompatible file type. Please refer to your package limitation for more information on this.
• indicates the asset is external media and therefore is not syncable. 

How do I apply transformations to my resources?

You can apply transformations to images and videos at different levels:

• Global-level transformations
• Taxonomy-level transformations
• Individual-level transformations

Global-level transformations

In your WordPress menu, under the Cloudinary plugin, you can access the Transformations Settings by clicking on the Media Settings section then the Media Display tab in order to select your delivery settings for all of your images and videos.

For images, you can:

• select a specific format to deliver your images or let the Cloudinary algorithm choose the best format to deliver by selecting the Auto setting.
• select a specific compression quality to deliver your images or let the Cloudinary algorithm choose the best compression quality to deliver by selecting the Auto setting.
• add a transformation string to all of your image URLs.

For videos, you can:

• select the video player you would like to play your videos with between the Cloudinary Player and the WordPress Player.
• only for the Cloudinary Player, you can select different options:
  • Show controls in the player.
  • Autoplay the videos or not.
  • If the videos will be repeated or not.
• specify the bitrate the videos will be delivered with.
• add a transformation string to all of your video URLs.

For both images and videos, the best practice for the transformation string is to ensure this transformation string won’t edit the content of the media too significantly and therefore would not need to be overwritten. An example would be to add a watermark to all your media assets, as opposed to cropping all assets with varying results. 

Taxonomy-level transformations

Taxonomy-level transformations are specific to a defined taxonomy, either a category or a tag.

For both images and videos, you can add a transformation string that will be applied to all the assets on a page, or a post where a category or a tag is added.

If you have multiple categories or tags, you can configure the order in which the taxonomy-level transformations should be applied.

Individual-level transformations

There are now two options to add an individual-level transformation.

• In your WordPress Media Library, there is a new column named Transformations where you should see the Add Transformations link, or a transformation if you imported and transformed an image using the 2nd option:
• In a post or a page, add an image/video from your Media Library. When selecting this option, you should see a third tab named Cloudinary, that will show your Cloudinary Media Library. On the top right corner of the asset you would like to add, you can click on Manage which will redirect you to the Cloudinary Editing page where you can add transformations to your asset. To access the transformed asset, you have to click on the Insert button and then Select.

How do I make my images responsive?

In your WordPress menu, under the Cloudinary plugin, you can access the Transformations Settings by clicking on the Media Settings section then the Media Display tab in order to enable responsive breakpoints. 

After enabling the responsive breakpoints, you will have the options to: 

• add a maximum number of breakpoints which represents the maximum number of images that can be generated when delivering responsive images.
• specify the minimum byte step between two breakpoints.
• add a minimum and maximum width limit to avoid creating images that will never be used.
• specify the DPR for generated images.

Can I delete assets in my Cloudinary Media Library?

We do not recommend deleting any assets inside your Cloudinary Media Library, nor moving assets to a different folder as this may break the links on your production website. In case you did one of these actions, you can re-sync your assets from your WordPress Media Library.

How do I generate a system report?

In your WordPress menu, under the Cloudinary plugin, you can access the Need Help? section then you can select the System Report icon in order to generate the report:

You can also add specific images to your report if needed by hovering over a specific asset you would like to synchronize and clicking on Add to Cloudinary report: 

How do I enable the DAM extension?

In your WordPress menu, under the Cloudinary plugin you can access the Dashboard section, then on the right side open the Extensions menu and enable the DAM extension:

You will be prompted to reload the page. Click on the Reload page button and the DAM extension will appear on your WordPress menu below the Cloudinary plugin:

When clicking on the DAM extension, you will be able to manage and pull assets from Cloudinary to WordPress.

How do I enable the Cloudinary Status?

In a post, locate your Admin Bar and click on Enable Cloudinary Status:

When the Cloudinary Status is enabled, you will be able to see a watermark on the top left corner of each image indicating if the asset is delivered by Cloudinary or WordPress:

If the asset is delivered by Cloudinary, you will see the following information:

• Local size
• Optimized size
• Optimized format
• Reduction (%)
• Transformations

Note that the status is only shown to Admin users and won't be visible to others.

How do I contact Cloudinary support if I have an issue?

You can contact the Support team by:

• opening a request with us at support.cloudinary.com.
• creating a forum post in the WordPress Marketplace Support section.
• sending an email to support@cloudinary.com.
• creating a forum post in the Cloudinary Support forum.

Useful links

• WordPress Marketplace: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/cloudinary-image-management-and-manipulation-in-the-cloud-cdn/#developers
• WordPress Marketplace Support: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/cloudinary-image-management-and-manipulation-in-the-cloud-cdn/
• Documentation: https://cloudinary.com/documentation/wordpress_integration
• GitHub repository: https://github.com/cloudinary/cloudinary_wordpress