Vote & Rating
The Vote & Rating addon adds an interactive star rating system to your gallery files. Visitors can rate individual images, and galleries can surface the most popular content by sorting files according to their accumulated ratings.
Use Cases
- Photo contests — let visitors vote for their favourite images and see results in real time.
- Community curation — promote the highest-rated content automatically through rating-based sorting.
- Visitor engagement — an interactive rating widget encourages participation and increases time on page.
How It Works
Once active, a rating widget appears on file grid items and on the single file detail page. Visitors submit a rating (for example, 1–5 stars), and the addon records both the vote count and the cumulative score against each file. Gallery pages can then be sorted by rating so the highest-rated files appear first. The Latest Files and Carousel modules also support filtering and sorting by vote count.
Settings
Configure the addon from Settings → Add-ons → Vote.
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Allow guest voting | No | When enabled, visitors who are not logged in can submit ratings. Guest votes are limited using cookies or IP address to reduce duplicate submissions. |
| Rating display style | Stars | Visual style of the rating control. Options include stars, thumbs, and numeric display. |
| Show vote count | Yes | Displays the number of votes a file has received alongside the rating widget. |
| Show average rating | Yes | Displays the calculated average score for each file. |
Guest vs. Registered Voting
When Allow guest voting is on, the addon uses cookies or IP address to prevent a single visitor from voting repeatedly. For logged-in users, votes are tied to their account, providing more reliable deduplication.
Removing the Addon
Deactivating the Vote & Rating addon stops the widget from appearing on the frontend, but all existing vote data remains stored in the database. If the addon is re-enabled later, previously recorded ratings are restored automatically.
To install this addon, open the Add-ons panel inside FW Gallery. See Getting Started → Add-ons for details on free addons, paid addons, and site verification.
