Tainacan

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Tainacan

by tainacan

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Description

Tainacan is an open-source repository platform that turns WordPress into a powerful and flexible environment for managing and publishing digital collections — as easily as writing a blog post.

Designed for cultural institutions, research projects, archives, museums, and any kind of digital collection, Tainacan integrates seamlessly with the WordPress block editor and takes full advantage of its ecosystem.

Key Features:

  • Free and open source – Licensed under GPLv3: use, modify, and share freely
  • WordPress based – Built to last taking advantage of the power of the WordPress ecosystem and features
  • Compatible with any theme – Use the Tainacan Interface theme or adapt any WordPress theme
  • Easy management – Create collections, define metadata, manage users, and publish content effortlessly
  • Highly customizable – Configure metadata, taxonomies, and filters to match your project’s needs
  • Faceted search – Offer advanced browsing with intuitive custom filters
  • Importing and exporting – Import bulk data from spreadsheets, export in CSV, XLSX, JSON, and other formats
  • API and interoperability – Complete RESTful API with support for metadata mapping to standards such as Dublin Core
  • Gutenberg blocks – Tell stories about your digital archive using a variety of blocks anywhere in your site

Support

Need help?
Find documentation, community support, and development resources at:

  1. Upload the tainacan folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. You will see a new menu item called “Tainacan” in your admin panel
  4. Click on it to open the Tainacan admin interface and start creating your collections

Requirements:

  • WordPress 5.9 or higher
  • PHP 7.0 or higher
  • For automatic PDF thumbnail generation, Imagick is recommended (but not required)
  1. Manage your repository

    Manage your repository

  2. Set up your collection

    Set up your collection

  3. Choose the metadata and filters for your collection

    Choose the metadata and filters for your collection

  4. Add items described by your metadata

    Add items described by your metadata

  5. Set up your item as a file, link or text and attach many types of documents

    Set up your item as a file, link or text and attach many types of documents

  6. Browse your collections with a faceted search interface

    Browse your collections with a faceted search interface

  7. Navigate through the rich filtering interface

    Navigate through the rich filtering interface

  8. Explore more with Advanced Search

    Explore more with Advanced Search

  9. Set up Taxonomies to be used across your repository

    Set up Taxonomies to be used across your repository

  10. Bulk edit as many items as you need quickly

    Bulk edit as many items as you need quickly

  11. Expose your collection using Tainacan default theme

    Expose your collection using Tainacan default theme

  12. Use Gutenberg blocks to display your collections in posts and pages

    Use Gutenberg blocks to display your collections in posts and pages

  13. Choose which items will be displayed in your block

    Choose which items will be displayed in your block

  14. Items displayed using a Gutenberg block

    Items displayed using a Gutenberg block

How do I get started?

After installation, click on the “Tainacan” menu item in your WordPress admin panel. You can create your first collection by clicking “New Collection”, configure its metadata and filters, and start adding items to your collection.

For an overview of the main concepts, visit our documentation.

Can I use Tainacan with any WordPress theme?

Yes! Tainacan works with any WordPress theme, but developers can improve their integration. If you want more dedicated page templates we recommend using the Tainacan Interface theme, which is our classic theme that meets the demands of most collections. But you can also try using an FSE theme such as Tainá, or install an integration plugin for a popular theme such as Blocksy.

How do I browse my collections on the public side?

Visit https://your-site/collections to see the list of your collections. You can also add links to the collections in your menu by editing it and enabling “Collections” in the Screen options.

Can I import data from other systems?

Yes! Tainacan supports importing bulk data from CSV spreadsheets. You can also use bulk editing tools to perform adaptations from your system modeling to the one you created in Tainacan.

Does Tainacan have an API?

Yes! Tainacan implements a complete RESTful API (read and write) that allows other applications to interact with your repository. You can expose your collection in different formats such as JSON, CSV, and HTML.

What metadata standards are supported?

Tainacan allows you to define your own metadata standards by adopting a variety of types (text, relationship, numeric, date, geocoordinate etc.), but also supports predefined ones including Dublin Core and INBCM. Even when creating your own, you can still define mappers to other standards, allowing you to export to other systems.

What are taxonomies and how do I use them?

Taxonomies in Tainacan are vocabularies that can be used across all your collections. You can configure taxonomy metadata with a set of hierarchical terms of your own vocabulary. This allows you to create controlled vocabularies that can be reused throughout your repository, ensuring consistency across different collections.

How do I use Gutenberg blocks with Tainacan?

Tainacan offers several Gutenberg blocks so you can present your collections in many different ways! You can display items, collections, search interfaces, and more. Simply add the blocks to your posts and pages through the WordPress block editor.

Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?

We take security very seriously. Please report any security bugs found in the source code of the Tainacan plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.

I’m getting 404 errors or blank pages when accessing my collection

After site migration, plugin updates, or new installations, you may need to rebuild WordPress permalinks. If collections or pages are returning 404 errors despite already having items on it, go to Settings -> Permalinks in your WordPress admin panel, ensure “Post Name” or a Custom Structure with /%postname%/ is selected, then click Save Changes (even if nothing changed). This will rebuild the permalink structure.

Great plugin for libraries and cultural institutions

By jorgemet on March 10, 2025

Arguably the best WordPress plugin for digital collections of libraries and cultural institutions. I have successfully implemented it for several repository projects in Uruguay.

Perfect plugin!

By Yura Shkoda (yurashkoda) on January 21, 2023

Now I have a repository with no "server headaches" like with Dspace, for example, and near the same functionality. I think this beautiful plugin opens a future for the digital repositories, at least for my library. Thank you!

Moderne, bien conçu et facile d'accès

By yblatti on January 17, 2023

Parfait pour inventorier, documenter et surtout présenter vos collection d’objets et d'images.

D'une petite association historique à un grand musée, tout le monde trouve son usage <3

Referência em software de criação e gestão de repositórios digitais

By Suelane Silva Ramos (suelanesilva) on November 29, 2022

Uma solução robusta e poderosa para criação e gestão de repositórios digitais, sem perder a sutileza de ser altamente intuitivo e customizável. O Tainacan tem a potência de se adaptar a qualquer documentação/inventariado legado, sendo perfeito para qualquer instituição. Desenvolvimento invejável <3

Recommended

By leemon on July 3, 2022

This is an excellent plugin for museums and archives. Recommended!

Interest of Tainacan

By MonsieurNuages on May 28, 2021

I found this plugin very handy to use. I could set up a digital library with it in a few weeks, and now it came into production. The team is very responsive.

Great plugin for archives and collections

By frdabd on April 24, 2020

Amazing plugin for transforming your wordpress website into a repository for archives or collections. Highly recommended!

Solução para repositórios digitais

By rooseweltl on April 18, 2020

Está entre as melhores soluções para gerenciamento de repositórios digitais. Parabéns a equipe e colaboradores.

Ótima ferramenta multifuncional!

By gabrielcperrone on August 1, 2019

A equipe do Acervo Museológico dos Laboratórios de Ensino de Física da UFRGS vem trabalhando com esta ferramenta para organização e gestão do acervo desde 2017. Apesar de não termos nenhuma experiência com gestão de acervo, design de sites ou com as ferramentas comumente utilizadas para estas funções, rapidamente dominamos o plugin e moldamos ele para as nossas necessidades. Até hoje, sempre conseguimos encontrar soluções simples para nossas demandas dentro da plataforma. O plugin nos oferece ferramentas prontas para gerenciar o nosso acervo e divulgá-lo na internet com muita facilidade e, por não ser travado, nos permite reinventar os usos para as ferramentas. Atualmente estamos utilizando o WordPress e o Tainacan para outras funções, que não a gestão e divulgação do acervo em outros sites da instituição. Com a ajuda do plugin Tainacan e suporte da equipe, Fizemos chover na nossa instituição.

Ótimo Plugin - equipe nota 10

By marcosfbrumlopes on July 31, 2019

O Museu Casa de Benjamin Constant tem trabalhado com o Tainacan há poucos meses e o plugin já se tornou nossa ferramenta de gestão do acervo. Trabalhamos em conjunto com uma equipe nota 10, rápida e competente. Esperamos que, em breve, o público tenha acesso ao acervo museológico, arquivístico e bibliográfico do museu. 5 estrelas com certeza!

To see the changelog, please visit the GitHub Releases page.

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