AI in the WordPress Media Library

Standalone AI image generation and bulk alt-text generation for the WordPress Media Library.

Overview

Image generation first existed only inside the block editor, and alt text could only be generated one image at a time. I added both workflows to the Media Library, where site owners actually manage images.

Key challenges

The media grid swallows clicks.

WordPress's media grid delegates events, so a normal click handler on the injected button never fired. I used a capture-phase listener to handle the click before the grid does (#258).

Bulk jobs that survive failures.

Generating alt text for dozens of images can't stop at the first failure. Images are processed one at a time with per-item error handling, and a progress notice shows how far along it is (#330).

A refresh mustn't re-run the job.

The bulk action passes IDs via query parameters, so I clean up the URL with history.replaceState when the job finishes, and a refresh or back navigation can't trigger it again.

What shipped

A standalone image generation page (generate, preview, regenerate, save) in v0.4.0
A bulk "Generate Alt Text" action
Loading-state and button-visibility fixes (#512)
5 integration tests plus end-to-end coverage

← All work