This month we’ve upgraded a plugin that allow to import photos from facebook pages or profiles. Also we did 3 big important releases:

• The opportunity to create a gallery by using hashtags - a gallery can be formed with all images and videos that contain the hashtag you’d chosen.
• 3 new gallery design you can chose for galleries group, one gallery or one image.
• The opportunity to limit a size of images without loss of quality.

This month we’ve fixed some bugs and released two upgrades:

• Keyboard navigation - when any image is open you can switch to another one by clicking arrow keys and turn back to the gallery by clicking ESC key.
• Additional parameter for displaying images - you can make them to display in ascending or descending order by date.

New:

• Gallery description next to the gallery. This feature allows to display description at the right of the gallery. As a result, the gallery and description are placed at eye-level allowing for better readability when long descriptions are added to the galleries. 

• Tags display on the gallery view. Earlier tags assigned to the gallery didn’t display on the gallery page. Now the tags assigned to the gallery are displayed underneath the gallery title.

• Search by ID. To simplify files management via the admin panel, we have added the ability to search for files by ID. 

• Search by tag. We have added a search by tag filter to the files management section so you could search for files by tags via the admin panel.   

• Custom CSS style section. We have added CSS style section in admin panel so the users could edit CSS styles of the component directly via Joomla admin panel.

• Gallery display in a map module. We have added galleries filter to the map module settings. With this filter, you can choose the galleries you want to display on the map.  


Updated:

• Renamed Default design to Fancy. We have renamed Default design to Fancy to avoid confusion with the default option allowing to set priority between menu item settings and global settings
.
• Geotag for a gallery. Now you can assign a geotag to the gallery. A gallery with a geotag is added to the galleries filter, in the map module settings. As a result, this gallery can be displayed on the map.

• Default image setting for a front-end manager. Now, the default cover image can be set for a gallery via the front-end manager.


Bug fix:

• Tags display in menu item settings. Fixed tags display in menu item layout settings. Earlier the tags added for a new gallery didn’t display in menu item layout settings

• Tags order. Synchronized the order of the tags between the front-end and back-end. 

• Batch upload via the front-end manager. Batch upload didn’t work for the front-end manager.

• File description. Fixed the file description display in the below position.

• Video cover upload. It was impossible to upload a video cover for a gallery.

• Magnifier display. Fixed magnifier display in the lightbox.


In this version, we have improved the product with several new features and a set of updates and bug fixes. Video gallery cover has become one of the most prominent features of this release. Let’s review its benefits and all other changes below:

• Gallery video cover with preview.  Earlier you could use only images as preview covers for your galleries, now you can also use videos as preview covers. The video is automatically played on hovering. Video preview cover allows to animate your galleries enabling your customers to quickly scan through the gallery content. This feature is particularly helpful for businesses using catalogs and portfolios to showcase their products and services.

Documentation reference: Galleries.

• Beauty design. A new Beauty design with new fonts and green/spa colors is a sound solution for beauty industry websites. Now you have more options for styling your galleries.
• Option defining the length of gallery/image preview description. Now you can set the length of the gallery/image preview description. This feature allows to save screen space and improve web page usability. It is particularly helpful when a gallery/image description is too long.

Documentation reference: Displaying settings.

• Lightbox for all designs. Lightbox allows to view images on the same page without leaving it. Thus, the user receives information faster and doesn’t have to take extra actions. Now Lightbox is available for all designs - Palaroids, Pinterest, Classis, Default, and Masonry.
• New full image preview lightbox script. The previous lightbox script cropped images and had glitches on responsive views. We have replaced the script to ensure better visual presentation and good user experience.
• Removed formatting from gallery preview description.In order to improve the readability of the gallery preview image, we have removed formatting from gallery preview description. Now the description on the gallery preview image is displayed as plain text.
• Default gallery cover parameter. We have added this parameter to make it possible for you to choose a gallery cover from the images that are already present within the gallery. Thus, you don’t need to upload it manually every time you need to set a gallery cover.

Documentation reference: Galleries.

• Slideshow/latest module display via file/gallery description.We have added the ability to insert a slideshow or latest module into the image description. This feature is particularly helpful if you need to provide additional information to the image/gallery.  
• Download button for a menu item. This feature allows for more flexibility. For example, if you use FW Gallery not as a photo gallery, but as a tool to promote your products and services, you might not need a download button on all pages. So now, if you don’t need the download button to be present for all galleries, you can easily disable it where it is needed.
• Files counter for a menu item.If the number of files is not required to be displayed for a particular menu item, you can disable/enable the parameter on the menu item level.
• Safari optimization. We have optimized the component for Safari to ensure smooth Safari experience.
• Watermark display. We have resolved the problem with watermark text display over the images.
• Comments display.It was impossible to disable comments via menu item settings. Now you can work with comments on both levels -  menu item and default gallery configuration.
• Latest module optimization for a lightbox. We have fixed the problem with Latest module layouts display within the lightbox. Now all layouts work fine with lightbox.
• Links display in gallery preview description.We have resolved the issue with incorrect links display within the gallery preview description.
• Show backlink option for default gallery settings. It was impossible to set show backlink option via default gallery settings. Now it is available in default gallery settings.
• Bellow gallery description display.We have fixed the problem with the below description option. Now you can place a description underneath the gallery.
• Gallery preview display in Masonry. We have aligned the gallery preview image for Masonry format.
• Files ordering.We have added files ordering buttons in the files section.
• Language files update. We have updated language files to fix some missing translations.  

Get familiar with FW Gallery documentation to find more information about our product. Please use the comments section at the bottom of each documentation page to comment and suggest improvements that will make the product experience better.

Reading Time: 10 mins. 
Implementation Time : 60 mins.

• Prepare media content - photos grouped by services.

• Install FW Gallery to present your services with a clean design.

• Create required galleries to show service categories and different types of services inside them.

• Display all images to show services with their images and descriptions.

• Display a map using FW Gallery Map module.


Top-level gallery

Projects by location section

Page with projects

Project page

Project presentation with lightbox

Websites that contain a lot of visual/media content have their list of characteristics, tasks, and difficulties that developers may face with. The best feature of a good Joomla gallery website is a high-quality user-friendly implementation. Because of its peculiarities, a large number of image files, such a resource can be “heavy”, load slowly and be displayed incorrectly. The key point here is to provide a user with the most positive experience managing gallery website. This can be achieved in particular through the use of responsive Joomla gallery components.

Joomla Gallery Plugin FW Gallery Light and Its Main Functions

Responsiveness. The name speaks for itself, so the main function and the main advantage of responsiveness is an ability to be displayed correctly on any devices, adapting to the viewport.

Improved upload options. With FW Gallery  Joomla gallery component, it is possible to upload photos easily and quickly, using drag&grop or mass selecting them in a file manager.

Multi-level galleries. This function allows the user to build galleries of several levels in order to make the content more structured and organized.
Rotation of images. From now on you should not worry about photos rotation. Even if a photo-orientation didn’t get rendered correctly you can fix it manually at any time.

Galleries and photo layout settings. A set of various parameters for displaying images and galleries adjusting sizes and information you want to show.

Default gallery image picture will be selected from already uploaded pictures to find the most spiritual image for a gallery content or create Joomla gallery carousel.

A possibility to apply a watermark. Both the client and the user can be confident in the authenticity of the images.

A possibility to view sub-galleries for quick navigation while preserving the adequate size of photos and without loss of quality.

Share buttons. Each user of the site will be able to share any photo in one click.

Advanced features for clarifying details. Now each gallery can get a name, a creation date, and a hashtag. The privacy of this data is easily regulated.

Extended item settings. This means the ability to save specific viewing parameters for each of the photos, as well as assign the data (name, creation date, hashtag) to each image. With the frontend function, the visual content updating is even easier since you do not need to touch an admin panel anymore.

Who Can Benefit from Joomla Gallery Extensions

The decision to create Joomla gallery with FW Gallery Light will be reasonable for:

• designers and photographers to most effectively show their creativity and competence;
• cafes and restaurants so that potential guests can familiarize themselves with an attractive and detailed menu;
• photo models with diverse work experience;
• builders who already have successfully completed projects;
• companies that want to be closer to their customers and for this purpose take photos of their production processes from the inside;
• and everyone else whose work results can be demonstrated visually.

On a Concluding Note

Thus, this Joomla gallery extension is a free download and a fairly convenient and practically universal tool that can be useful to develop solutions in many areas. Its main advantages are responsiveness and multi-functionality. In fact, this saves time and labor costs and also allows you to organize your images online, resulting in an excellent responsive design.