Support » Requests and Feedback » Gallery improvement

  • The idea of a gallery addition in 3.5 really excited me. Right now, we’re using NextGen galleries on our website, and I don’t really like the plugin. It’s a bit of a pain to manage, and the media library is cut off from the pictures that you upload, size, caption, etc. I was hoping that this feature being built into 3.5 would mean the end of NextGen for us.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve much. File management is much easier, creating the galleries is much easier, but there’s two problems – first, not being able to change the size of the images as they’re displayed in the gallery. Second, is what happens when you click on a picture to have a closer look. Viewing on attachment page just opens the same size image on its own page in the theme. And even if this was how you wanted to see the images, you’d have to navigate back and forth for each one. Viewing on image takes you out of the theme completely to view the image full size. What would it take to have these 3.5 native galleries open an interactive slideshow, like a NextGen gallery or a facebook album? Or even stay entirely on the page, and just use the standard page width for a slideshow of that gallery?

    It’s an awesome step in the right direction, I just think it needs more follow through for when folks want to take a closer look at what’s in a gallery. Unless there’s some configuring options that I’m missing…

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
  • I was just going to post about the new gallery function myself. Although the new “drag and drop” functionality is helpful, I totally agree that the way the full size images are viewed with galleries is absolutely terrible and downright ugly.

    The standard WordPress 3.4.2 galleries were simple to create and the full-size images would pop-up into a relatively elegant image viewer where people could just click to the next image in the gallery and then close the pop-up viewer. The image file name would be included in small text at the bottom of the pop-up gallery viewer.

    But now I have two options: attachment or media file. As you mentioned, “media file” option just opens the full size image with a grey background and the user has to use the browser back button to go back to the gallery. Or use “attachment” option when creating the gallery which creates a very, very ugly page with the image file name in huge text and the full size image is pushed down the page where only half the image can be seen forcing the user to scroll down.

    Not only did I have to spend hours yesterday searching for a new gallery creator (using NextGen for new galleries) but now all of my old photo galleries have to be re-uploaded using the NextGen gallery creator which means that I have to now go back and re-upload all of my photo galleries for each of my posts and galleries which is a LOT of work.

    I am seriously, seriously disappointed and frustrated with the ugliness of the new gallery function on WordPress 3.5.

    Is there any way to revert back to version 3.4.2? I wish that I had never pushed the “upgrade” button to 3.5. This is a total, frustrating headache.

    You would just reinstall the files and database from the backup copies you made before upgrading. That would put you back at the previous version.

    Which would be foolhardy really – the last version is no longer supported. Over time, as more security upgrades get released and you don’t upgrade because you can’t figure out how to use/don’t like the new gallery, your site becomes increasingly vulnerable and will be hacked – then you lose everything. That would be a frustrating headache!!

    Thanks for your reply Rev. Voodoo. I’m pretty sure I know how to use the new gallery functionality but perhaps there’s something I’m not using correctly. I temporarily reverted back to 3.4.2 because I just don’t have the time right now to go and update all of my previous posts and galleries with NextZGen galleries or any other gallery plugin.

    The gallery style I’m seeking is what’s currently on my site using 3.4.2. Here’s an example of a post with a large photo gallery at the bottom. When you click on an image, a simple, elegant pop-up box appears:

    http://whiskyandspice.ca/the-ceili-cottage/

    That is the gallery style that I’m seeking but I can’t seem to replicate it in version 3.5. Perhaps my theme is interfering.

    If I can’t replicate that style in version 3.5 then I will have to take the time to re-upload every gallery on every post using a plug-in like NextGen which will be very time consuming, then I will upgrade to 3.5 but I simply don’t have the time for that right now and can’t have my galleries looking ugly in the meantime.

    Thanks for your advice.

    Thread Starter Shlomobaruch

    (@shlomobaruch)

    Wow, that is an excellent gallery! Yeah, you aren’t going to get that from NextGen. If we can get *that* gallery display back, and keep the drag n’ drop that 3.5 adds, we’ll be in awesome shape!

    Thanks Shlomobaruch. And I have no problem paying for a premium gallery plugin that can provide me a similar gallery style and functionality. I just need time to do research but I don’t have the time right now and I can’t leave my galleries looking as ugly as 3.5 galleries.

    I do agree that the “drag ‘n drop” is a very nice touch. Too bad the results don’t match the functionality. At the end of the day, galleries are for showing images in a clean, elegant manner. All the nice functionality in the world is pointless if it results in an ugly result, which seems to be the case with 3.5.

    Cheers.

    I am so happy with the new gallery!! How can I kiss the developers? Thank You So Very Much!

    Glad to hear that it’s working for you. What does your gallery look like? Would it be possible to see some links to galleries on your blog?

    Yes. I like the design and its neatness but it needs just one thing. There should be an option to move the divider between the thumbnails area and the Edit Details area. The Edit Area is very to the right and too narrow making the fields for Title, Caption and alt text too mean and clumsy for practical use. A small issue but fixing this would make the change to te new media uploader/manager better.

    Oh. And When we click the Insert media button an option to make select files the default. It is what I would use most in my workflow. Having to click more makes the job slower.

    Is there a direct feedback link to the WordPress Team where I can post these ideas?

    Thread Starter Shlomobaruch

    (@shlomobaruch)

    @whiskey, funny I just looked at the source code for your gallery, and the code for a gallery generated from the 3.5 process. It’s identical syntax. The gallery creation is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do and isn’t doing anything different from the previous version. The difference is somewhere else, which means they’re probably going to tell us it’s a jQuery issue, and it’s everyone else’s fault.

    Thread Starter Shlomobaruch

    (@shlomobaruch)

    Oops, except the images in the 3.5 version are missing the “rel” attribute. … …is that what the problem is?

    Thread Starter Shlomobaruch

    (@shlomobaruch)

    Okay, I figured out what the difference is. Whiskyandspice, you’re using a lightbox plug-in, and I’ve noticed a few complaints about those not working in 3.5. That’s where our grumbling is.

    So if we have galleries built in to 3.5, can we get lightbox scripting built in to a future update?

    @shlomobaruch….I had the lightbox plugin installed with 3.5 while I was trying to find a gallery solution but I don’t see it in my list of installed plugins now. But thanks for taking a look!

    Thread Starter Shlomobaruch

    (@shlomobaruch)

    Well, even more digging… I didn’t even know what lightbox was, and now that I know what I’m looking for, you’re actually using Fancybox. Not sure what *type* of Fancybox you’re using, but I installed Fancybox for WordPress, and here’s a gallery post I made in 3.5…

    http://www.fleetstreetklez.com/?p=844

    Fancybox works here, just like it does on your page. But one way or another that is the issue – plug-in compatibility.

    @shlomobaruch….you’re quite the detective. So if I understand you correctly, if I upgrade to 3.5 and install the Fancybox plugin, my galleries will look the same as they do now.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
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