RSMediaGallery! Updated to Revision 2

We've been listening to your suggestions and we've added some of our own in this update. Read below what improvements have been made to our Joomla! Image Gallery extension.

A new lightbox

The old lightbox was relying too much on hacks & iframes in order to work correctly - it didn't load as fast as we hoped it would and it left room for improvement. We've decided to integrate a new lightbox and modify it to suit our needs. The new lightbox includes the following features and improvements:

• Automatically resizes the image to fit the user's viewport - this means that if the image exceeds the user's browser window size, the image will be shrinked. This happens on the fly - if the user resizes his browser window the image gets resized as well.
• Automatically scrolls to the image if it's not in focus - when the lightbox is opened and shows the image, the user might scroll throughout the page. If he clicks on the navigation arrows or uses the keyboard to navigate between the images, the page will automatically be scrolled to focus on the newly opened image.
• Keyboard navigation - use the left and right arrows on your keyboard to navigate through the images and press ESC to close the lightbox.
• A much needed "Close" button - the button shows up when you hover the image on the lightbox and disappears when the cursor leaves the image area.
• Faster loading times - the lightbox has increased loading times and the library has been reduced in size. This means your website visitors will benefit from an ehanced experience when viewing your images.

Better integration with your template by using Contrasts

Some users were using RSMediaGallery! on dark backgrounds and it didn't look good. In order to help our users, we've added a new option in the configuration of RSMediaGallery! - the ability to select either a "Light" or a "Dark" contrast.

Where do I find the new Contrast option?

Head to Components > RSMediaGallery! > Options in Joomla! 2.5 or Components > RSMediaGallery! > Parameters in Joomla! 1.5. The Contrast option allows you to select from:

• Light - this is the default contrast and it basically means dark (eg. black) text on a light (eg. white) background.
• Dark - this contrast will be useful if your website's template has a light text on a dark background.

Smart loading of the jQuery library

Almost 80% of the support requests we've received concerning RSMediaGallery! were related to multiple instances of jQuery (a powerful javascript library; more information here) which would break the functionality of the lightboxes. We've now added a new option in the Configuration of RSMediaGallery! that controls how jQuery is loaded.

Where do I find the new jQuery option?

Head to Components > RSMediaGallery! > Options in Joomla! 2.5 or Components > RSMediaGallery! > Parameters in Joomla! 1.5. The jQuery option allows you to select from:

• Auto - this will probably be the best option, since it will automatically detect the best way to load jQuery based on your website.
• Load own jQuery - this will load the jQuery library without any additional checks. This means that if another extension already provides jQuery it will probably result in a Javascript error and you will end up with non-functional elements on your page.
• Smart load - will automatically detect if multiple instances of jQuery are running on your page and will attempt to replace them with RSMediaGallery!'s jQuery instance, which runs the latest version 1.7.1.
• Do not load - if your website already has a jQuery library installed (probably from your template), RSMediaGallery! will not load it.

How do I check if my website already has jQuery?

You will need some basic HTML knowledge. Go to your website and click on View Source from within your browser. In the page source code, look for anything that looks like "jquery.js", "jquery.min.js", "jquery-1.7.1.js" or any other deviation. If the path points to "com_rsmediagallery/assets/js/", ignore it, since you're looking for libraries besides the ones found in RSMediaGallery!.

Are you planning any more updates?

Yes, RSMediaGallery! is under constant development. We have a full list of ideas that we want to add in future revisions. We're also working on getting ready our first set of Joomla! templates so we're fully booked, but it will be worth the wait.

Where do I get the new version?

The new RSMediaGallery! version can be downloaded from the Free Downloads section.