Direct link to image in Gallery?

I know admins can currently login to the back-end and retrieve a direct link to both the thumbnail, and image that resides in the Gallery. But that doesn't help users when they attempt to insert an image into an article (using the Blogs function in CB w/Joomla articles) and have it lightboxed.

The problem comes for them when trying to use the image's link in the gallery. They are all currently formatted like this:


No lightboxing plugin that I've found so far can query the dimensions (x/y) of the target image and display it properly. They are usually cut off top/bottom and don't look correct. This is an example of what one lightbox displays - all are functionally broken when it comes to Gallery screens:



If there was a way to allow users to see the direct full-size (& thumbnail) file path on one of their images, it would go a long way towards embedding gallery images into articles, with pretty lightboxing effects. Or even a button that retrieves the direct URLs and places them in the article for the user to create a lightbox with. Masking the direct link can be helpful in certain situations, but in this case it seems like the functionality of the Gallery is being diminished.

CB Gallery comes with a content plugin for quick inserting of gallery media. Ensure CB Gallery Bot is installed then review its description carefully on how to use it. It can be used to output an entire gallery inline, a single or multiple gallery entries, or even just the URL to something. Aside from that they can always just right click the image and click "Copy image address" for the URL to the media.

Can't help you in regards to your lightbox though as CB Gallery will never be designed for such a scenario and it's up to your lightbox implementation to handle the media properly. You will never be able to access media by its raw URL navigating through the file system. Those folders are protected for security purposes. All media is accessed by the URLs you're seeing that navigate through Joomla.

There's plans for a WYSIWYG editor button plugin in a future release that makes it easier for inserting gallery entries in articles. There's also plans for a share feature in CB Gallery for sharing media externally. I don't have a timeframe for when either will be implemented though.

That's unfortunate to hear about lightboxing the gallery. Not one out of the ten (?) or so plugins I tried was able to handle a non-image-file URL and display them properly - they can't query the full image size correctly from the URL. I finally had to give up on it and just allow users manually image linking off the thumbs.

But good news for a WYSIWYG editor button to help them do insertions in the future. Will look forward to that. Thanks krileon.

When using CB Gallery Bot to display images you can display them as a thumbnail that opens the CB Gallery modal window, but your users would need to know the proper syntax to output this since there's no editor plugin for easy inserting yet. You can see the CB Gallery Bot working on our demo site below.

demo.cbdemosites.com/demos/cb-gallery/cb-gallery-bot

Yep, I installed the Content Bot plugin when I originally configured CB. I don't see a CB Gallery Bot on the plugins page (I assume that it changed names since the original demo for the Gallery Bot).

Do we have a list of the necessary syntax needed to reference insertions like an individual photo? I know in certain parts of the backend config there are a few examples, but I don't think I've ever seen a comprehensive one for the Content Bot.

CB Content Bot is for using CB substitutions wherever Joomla content prepare is used. CB Gallery Bot is a separate content plugin for inserting galleries wherever Joomla content prepare is used. If you don't see "Content - CB Gallery" in Extensions > Plugins it's not installed. Syntax is provided in the description of the CB Gallery Bot. For general CB substitution syntax see our substitutions tutorial below.

www.joomlapolis.com/documentation/279-community-builder/tutorials/18353-using-substitutions-throughout-cb