I am designing my first Joomla site using the Scroller template. What I love about the template is it's focus on having a small amount of important information per page. However, this is of course also its greatest flaw because when you do need a longer page, it doesn't scroll (ironic name, huh?). I potentially have a couple of pages with this problem, one of which will definitely be a gallery. I'm looking for help deciding on the best work around.

I've seen on this forum one site that simply embedded code to add scrollbars within the container box (though that may have been on the Slider). I could potentially go that route, but it isn't a particularly attractive or elegant one.

My hope had been to be able to publish any such page to a lightbox. For example, visitors can go to the gallery page and click on the name or icon of a gallery. From there, that gallery would pop up in a lightbox or iframe that was scrollable.

But I do not know of a way to publish a gallery module to a lightbox. I had hoped I was onto something with Phoca Gallery which makes itself available as a menu item whose link I can send to a lightbox. But the gallery still comes up in the Scroller template inside the lightbox.

Another option I'm considering: installing a second (more flexible) template in a subdirectory of the site. I presume this requires installing a second instance of the Joomla software in that subdirectory. Are there drawbacks to such a strategy?

Maybe I just need to be pointed to the right module or plugin. Whatever the solution, your advice and expertise would be much appreciated.

Hi Brad,

If you are familiar with JCE image manager extended (paid version) there is an option using JCE utilities that when an image is clicked on, a page in a light box opens up

Not sure how much it costs for the paid version but worth considering if it makes all the difference

Cheers
Craig

Hey Brad

I could set you an example on a test site im working on so you can see it in action?????

Just let me know

Cheers
Craig

Actually, it is the gallery itself (i.e. the grid of thumbnails) that I can't figure out how to get into a lightbox rather than individual pix.

Brad,

If you want an image lightbox effect using the Grid theme, download/install/config JB's bambooBox module. It's hot!

Ed

Hi Brad,

Actually, it is the gallery itself (i.e. the grid of thumbnails) that I can't figure out how to get into a lightbox rather than individual pix.

Thats what I was explaining Brad, JCE extended will open the gallery (i.e. the grid of thumbnails) in a lightbox

Craig, that would be great if you can easily put up a test page for me to check out!

Has anyone built a site as I was suggesting using two templates with one in a subdirectory? That does require installing a second instance of Joomla, right? Is that likely to make the site run slow (or other problems)?

Hey Brad,

One of the things you can do in Joomla is to assign a second template (not the default) to menu items in your Joomla installation. Try it.
The default template gets applied to all items by default but the other installed items can be assigned to specific pages.
That might be useful to you.

Cheers,
Jason.

That could be very useful, Jason. I'll play with it. I imagine the hardest part will be creating some sense of site continuity when I switch back and forth.

That would be the challenge. Similar templates, or adapt a template to have a different look.

More info that I've found:

One way to get what I've been looking for is to link to the module beginning with index2.php rather than index.php. This gives me a completely raw white page. But, according to my reading, this is technically incorrect and index2.php is only there for legacy compatibility. Also, editing index2.php to get anything other than a white background is probably not a good idea.

Rather, you can add variables to the link to change the template or the way it is rendered. For examples:

index.php?option=com_mycomponent&tmpl=component
index.php?option=com_mycomponent&format=raw

The tricky part for me has been editing the component template. Clearly, the first step is to copy the templates/system/component.php file to your template directory. But I'm having trouble getting it to use the css that I want. Still working on that part...

[Update: I was using the Rokbox plugin for my popups. Thus, I need to change the style settings of the plugin rather than the general popup css.]

My readings:
blog.joomlatools.eu/2008/01/joomla-15-generating-raw-ouput.html
www.howtojoomla.net/2006102832/how-tos/components/how-to-display-a-components-output-and-nothing-else
www.theartofjoomla.com/reference/17-templates/60-the-popup-template-file.html

Hi Brad,

if you need a template without any modules or css attached then there is no reason why you cant just hack one together. Id grab something like bamboo clean and remove all the stuff other than the component call.

Hope that helps.

Anthony

Hi Brad,

Sorry I didnt get back to you yesterday...got a bit hectic here

I have setup a real basic example of a gallery page opening in a lightbox off an image link

(edited) no link any more as I have taken the example down off the site

let me know if thats where your headed and I help you out, if not the other guys are onto it as well and should be able to offer you other alternatives

Cheers
Craig

Thanks, Craig. That is what I've been looking for.

After working on it for quite awhile yesterday, I figured out that what I've been missing this whole time is the loadposition script. (Maybe that's because I was having problems with other in-content scripts before.) It was actually quite easy to put prettyBox in an article and bring up an article in rokbox/lightbox.

I haven't sprung for JCE Image Manager Extended yet, but I've seen a video tutorial of it, and it seems like a very good program. It wasn't clear to me from that video demo though how you could go about getting your gallery in the lightbox. Is it substantially easier than loading a module in an article and linking to it with a custom html module?

Thanks for everyone's input on this.

--Brad

Hi Brad,

You wrote>>>Is it substantially easier than loading a module in an article and linking to it with a custom html module? As long as the image/s is/are editable with JCE extended its as easy as putting the gallery url into the popup section within JCE. So I gather you will have a page full of images that link to certain galleries, its just a matter of applying the gallery link to each individual image via JCE ext. The cool bit is that another lightbox can open within the page lightbox.

I have not had a need to do what your doing however I will keep a mental note as I like how a lightbox opens for a gallery image up within the gallery page lightbox.

JCE rocks, it was the first extension I used when I began Joomla, the paid version has the power to embed virtually anything.

If ya need some more advice just yell out if you want to take the JCE road, otherwise good luck and am glad you have found an alternative

Cheers
Craig