Showtime Image Gallery

Introduction

Showtime is a Joomla! extension which allows you add beautiful image galleries to your site content. 

Compatibility

All of our extensions are tested with the latest stable version of Joomla! available at the time they are released. Compatibility with future versions of Joomla! is added with extension updates.

Requirements

Your server needs to meet the Joomla! system requirements plus:

• PHP GD Image library for resizing images.

Installation

Showtime can be installed on your website the same as way as every other Joomla! extension, using the Joomla! extensions manager. You can refer to the official documentation to learn how you can install extensions on your Joomla! website.

Updating

There are two ways to update this extension:

• One click update: This extension can be updated using the Joomla! extension manager updates. You will have to enter your account Download ID to the extension options. Read the section "Setup" of this page to learn where you need to enter your Download ID.
• Manually: Download the latest version from our website and then install it over the current version using the Joomla! extension manager installer. Note that in order to download Showtime you need an active subscription.

How it Works

It is very important to get familiar with the extension functionality before configuring its options. Here is an overview of the way this extension integrates with Joomla:

• Showtime Image Gallery Custom Field (Joomla! 3.7 or later only): Showtime integrates with the core Custom Fields which are introduced in Joomla! 3.7. You can add as many image galleries to your Joomla! articles by creating custom fields of type "Showtime". Note that this functionality is available to all third-party extensions that support Joomla Custom Fields.
• Showtime Image Gallery in Content Editor: With Showtime you can add galleries directly to article text using the Joomla content editor. A button named "Showtime Image Gallery" is added to the editor allowing you to insert, edit, and remove galleries from article text. Note that this functionality is available for all third-party extensions that support content plugin events.
• Showtime Image Gallery Standalone: There will be use cases where you will just want to create a gallery and not attach it to any existing content but just display it on your site. Showtime allows you to create galleries in standalone mode and use the "Showtime" module to display it on your site. 

Setup

When you install Showtime you get several extensions installed:

• Showtime (Component): This is the component of Showtime. It allows you to edit the image galleries in Joomla! administration area.
• Showtime - (Module): This module allows you to display a set of galleries in your site based on some options.
• Content - Showtime (Plugin): This plugin provides integration with Joomla! content events. Allows you to display a gallery inside article text.
• Button - Showtime (Plugin): This plugin provides integration with Joomla! editor. It adds a button for inserting a gallery into your article text. 
• Fields - Showtime (Plugin): This plugin provides integration with Joomla! Custom Fields. Allows you to define as many gallery custom fields as you wish. 
• Installer - Showtime (Plugin): This plugin handles updating through the extension manager. It has only one option named "Download ID". This where you enter your Download ID in order to enable one-click updates for this extension. You can find your Download ID on this website.
• Showtime plugins: Those plugins belong to a custom Joomla! plugin group named "showtime". This plugin group holds all the renderers ( lightbox scripts ) that Showtime supports.

Component Options

Right after you install Showtime it is recommended to edit the component options according to your needs. Just navigate to "Components" -> "Showtime" and click on the "Options" button. Here are the available options:

Galleries

• Renderer: Choose the default renderer (lightbox script) you wish to use with your galleries. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Renderer Caption: Choose what will be displayed as a caption when the lightbox opens. You can set this to be the image title, the image description or both of them. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Renderer Caption Modules Position: Select a module position to be displayed inside renderer captions. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Gallery Title: Show or hide the gallery title. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Thumbnail Image Title: Show or hide the image title. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Thumbnail Image Description: Show or hide the image description. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Thumbnail Image Width: Enter the desired width in pixels for the generated thumbnails. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Thumbnail Image Height: Enter the desired height in pixels for the generated thumbnails. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Thumbnail Image Resize Method: Choose the desired resize method for the gallery thumbnails. Selecting "Crop" will crop the images and the thumbnails will have the exact dimensions of the "Thumbnail Image Width" and "Thumbnail Image Height" options. Selecting "Fit" will make thumbnails keep the original image aspect ratio and fit the generated thumbnail into a canvas defined by "Thumbnail Image Width" and "Thumbnail Image Height" options. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Thumbnail Image Resize Quality: Choose the desired image quality of generated thumbnail images. This is a value between 1 - 100. Note that the file size of the generated thumbnails depends on this option. This is a global option and cannot be overridden at gallery level.
• Main Image Width: Enter the maximum width in pixels for the gallery main images. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Main Image Height: Enter the maximum height in pixels for the gallery main images. This option can be overridden at gallery level.
• Main Image Resize Quality: Choose the desired image quality of generated main images. This is a value between 1 - 100. Note that the file size of the generated thumbnails depends on this option. This is a global option and cannot be overridden at gallery level.

Advanced

• Title Field in Custom Fields: Select whether to show or hide the gallery title input field when Showtime is used in Joomla Custom Fields. 
• Title Field in Editor Modal: Select whether to show or hide the gallery title input field when Showtime is used in Joomla content editor. 

Permissions

Here you can set the permissions for galleries created by Showtime.

Renderer Options

Showtime comes with several renderers ( lightbox scripts) to be used with your galleries. You can find all the available renderers by navigating at "Extensions" -> "Plugins" and setting "Type" to "Showtime" at the "Search Tools" of the list. Each renderer comes with its own options. Most of the times you will not need to tweak the renderer options. In case you will have to, you are strongly recommended to read each renderer documentation first.

Module Options

If you decide to use the Showtime module to display some galleries on your site you will have to set it's options too:

• Count: The number of galleries to display.
• Category: Filter galleries from a specific category or a set of categories.
• Order: Select the display order of the galleries.

Layouts

Showtime Image Gallery in Custom Fields

When using Showtime in Joomla! Custom Fields you can override the output of the field as you would do with any other Joomla! Custom Field. Showtime is using the standard Joomla! rendering method for plugins. This means that you can create layout overrides for Showtime Custom Fields. All you have to do is copy the file /plugins/fields/showtime/tmpl/LAYOUT_NAME.php to /templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/html/plg_fields_showtime/LAYOUT_NAME.php . Then Joomla! will use the file from your template when rendering the field.

Showtime Image Gallery in Content Editor

When using Showtime in Joomla! content editor you can override the output of the extension as you would do with any other Joomla! content plugin. Showtime is using the standard Joomla! rendering method for plugins. This means that you can create layout overrides for Showtime content plugin. All you have to do is copy the file /plugins/content/showtime/tmpl/LAYOUT_NAME.php to /templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/html/plg_content_showtime/LAYOUT_NAME.php . Then Joomla! will use the file from your template when rendering the gallery. 

If you need more help with the layout overrides you can take a look at the official Joomla! documentation page ( section named "Plugin Alternative Layouts" ). 

How to use with Yootheme

Yootheme is not triggering all the required plugins events so when you first import the custom field in the page builder it's not working. However there is a workaround to make this work. Here are the required steps:

1. Edit the custom field and set the option named "Automatic Display" to "After Display".
2. In Yootheme builder click on dynamic link on the field you want and from the drop down menu select the "After Display Content" option. Here is the video explaining how to do that: https://youtu.be/rhR3hkQ0LL0?t=114 .