Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › NextGen Gallery Alternatives
Tagged: maxgalleria, NextGEN, photocrati
- This topic has 59 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by
Kingsoul.
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AuthorPosts
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October 25, 2013 at 7:18 pm #68973
Lisa at OG
MemberWe have been using NextGen plugin with many of our client sites. Since the plugin was sold to a private company and they started getting fancy, it has become a real "pig" in size AND it is NO longer working properly playing nice with WordPress. The latest upgrade to WordPress 3.7 conflicts BIG time with the latest versions of NextGen. You're fine if you don't update NextGen. Well, how long can that go on for right?! As developers there are many plugins we "could" use but we need one that is user friendly for our clients.
So does anyone have suggestions as alternatives to NextGen? Features we use most are: formatting gallery thumbs nicely in columns and rows, adding captions to images in the galleries, making captions clickable links through to other pages.
We have tried using the native WordPress Media Gallery and it's great -- sort of user friendly for non IT folks BUT we don't appear to have the flexibility of making captions into links OR has anyone figured out an easy way to do this?
Lastly, has anyone had any experience with a plugin called MaxGalleria? Can't find many reviews on it.
Thanks in advance for your help....
October 25, 2013 at 8:07 pm #68987AnitaC
KeymasterI am using the WordPress Gallery for a client. They wanted the images to lead to a specific page. So I found the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin and it works great.
Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.
October 25, 2013 at 8:51 pm #68994Lisa at OG
MemberThank you Anita. Good to know. We'll check it out. Does it allow more than one link per image by any chance? Also, do you using any kind of lightbox plugin with it that you would recommend?
Thanks.
October 25, 2013 at 9:03 pm #68997AnitaC
KeymasterNo, I don't believe so. It gives you a place to input a url. I use the Jquery Lightbox for Native Galleries plugin. I am not sure why the links in the caption aren't working, but since it's not - try adding the Links in Captions plugin.
Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.
October 25, 2013 at 9:14 pm #69001Lisa at OG
MemberThe links in caption are working. The issue we have is that NextGen breaks when you upgrade to WordPress 3.7. There is a major conflict. Also, since the original developer sold it and the new owners did some fancy updates -- it conflicts with almost every popular known WordPress plugin. So we are looking for alternatives but we need to have linking capability sometimes more than one link in the caption of some images.
Thanks for the suggestion on Jquery Lightbox.
October 25, 2013 at 10:53 pm #69008Summer
MemberThere are a couple of gallery plugins that organize images into folders like nextgen did, and like you, I'm still looking for a reliable replacement. Fortunately on some of the sites I installed it on, I was able to switch to the built-in WP gallery, and use a lightbox plugin, but on two others, I'm still firmly planted on NGG 1.9.13 until I find something else.
I just read about a plugin called Gmedia Gallery, and I may give that one a try on one of my test sites next.
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkOctober 25, 2013 at 11:15 pm #69009Mealtog
MemberI am on this issue right now too. Tried NextGen separately twice and both time saw some glitches. Also, I did not want to tie such an important part of a website, the photo albums, to a 3rd party in the long run. So now, I am trying to find a solution where the default gallery can be used alongside re-sizing the thumbnails on the display page + a lightbox. Almost there but have not found the right combination that works well yet.
Using the the Shortcodes Ultimate, I can resize and crop thumbnails on teh display page to a specific size, now I just need to add a olgithbox somehow without the user needing to know code. Anyone know if a solution here that will work with the default wordpress Gallery?
October 25, 2013 at 11:52 pm #69011Tom
ParticipantHi Lisa,
Like @Summer, I am firmly planted with version 1.9.13, the last before the 2.0 mess. One of my sites breaks because it also uses a companion plugin for NGG and now longer works. The author of the companion is fed up with Photocrati and doesn't intend to 'upgrade' his plugin to be compatible. Plus, NGG 2.0 has introduced blocks to a smooth workflow - what once took 1 step can now take 3 and shortcodes are now an abomination.
There is an alternative of sorts: "NextCellent Gallery - NextGEN Legacy", a fork of NGG from 1.9.13.
http://wordpress.org/plugins/nextcellent-gallery-nextgen-legacy/It is not a guaranteed replacement, but it is encouraging:
Users wishing avoid NextGEN 2.x.x and beyond for the moment. Even though, I strongly suggest to analyze your schedule and formulate a migration. That is should be the way to go in the future.
I am going to have to do some testing with 3.7 and the latest 2.33 from NGG. Also Gmedia Gallery (thanks, @Summer).
Do be careful with any migration path as you can toast your image galleries fairly easily.
Choose your next site design from over 350 Genesis themes.
[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]October 26, 2013 at 3:30 am #69025coralseait
MemberI've been experimenting with Soliloquy Slider as a gallery tool because I have the lifetime dev license and it has a bunch of great add ons (crop, light box, carousel, thumbnails ) that come with dev license.
I just started this afternoon on a test site, so no concrete results yet, but the developer is very supportive and I think it may be a great option.
if you already own it maybe give it a shot.
October 26, 2013 at 10:35 am #69108Summer
Member@Mealtog in my search for a lightbox add-on for the WP galleries, I'm now using RPS Image Gallery. It seems to work with a couple of Genesis child themes (one other plugin I tried didn't work at all on Executive Pro), so give that one a shot.
I'll be playing with Gmedia Gallery on a test site this weekend, so here's hoping!!
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkOctober 26, 2013 at 1:50 pm #69140Lisa at OG
MemberThanks all for these great suggestions. I'm looking into all of these great lightbox plugins in the hopes of finding something that will work with the native WordPress media gallery. Like @Mealtog we don't want to rely on too many third party plugins because they get discontinued or stop working well w/ upgrades to Genesis and WordPress. I'll report back with my findings once we settle on a solution. It's great to have all the feedback.
October 26, 2013 at 4:42 pm #69168Tom
ParticipantThere are so many lightboxes and display tools ... What I'm in search of is something to replace the folder and organization capabilities of NextGen and allow for detailed image tagging to build multiple display galleries from the organized collections using those tags.
NextGen Gallery plus "Nextgen Gallery Powertags" was doing it until NGG 2.0 broke NGP.
Choose your next site design from over 350 Genesis themes.
[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]October 26, 2013 at 4:50 pm #69170coralseait
MemberWould good old custom post types with category and tags help? Or is the need for physical folders on the file system as well?
I've really tried to stay away from NG because of all the issues so I'm basically a non-user, just really have messed with it so to speak.
October 26, 2013 at 5:46 pm #69175Lisa at OG
MemberWell I can share some results for a new plugin we are trying (yes, in order to keep things user friendly for our non techie clients we are still considering a third party plugin - sigh) called MaxGalleria. Just installed to Legacy Theme on Genesis and upgraded to WordPress 3.7 without a hitch! Yep -- that's right no troubleshooting required.
So far we've created a demo environment (visit http://www.originalginger.com/demos/legacy1140/test-max-galleria/) and tested several of the skins and templates on the most recent 3 versions of the major browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari) as well as the iPad and the iPhone. It is responsive.
I've also been asking plenty of questions in the forum and their moderator got back to me today (on a weekend just like with Studiopress) with ALL of the answers I needed; although, I had very few issues. The interface in the WordPress dashboard for MaxGalleria is also WAY more user friendly than NextGen's was. Also, it is not a "pig" that slows down my site loading either.
Lastly, I had a request to add multiple caption links to each image for a specific client. The moderator (also a developer) altered and sent me a download w/ a quick fix to use it the way I needed to. All of that for the personal version of the plugin at a cheap $29 per year. We will be upgrading to the developer's unlimited use version for $99/year. I don't mind paying when it works "out of the box" and the customer service is so great. My clients will love it because they can make it "pretty" too.
I'd be interested to hear any feedback from anyone else here who decides to try it or check it out. Please keep the feedback coming.
October 26, 2013 at 6:20 pm #69178coralseait
MemberThat's the kind of effort you like to see from a developer, thanks for the feedback on that I'm going to seriously check out that plugin.
October 26, 2013 at 8:13 pm #69184Summer
MemberMax Galleria also does video galleries? Wow, you've got my full attention with that one!
I'll be taking a closer look at this plugin... thanks for the tip, Lisa!
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkOctober 27, 2013 at 5:37 pm #69339eamonmoriarty
ParticipantAlso I see that MaxGalleria has a NextGen Importer. If that works well then it is a 'must have'
Eamon Moriarty
EM DzineOctober 27, 2013 at 9:24 pm #69380Tracy
MemberThis MaxGalleria looks good to me as well, I have been following this thread and have been having trouble with NextGen upgrades. Does anyone know if portrait and landscape images can be uploaded simultaniously and displayed together in a gallery without the portrait images cropping to match the landscapes. I believe it is called Masonry-style Galleries such as the Nextgen Pro here http://www.nextgen-gallery.com/nextgen-pro/
October 27, 2013 at 10:06 pm #69389Lisa at OG
MemberHi there, @eamonmoriarty, as of yesterday they were still working on some kinks with the NextGen Importer but they did release a new version and said the issues were fixed. I'll be trying it out tomorrow morning and will report back if it worked well or not.
Tracy, I don't currently see a skin that does both portrait and landscape images in the same gallery; however, the plugin makes it VERY easy to add your own skins and make custom changes to CSS so this is probably something you could set up yourself if need be. Also, they developers in the forum at MaxGalleria seem very responsive to users and it could be a suggestion they might implement.
BTW, we have implemented on two client sites so far and both sites load WAY faster without the NextGen plugin. These guys are using the native WordPress media gallery PLUS I think they are using Ajax because the page doesn't refresh everytime you click a thumb and the larger image changes.
October 27, 2013 at 10:50 pm #69400Mealtog
MemberGang, I have found the perfect solution. I have tested almost 10 plugins and none did what I needed. Not only do I want a ligthbox, but I wanted a lightbox that scrolls and is responsive. Plus I wanted a way to control the thumbnail size during posting.
This solution does it! No 3rd party plugin needed, but still need a Wordpres plugin: Best Responsive WordPress Gallery
Let me know how it works for you.
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