Global Gallery - Wordpress Plugin


By: LCweb
Website: http://www.lcweb.it
E-mail: support@lcweb.it

Thank you for purchasing my plugin. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to open a ticket on my support platform. Thanks so much!

PRIOR NOTE:

Global Gallery comes with the brand new Easy WP Thumb script that replaces TimThumb.
Is important to check if your system is ready to create thumbnails. Simply go in the Global Gallery settings and at the end of the first tab content you will find the "Easy WP Thumb - Connection Information" panel that will inform you about the status.

To maximize performance, I suggest to see your grids once you've created them, to allow the cache images creation.


As seen in the "installation" paragraph, you now have a new submenu in your WoprdPress admin panel.
The first thing to do in order to use the plugin is to check its settings page

This is the engine, where you can tailor the plugin to your website. Options are split in sections for a faster management

Every option has a default value, then you are theoretically ready-to-go just saving settings.
However, to get the best results, is important to check and understand every block and what you can control.

Various parts are going to be analysed through this documentation chapters.
On the very first installtion there are three essential parts to check:

Elements maximum width

Is the variable used to calculate thumbnail sizes. Is important to set it properly, using the real maximum width where you're gonna place Global Gallery elements.
To avoid huge images by default it is set to 1200 pixels, but if you are using (for example) a fullwidth template ,the proper value will be 1920px.

Layouts Section

Here you setup global gallery shapes for every layout. Image sizes can be changed individually (in gallery builder) while margins are fixed.

Is also important to understand how percentage height works (eg. for collection image): it is always referred to images width.
For example if they are 200px wide and you set an height of 50%, resulting images will be 100px high

Styling Section

This controls everything about galleries aspect: from overlays to filters.
You can take advantage of the 8 preset styles though: using them you'll override every styling option.


Additional Notes:

Use thumbnails on admin side?

Global Gallery, by default, disables thumbnails on admin panel. This to avoid server overloads, specially on large galleries.
Enable it if your server is powerful or use few images per gallery.

Disable deeplinking?

Controls collection deeplink behavior. Should be enabled only if your theme already uses deeplinks

Use Easy WP Thumbs forcing system?

You'll enable Easy WP thumbs forcing mode. Enable that ONLY IF you note missing thumbnails or a grid is not showing

Use TimThumb?

This option switchs off Easy WP Thumbs and enable Timthumb for the thumbnails creation

Use javascript in website's head?

Use this only if you are noticing some incompatibility

RTL mode?

Option to be used on RTL websites (for example hebrew ones)

PRIOR NOTE:

Global Gallery implements a faster way to setup galleries using Facebook. Google+ and Google Drive: the connections hub.
Updating from previous releases, it should be automatically set up taking data from old connection.

It is basically an unified hub, wrapping together connections and making them available directly on gallery creations.
Once you choose gallery source, click on connections management and fill fields regarding connection data.

Once data will be validated and connection established, you will just need to choose your connection fron right sidebar and click on "connect".


Using WP library images:



Using WP categories, Flickr and Instagram images:

WP Categories
Since v6 you can enable a settings option to auto-link images. They will be automatically linked to their related post.
This is valid for images added when the option is enabled, not for images already in galleries.
Flickr

You can fetch public images from

  • an user's set/album URL (eg. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucastrings/albums/72157629032261075/ )
  • an user's photostream URL (eg. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucastrings/ )
  • a tag URL (eg. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/landscape/ )
Instagram
First you have to get a valid token to use. To do that open the link below the password field, accept and copy the token in the URL of the page.
SINCE JUNE 2016 plugin's API allows only to fetch personal images. Then you can only show your images with your token.


Google+:

Starting from v5 you must use connection hub to insert connection data. However, this guide is still valid to retrieve your access token!


Username
Is your google account username, typically a Gmail e-mail address. The one you use for Gmail or Google+ for example

NOTE: Google+ integration is available only for servers running PHP v5.4 and later


Using Pinterest, Facebook and 500px images:


(Please ignore the old Google+ instructions)
Pinterest
Use a board's URL
Facebook

Starting from v5 you must use connection hub to insert page's URL.

Use a Facebook page URL.
(IMPORTANT: as per Envato requirements, plugin must use latest Facebook API, then your server must run at least PHP v5.4)

500px
Use an user URL. You can get a maximum of 100 images


Using Tumblr, RSS feed, and nextGEN Gallery images:

Tumblr
Use the Tumbler's blog URL
RSS feed
Use the feed URL. The plugin can handle any feed with a valid structure


Using Twitter images:

Namespaces
Remember to use correct namespace to specify an user (@) from an hashtag (#)


Using Google Drive public folders:

  1. Create a folder IN ROOT named "globalgallery"
  2. Create subfolders (albums). Subfolders name is totally up to you
Username
Is your google account username, typically a Gmail e-mail address. The one you use for Gmail or Google+ for example
Public Elements
Remember to set main folder, subfolders and images as public

NOTE: Google Drive integration is available only for servers running PHP v5.4 and later


Using a Global Gallery album:

Custom source
In plugin settings, you can set a custom basepath where to pick images. This will be helpful in future plugin updates.
Be careful with these settings, base path and base url must be very precise. Path is relative to the server's one
Namespaces
Rember to use a proper namespace for the albums folder name and images. Replace spaces with underscores and avoid special characters.
FTP alternative
FTP is surely the most straightforward way to use this source. However not everyone is able to manage FTP accesses or simply not everyone has got an FTP access.
You can use any WordPress plugin acting like files manager as a swift alternative. LIKE THIS
IPTC data
From v3.0 the plugin can handle image infos from IPTC data. System been tested with windows/osx properties editor and Adobe Lightroom

Global Notes:
Easy-sorting mode

Sorting images could be a pain, specially if you have large galleries. From v2.0 (in the right column of the gallery builder) there is the Easy sorting mode button that changes the builder layout, allowing you to sort images fastly.

Images link

You can turn gallery images in links. Linked images won't be opened in the lightboxes
image links

Notes:

Since v3.0 galleries image number limit has been removed using a new storage system.
However be careful using huge galleries with auto-population + cache timeout. In fact the server requires a while to re-build everything and could be slowed down.

Global Gallery v6.0 introduced a huge news: image tags. You are able to add tags (comma split) for each image and they will be used to setup an images filtering system.
Please note this feature is not available for auto-populated galleries, since requires a manual immission.

image tags

Once saved, be sure to have filters enabled in the Gallery Shortcode (check the related documentation's chapter to know more)
and you will see those tags grouped and appearing on top of the gallery itself.

image tags


There are several tag aspects that can be managed in plugin settings: for example their sorting method or whether to show matched images count or also whether to ignore tags matching very few images (to avoid too many tag buttons).
In particular you can choose whether to perform the filter only on shown images or to search across pages




Notes:
Galleries description

It is displayed only if "text under images" option is enabled in plugin settings > layouts > collections layout.

Links

You can also link collection items. If linking option is enabled, obviously the gallery won't be displayed on click.

Custom front image

Starting from v6 you can set a custom picture to be shown in collection instead of the first gallery image.
Use this system by clicking the "camera" button on top-right corner of each selected gallery: a lightbox showing WP images will be thrown.

Images count placeholder

Starting from v6 you can also print gallery images count into descriptions: just use the %IMG-NUM% placeholder.

From v5.1 Global Gallery is also natively integrated with Visual Composer, Cornerstone and Elementor. If you have them installed you can skip the standard shortcode wizard and use the related Global Gallery tool.

Shortcode wizard's button is placed right on top of every wordpress editor (managing pages, posts, etc)

shortcode wizard

Once clicked il will throw a lightbox showing your all the options to display your galleries.
Also collections can be inserted through this, just switching the top dropdown and selecting "collection"

shortcode wizard lb

Starting from Global Gallery v6 you can insert a special shortcode showing a small image box, launching an entire gallery.
Before explaining how to insert it into your website would be better to understand how you can manage texts over shown images. Here are system-related options in settings page:

itg settings

You can use a mix of

Once you understood this point, click on Global Gallery shortcode's wizard (explained in the related chapter) and select "image-to-gllery" from the dropdown.

itg shortcode

Parameter Notes:
How many images to display?

Determines how many gallery images to show. The selected layout will be applied adapting to this number with only one exception:
"Main image with central overlay + two smaller on sides" layout will always show 3 images.

Images Width

This depends on "Box Width" and "How many imaegs" parameter. In fact, showing more than one image, they will be placed on two columns.
Then showing two images and setting a box width of 300px, you will have two 150px images.

Percentage Images Height

It is always referred to images width ans is useful to maintain the same aspect ratio also on small screens.
For example if your images are 300px wide and you set an height of 50%, they will be 150px high.

Custom overlay text

Here you can set a custom text for this specific implementation. Supports everything has been explained before (text + HTM + placeholders)

Before explaining how to insert a slider, is important to check its settings: there you can manage global behaviors and how slider will look.

slider settings

Once everything's ok, click on Global Gallery shortcode's wizard (explained in the related chapter) and select "slider" from the dropdown.
Then just insert it chosing how you prefer it to be shaped.

slider settings

Just a quick note about slider's height: percentage value is always referred to slider width. Useful to maintain the same aspect ratio also on small screens.
For example if you set an height of 50% and slider is 1000px wide, it will be 500px high.

Global Gallery is also natively integrated with Visual Composer, Cornerstone and Elementor. If you have them installed you can skip the standard shortcode wizard and use the related Global Gallery tool.

PRIOR NOTE: the watermarking process is quite heavy and creates an exact copy of the original image on your server. Be careful using it on weak servers or having few available memory.
It also requires direct read/write permissions on your server: be sure to not have restrictions set by your hoster. Watermarked images will be cached in ../wp-contents/uploads/gg_watermarked

In plugin settings you find a related tab where to setup watermark:

watermark setup

A quick note about proportional sizing: if checked, watermark size will be adjusted to matched the image to affect.
For example if image is 1000x1000 pixels and you set a proportional image of 15% x 15%, the watermark will be 150x150 pixels.

Is extremely useful to avoid bad results using images having various aspect ratios and sizes.

Once setup you will be able to use the watermark option in shortcodes.
However is strictly recommended to create the watermark cache for the gallery we're going to use.

In fact, in every gallery builder, there's a big button to do so. In the right sidebar

watermark cache

Plugin is 100% multilanguage for both front and the back-end. If a translation of your language has been created, Wordpress will automatically switch between languages. Plus it is WPML certified!

Create a translation

If you have WPML + String Translation add-on you can simply scan the plugin and translate via its UI all the plugin strings.

Otherwise: going in the plugin folder, there are two folders called "languages" and "lang_admin". Inside them you'll find the default.pot file. It contains all the english elements that have to be translated. If you want to create one in your language follow this steps:

If everything goes right, you will be able to use your translation.

If you create new translations, please, contact me at support@lcweb.it sending the .PO and .MO files.
I will put it in the new releases and mention you in the changelog. Thanks