Lightbox Content Popup

[{"version":"6.0","release_date":"16 July 2026","notes":"

Major release

\n

\n
• Rebuilt the gallery and lightbox with vanilla JavaScript and modern CSS.
\n
• Removed jQuery, FancyBox, animate.css, legacy sprites, and all obsolete front-end assets.
\n
• Added Joomla services architecture with a namespaced Dispatcher and Helper.
\n
• Added support for Joomla 4, Joomla 5, and Joomla 6 with PHP 8.0 or newer.
\n
• Discontinued Joomla 3 support. Joomla 3 sites must continue using the legacy 5.x package.
\n

\n\n

Content sources

\n

\n
• Added a clear choice between Joomla Articles and Manual Cards.
\n
• Added multiple category selection for Joomla articles.
\n
• Added sorting by published date, created date, modified date, article ordering, hits, or random order.
\n
• Added ascending and descending sort direction.
\n
• Added article count control from 1 to 24 items.
\n
• Added independent controls for article image, title, intro text, read-more hint, and HTML stripping.
\n
• Article popups now include the Full Article Image, with Intro Image fallback.
\n
• Article popups now render prepared intro text, full text, and Joomla content-plugin output.
\n
• Added repeatable Manual Cards with image, caption, popup type, and popup content fields.
\n
• Added manual popup types for formatted HTML, YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps, and iframe URLs.
\n

\n\n

Gallery cards

\n

\n
• Added Responsive Grid, Horizontal Row, and Vertical Stack layouts.
\n
• Added desktop grid selection from 2 to 6 columns.
\n
• Added Light, Dark, Glass, and Brand card themes.
\n
• Added accent colour and card corner-radius controls.
\n
• Added card width, card gap, optional card height, and optional image-area height.
\n
• Added Cover, Contain, and Fill image modes.
\n
• Added Auto, Square, Standard 4:3, Widescreen 16:9, and Classic 3:2 image ratios.
\n
• Added configurable image zoom on hover.
\n
• Added caption overlay with colour and opacity controls.
\n
• Horizontal Row cards now fit the available width without a horizontal scrollbar.
\n
• Row cards wrap on tablets and stack on phones.
\n

\n\n

Lightbox design and media

\n

\n
• Added Light, Dark, and Brand lightbox themes.
\n
• Added Zoom, Fade, and Slide up opening effects.
\n
• Added responsive lightbox width and maximum-height controls.
\n
• Added backdrop opacity and blur controls.
\n
• Added an option to place the close button at the popup top-right or browser window top-right.
\n
• Added optional title bar and gallery counter.
\n
• Added previous and next navigation with optional looping.
\n
• Added Left Arrow, Right Arrow, and Escape keyboard controls.
\n
• Video, map, and iframe content now fills the popup edge to edge.
\n
• Media popups automatically hide the standard content title bar.
\n
• Navigation controls no longer overlap popup text.
\n
• Navigation controls move to safe positions on smaller screens.
\n
• Added internal scrolling for long content while keeping the popup inside the viewport.
\n
• Added mobile safe-area support and reduced-motion support.
\n

\n\n

Sharing and navigation

\n

\n
• Added optional shareable URL hashes for individual gallery items.
\n
• Added a configurable URL hash prefix.
\n
• Direct hash URLs automatically open the matching gallery item.
\n
• Changing items updates the hash without navigating or moving the page.
\n
• Closing the popup restores the original URL without changing the page position.
\n

\n\n

Scrolling and accessibility

\n

\n
• Reworked page scroll locking to prevent background movement while the popup is open.
\n
• Added scrollbar-width compensation to prevent layout shifting.
\n
• Fixed page jumping when the close button is used.
\n
• The exact horizontal and vertical page position is restored after closing.
\n
• Keyboard focus returns to the gallery card that opened the popup.
\n
• Added accessible dialog labels and descriptive labels for icon-only controls.
\n
• Improved keyboard focus visibility and minimum touch-target sizes.
\n

\n\n

Typography, colours, and spacing

\n

\n
• Added card background, border colour, border width, and border-radius controls.
\n
• Added caption colour, size, weight, and font-family controls.
\n
• Added system/custom, Inter, Poppins, Montserrat, and Open Sans font choices.
\n
• Rebuilt the four-side padding field without jQuery.
\n
• Added full Top, Right, Bottom, and Left labels.
\n
• Added linked and unlinked value modes.
\n
• Added px, rem, em, and percent units.
\n
• Removed duplicate field IDs and improved responsive admin layout.
\n

\n\n

Administration and packaging

\n

\n
• Reorganised parameters into Content Source, Gallery Cards, Lightbox, Typography & Colors, and Advanced tabs.
\n
• Removed the confusing legacy General and Styling fieldsets.
\n
• Added lazy loading, empty-message, module-class, custom-CSS, and alternative-layout controls.
\n
• Added modern language strings and system description.
\n
• Added a clean Joomla 4, 5, and 6 install manifest.
\n
• Reduced the final package to the 13 files required by version 6.0.
\n
• Added Article Grid, Manual Cards, YouTube Strip, Glass Gallery, Dark Cinema, and Google Maps demos.
\n
• Expanded documentation for installation, configuration, sharing, migration, demos, and troubleshooting.
\n

","ordering":"0","items":{"items0":{"type":"fix","text":"Fixed page jumping when the close button is used."},"items1":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Joomla services architecture with a namespaced Dispatcher and Helper."},"items2":{"type":"addition","text":"Added support for Joomla 4, Joomla 5, and Joomla 6 with PHP 8.0 or newer."},"items3":{"type":"addition","text":"Added a clear choice between Joomla Articles and Manual Cards."},"items4":{"type":"addition","text":"Added multiple category selection for Joomla articles."},"items5":{"type":"addition","text":"Added sorting by published date, created date, modified date, article ordering, hits, or random order."},"items6":{"type":"addition","text":"Added ascending and descending sort direction."},"items7":{"type":"addition","text":"Added article count control from 1 to 24 items."},"items8":{"type":"addition","text":"Added independent controls for article image, title, intro text, read-more hint, and HTML stripping."},"items9":{"type":"addition","text":"Added repeatable Manual Cards with image, caption, popup type, and popup content fields."},"items10":{"type":"addition","text":"Added manual popup types for formatted HTML, YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps, and iframe URLs."},"items11":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Responsive Grid, Horizontal Row, and Vertical Stack layouts."},"items12":{"type":"addition","text":"Added desktop grid selection from 2 to 6 columns."},"items13":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Light, Dark, Glass, and Brand card themes."},"items14":{"type":"addition","text":"Added accent colour and card corner-radius controls."},"items15":{"type":"addition","text":"Added card width, card gap, optional card height, and optional image-area height."},"items16":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Cover, Contain, and Fill image modes."},"items17":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Auto, Square, Standard 4:3, Widescreen 16:9, and Classic 3:2 image ratios."},"items18":{"type":"addition","text":"Added configurable image zoom on hover."},"items19":{"type":"addition","text":"Added caption overlay with colour and opacity controls."},"items20":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Light, Dark, and Brand lightbox themes."},"items21":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Zoom, Fade, and Slide up opening effects."},"items22":{"type":"addition","text":"Added responsive lightbox width and maximum-height controls."},"items23":{"type":"addition","text":"Added backdrop opacity and blur controls."},"items24":{"type":"addition","text":"Added an option to place the close button at the popup top-right or browser window top-right."},"items25":{"type":"addition","text":"Added optional title bar and gallery counter."},"items26":{"type":"addition","text":"Added previous and next navigation with optional looping."},"items27":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Left Arrow, Right Arrow, and Escape keyboard controls."},"items28":{"type":"addition","text":"Added internal scrolling for long content while keeping the popup inside the viewport."},"items29":{"type":"addition","text":"Added mobile safe-area support and reduced-motion support."},"items30":{"type":"addition","text":"Added optional shareable URL hashes for individual gallery items."},"items31":{"type":"addition","text":"Added a configurable URL hash prefix."},"items32":{"type":"addition","text":"Added scrollbar-width compensation to prevent layout shifting."},"items33":{"type":"addition","text":"Added accessible dialog labels and descriptive labels for icon-only controls."},"items34":{"type":"addition","text":"Added card background, border colour, border width, and border-radius controls."},"items35":{"type":"addition","text":"Added caption colour, size, weight, and font-family controls."},"items36":{"type":"addition","text":"Added system/custom, Inter, Poppins, Montserrat, and Open Sans font choices."},"items37":{"type":"addition","text":"Added full Top, Right, Bottom, and Left labels."},"items38":{"type":"addition","text":"Added linked and unlinked value modes."},"items39":{"type":"addition","text":"Added px, rem, em, and percent units."},"items40":{"type":"addition","text":"Added lazy loading, empty-message, module-class, custom-CSS, and alternative-layout controls."},"items41":{"type":"addition","text":"Added modern language strings and system description."},"items42":{"type":"addition","text":"Added a clean Joomla 4, 5, and 6 install manifest."},"items43":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Article Grid, Manual Cards, YouTube Strip, Glass Gallery, Dark Cinema, and Google Maps demos."},"items44":{"type":"change","text":"Rebuilt the gallery and lightbox with vanilla JavaScript and modern CSS."},"items45":{"type":"change","text":"Discontinued Joomla 3 support. Joomla 3 sites must continue using the legacy 5.x package."},"items46":{"type":"change","text":"Article popups now include the Full Article Image, with Intro Image fallback."},"items47":{"type":"change","text":"Article popups now render prepared intro text, full text, and Joomla content-plugin output."},"items48":{"type":"change","text":"Horizontal Row cards now fit the available width without a horizontal scrollbar."},"items49":{"type":"change","text":"Row cards wrap on tablets and stack on phones."},"items50":{"type":"change","text":"Video, map, and iframe content now fills the popup edge to edge."},"items51":{"type":"change","text":"Media popups automatically hide the standard content title bar."},"items52":{"type":"change","text":"Navigation controls no longer overlap popup text."},"items53":{"type":"change","text":"Navigation controls move to safe positions on smaller screens."},"items54":{"type":"change","text":"Direct hash URLs automatically open the matching gallery item."},"items55":{"type":"change","text":"Changing items updates the hash without navigating or moving the page."},"items56":{"type":"change","text":"Closing the popup restores the original URL without changing the page position."},"items57":{"type":"change","text":"Reworked page scroll locking to prevent background movement while the popup is open."},"items58":{"type":"change","text":"The exact horizontal and vertical page position is restored after closing."},"items59":{"type":"change","text":"Keyboard focus returns to the gallery card that opened the popup."},"items60":{"type":"change","text":"Improved keyboard focus visibility and minimum touch-target sizes."},"items61":{"type":"change","text":"Rebuilt the four-side padding field without jQuery."},"items62":{"type":"change","text":"Reorganised parameters into Content Source, Gallery Cards, Lightbox, Typography & Colors, and Advanced tabs."},"items63":{"type":"change","text":"Reduced the final package to the 13 files required by version 6.0."},"items64":{"type":"change","text":"Expanded documentation for installation, configuration, sharing, migration, demos, and troubleshooting."},"items65":{"type":"remove","text":"Removed jQuery, FancyBox, animate.css, legacy sprites, and all obsolete front-end assets."},"items66":{"type":"remove","text":"Removed duplicate field IDs and improved responsive admin layout."},"items67":{"type":"remove","text":"Removed the confusing legacy General and Styling fieldsets."}}},{"version":"5.1","release_date":"07 January 2026","notes":"

\n
• Added Joomla 6 compatibility.
\n
• Improved WebAssetManager integration and cache busting.
\n
• Improved PHP 8 type safety, validation, escaping, and error handling.
\n
• Improved semantic template markup, ARIA labels, and keyboard navigation.
\n
• Optimised article queries and image handling.
\n

","ordering":"1","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Joomla 6 compatibility."},"items1":{"type":"change","text":"Improved WebAssetManager integration and cache busting."},"items2":{"type":"change","text":"Improved PHP 8 type safety, validation, escaping, and error handling."},"items3":{"type":"change","text":"Improved semantic template markup, ARIA labels, and keyboard navigation."},"items4":{"type":"change","text":"Optimised article queries and image handling."}}},{"version":"5.0","release_date":"16 November 2025","notes":"

\n
• Added initial Joomla 6 support.
\n

","ordering":"2","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added initial Joomla 6 support."}}},{"version":"4.9","release_date":"13 August 2024","notes":"

\n
• Added animate.css opening and closing effects.
\n
• Added animation type, duration, and delay parameters.
\n
• Announced the end of Joomla 3 support and updates.
\n

","ordering":"3","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added animate.css opening and closing effects."},"items1":{"type":"addition","text":"Added animation type, duration, and delay parameters."},"items2":{"type":"change","text":"Announced the end of Joomla 3 support and updates."}}},{"version":"4.8","release_date":"05 December 2023","notes":"

\n
• Added Joomla 5 support without the Backward Compatibility plugin.
\n
• Optimised the module code.
\n

","ordering":"4","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Joomla 5 support without the Backward Compatibility plugin."},"items1":{"type":"change","text":"Optimised the module code."}}},{"version":"4.7","release_date":"25 May 2023","notes":"

\n
• Added download-key support through Joomla Update Sites.
\n

","ordering":"5","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added download-key support through Joomla Update Sites."}}},{"version":"4.6","release_date":"06 February 2023","notes":"

\n
• Adjusted legacy jQuery loading behaviour.
\n

","ordering":"6","items":{"items0":{"type":"change","text":"Adjusted legacy jQuery loading behaviour."}}},{"version":"4.5","release_date":"27 January 2023","notes":"

\n
• Fixed multiple popup instances on Joomla 4.
\n

","ordering":"7","items":{"items0":{"type":"fix","text":"Fixed multiple popup instances on Joomla 4."}}},{"version":"4.4","release_date":"24 January 2023","notes":"

\n
• Fixed a Joomla 4 file-not-found issue.
\n

","ordering":"8","items":{"items0":{"type":"fix","text":"Fixed a Joomla 4 file-not-found issue."}}},{"version":"4.3","release_date":"16 April 2022","notes":"

\n
• Added Joomla 4 support.
\n
• Added updates through Joomla Update Manager.
\n
• Added download-key configuration for automatic updates.
\n

","ordering":"9","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Joomla 4 support."},"items1":{"type":"addition","text":"Added updates through Joomla Update Manager."},"items2":{"type":"addition","text":"Added download-key configuration for automatic updates."}}},{"version":"4.2","release_date":"","notes":"

\n
• Updated administrator parameters.
\n
• Integrated the Joomla update system.
\n

","ordering":"1","items":{"items0":{"type":"change","text":"Updated administrator parameters."},"items1":{"type":"change","text":"Integrated the Joomla update system."}}},{"version":"4.1","release_date":"","notes":"

\n
• Added image zoom on hover.
\n
• Added hover overlay text.
\n
• Added overlay-opacity control.
\n

","ordering":"2","items":{"items0":{"type":"addition","text":"Added image zoom on hover."},"items1":{"type":"addition","text":"Added hover overlay text."},"items2":{"type":"addition","text":"Added overlay-opacity control."}}},{"version":"4.0","release_date":"","notes":"

\n
• Fixed backend tab visibility with Advanced Module Manager.
\n
• Used the Joomla jQuery framework for Joomla 3.
\n
• Added Styling and Content tabs.
\n
• Adjusted JavaScript and CSS to reduce jQuery conflicts.
\n

","ordering":"3","items":{"items0":{"type":"fix","text":"Fixed backend tab visibility with Advanced Module Manager."},"items1":{"type":"addition","text":"Added Styling and Content tabs."},"items2":{"type":"change","text":"Used the Joomla jQuery framework for Joomla 3."},"items3":{"type":"change","text":"Adjusted JavaScript and CSS to reduce jQuery conflicts."}}}]