mBox

mBox allows you to easy include slideshow galleries into Wordpress posts. It uses the Image and File Attachments WP tool to show the pictures uploaded.

Features:

  • Gallery generated automatically from the images uploaded, flickr or folder.
  • AJAX loading to display the page faster.
  • Thumbnail navigation bar.
  • Pagination.
  • Enable / Disable slideshow presentation.
  • Download image icon.
  • Load photos from posts, flickr or folders.
  • Widget sidebar support.
  • Theme support.

mBox uses mootools javascript framework and it had been tested on Firefox 2.0, Safari and Internet Explorer 7.0.

 

Installation

mbox_installation.jpg

Unpack the zip file and upload the content into the folder wp-content/plugins/ (the WordPress plugins folder). Note: Do not change the folder names.

After installation, you should see a new tab on the Options section in the Wordpress Administration.

Default Options:

  • Show Quicktag: Enable a new button in the post/page editor [if you are using the default set].
  • Autostart slideshow: begin slideshow automatically.
  • Default Widht/Height: Default size values of the slideshow div [also max. image size].
  • Help: Text included after the gallery block.
  • Alert: Text to show if images load fails.
  • Max. Numer of Images: Limits the number of images in the galleries.
  • Sort Images: Defines how images will be ordenated.
  • Theme:Select the theme to use in the galleries.
  • Mootools Components: If you are already using mootools framework in your theme, you can try to load only the required components.
    Other case, check to ‘yes’ all of them.

Flickr Options:

  • Use flickr as default: If activated, quicktag will append mode=”f” to mBox call by default.
  • API Key: API key is needed to use flickr photo searcher. Follow the link in the options page to register a new key.
  • User ID: If you set your flickr user ID, mBox will load only your photos. If this value is blank mBox will get photos from everyone.
  • Tags Mode: How the tag filter will work. Photo must be tagged with each and every one of the tags specified or with at least one on the tags specified.

Folder Options

  • Use folder mode [experimental]: If activated [and flickr option is desactivated], quicktag will append mode=”d” to mBox call by default and it will ask you for a path folder.

 

Using the plugin

  • Create a post.
  • Use the Image and File Attachments to upload the images to show. You can input a Title and Description for each one.
  • Press the mBox quicktag where you want the slideshow to be. If you don’t see the mBox quicktag, you can alternatively copy and paste <mbox /> where you want it to appear.
  • If you want to personalize only certain slideshows, you can add parameters to the call like:
    <mbox width="750" height="200" />

Click to zoom:

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Flickr Usage:

  • Create a post.
  • Press the mBox quicktag where you want the slideshow to be.
  • If ‘Use flickr as default’ option is activated, mBox will ask you for the tags.
    Insert all the tags you want to filter comma separated.
  • The code should be similar to:
    <mbox width="750" height="200" mode="f" flickr_tags="spain, beach, summer" />

Folder Usage

  • Create a post.
  • Press the mBox quicktag where you want the slideshow to be.
  • If ‘Use folder mode’ option is activated, mBox will ask you for the folder path. This path must be based on Wordpress installation.
  • The code should be similar to:
    <mbox width="750" height="200" mode="d" folder="galleries/beach" />

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Gallery path based on Wordpress

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Inside selected, include “thumb” folder.

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Thumb folder contains miniature images and descriptions.

Thumbnail images and text files are additional. If you don’t upload this files, mBox will set a “no image” file as default thumbnail and no description will display at info bar.

Widget Usage:

  • Activate the mBox widget with drag’n’drop over the slidebar.
  • Click on Configure button.
  • Set title, width, height and autostart slideshow options. Select a mode and fill the requiered input for each one: flickr tags [comma separated], folder path or wordpress post ID.
  • Save!

 

Demo

A live demo is avaliable in my Annie Leibovitz’s Disney Fantasyland post. Also, you can visit the examples page with all modes working.

 

Download

mBox, Automatical Slideshow for Wordpress
Download from Wordpress Extend Repositories

Visit Wordpress Extend Repositories for more information.

 

Version History

To Do

  • Multiple widget support.
  • EXIF info.

1.7.6 - [25/04/2008]

  • Use CURL to loads images from flickr if this function is avaliable. [more secure and solve problems with hostings]

1.7.5 - [28/03/2008]

  • Theme support.
  • Zoom option: new icon to show the image using slimbox.
  • Solved problems with characters in descriptions.
  • New parameter to indicate if download icon is visible or not. John Werry suggestion.

1.7.3 - [26/03/2008]

  • Max. Number of Images option. Limit the number of images in the galleries.
  • Widget option now supports folder and post mode too.
  • Sort Images option. How the images will be ordered. Nicolas Albert suggestion.

1.7 - [24/03/2008]

  • Includes MiniXML class to parse XML flickr request.
  • Support to Wordpress 2.5

1.6 - [14/03/2008]

  • New mode to load images from a folder [experimental].

1.5.5 - [08/03/2008]

  • New option: ‘Secure JS load mode’: to solve detected problems when using php file with packed js.
  • Support for PHP4 servers to load flickr’s XML file request.

1.5 - [05/03/2008]

  • Autostart slideshow option. Brad Fitzgerald suggestion.
  • Widget ready.Oscar suggestion.

1.4.1 - [04/03/2008]

  • Filter the included files by mime-type. Andrew Mee suggestion.
  • Customizable alert text to error handling for no-document situations. Andrew Mee suggestion.

1.4 - [24/02/2008]

  • Display photos from flickr based in tags filter.

1.3 - [22/02/2008]

  • Fixed some bugs.
  • JS and CSS updated to display more than one post with gallery in the same page.
  • Play/Pause slideshow control moved to navigation bar.

1.2.1 - [12/02/2008]

  • JS call without send parameters, loading options from the js.php file. Nigel Johnson’s request.

1.2 - [11/02/2008]

  • Load JS and CSS files only if they are need.
  • Added ‘post-new.php’ to the admin_footer hook. Nigel Kane’s request.

1.1 - [04/02/2008]

  • Modular mootools components integration.

1.0.1 - [29/01/2008]

  • Added thumbnail image checking, replacing losts thumbnails.

1.0 - [25/01/2008]

  • Initial Release

 

Source Code

mBox javascript class source code is avaliable under Open Source MIT Licence. [mbox.js]

 

Contact

Support, bugs and new features using my contact page or directly to hanokmail[at]gmail.com

 

Donate

If you’re feeling generous, consider a donation. Any and all PayPal donations are sincerely appreciated.
 Thanks.