No jQuery, no external lightbox library, no build step. Native Joomla 6 architecture: PSR-4, constructor dependency injection via services/provider.php, WebAssetManager for JS/CSS, PHP 8.3+ syntax (enums, readonly properties, match expressions).

Why

Most "auto lightbox" plugins either stopped receiving updates, moved the useful bits behind a paid tier, or require editors to learn a tag syntax like {gallery}folder{/gallery}. This one was built to fill that gap: editors change nothing, administrators install one plugin.

Features

• Zero editor workflow change — images inserted normally through TinyMCE/JCE are picked up automatically, including images an editor already wrapped in their own link (e.g. a "link to full-size image" option) — the existing link is upgraded in place rather than ignored
• No dependencies — self-contained vanilla JS/CSS, no jQuery, no build step
• Keyboard navigation (Esc, ←, →) and touch swipe gestures (with correct pinch-zoom handling — the swipe handler never blocks a multi-finger gesture)
• Open/close animations, neighbouring-image preloading, X / Y counter, with full prefers-reduced-motion support
• Per-article grouping — on a category page, arrows navigate only within the article you clicked in
• Handles images added after page load (AJAX, infinite scroll) via MutationObserver — with an optional CSS selector to scope watching to just the content area, for better performance on very dynamic pages
• Lazy-load aware — configurable priority between data-src and srcset, since different lazy-load libraries use data-src for opposite purposes
• Responsive images done right — picks the best available resolution in order: data-full/data-highres (explicit override) → data-src → the largest candidate in srcset → plain src (or the reverse data-src/srcset priority, if your site's lazy-load setup needs it). Works with elements too (scans every), and lets the browser pick the right image size for the viewport instead of always fetching the largest candidate
• Extensible beyond the built-in components (com_content, com_contact, com_newsfeeds) — add K2, Zoo, or any custom component via a setting
• Accessible: role="dialog", aria-modal, real `` controls with aria-label, a focus trap reinforced with inert on background content, aria-live announcements on navigation, and screen-reader alt text that stays present even when visible captions are turned off
• A broken image shows a clear error message instead of getting stuck on a permanent loading spinner