The GLightbox Gallery Module integrates the GLightbox JavaScript library into Joomla as a ready-to-use module. Without any coding, you can display images, embed YouTube and Vimeo videos, show Google Maps, and present any inline HTML content in a polished, animated lightbox. Add items through the familiar Joomla module editor — or import an entire folder of photos in one step — publish the module, and the gallery is live.

Perfect for photography portfolios, product showcases with video demos, team directories with contact forms, event galleries mixing photos and recordings, archives organised folder by folder, on-load announcements and promotions, or any scenario where content benefits from a clean, full-screen overlay experience. Multiple module instances on the same page can be merged into a single navigable gallery using a shared Gallery Name — combining items from different positions and layouts seamlessly.

Album mode turns a set of folders into a set of covers. Give each item an album name — the folder import fills it in for you, and a recursive import lands every subfolder in an album of its own — and the grid shows one picture per album instead of every photograph at once. Clicking a cover opens that album alone: straight into the lightbox, or as a sub-grid you step into and back out of, whichever you choose. The lightbox stays inside the album that was opened, tag filters and pagination act inside it, and structured data is written as one gallery per album.

Local images get a correctly sized thumbnail generated automatically — cropped to your chosen aspect ratio, at standard and high-density resolutions, with an optional WebP copy alongside — so the gallery grid no longer downloads full-size photos just to shrink them in the browser. The lightbox can be given its own set of resized copies, so a phone downloads a screen-sized file rather than a full-resolution original; the original stays in place as the download and as what zooming reaches, fetched only when a visitor actually zooms in.

Those files are generated by the front end a few per page view, so that no visitor waits while a large gallery decodes. When you would rather not wait for them at all, the Generate Images panel in the settings makes them there and then — one image per request, so it cannot time out however large the gallery is, with a progress bar and a stop button. One button generates only what is missing, the other rewrites everything, which is what a changed thumbnail width or aspect ratio needs.

For photographers, the module reads the shooting details straight out of each file — camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and date — and can show them in a lightbox panel or write them into captions with tokens. Location data is never read or shown.

The lightbox is yours to style. Backdrop, thumbnail strip and countdown bar each take their own colour and opacity, and the caption panel adds a background colour, an opacity, an alignment inside its panel, and a frosted-glass blur with saturation. A caption can also be centred over the picture, which is cropped to fill behind it. The same frosting can be applied to the backdrop itself, blurring the page the gallery is sitting on. Two galleries on one page keep their own appearance rather than sharing one. Every appearance setting is off or neutral by default, so an upgrade never repaints a gallery you were happy with.

Turn the module into a popup with the Display Mode switch at the top of the settings. No grid is drawn — the first item opens by itself when the page loads, or when the pointer heads for the address bar. It opens after a delay you set, can close itself after a set time with an optional countdown bar, and a video slide can run to its end rather than being cut off. How often the same visitor sees it — every page load, once per browser session, or once per period — is decided in the browser, so it still works on a cached page, and an opt-out tick box can stop it coming back for that visitor entirely. The close button, clicking the backdrop, the Escape key and swiping it away are each switchable, but never all at once, so a popup can always be dismissed. Because it is an ordinary module, which pages it appears on, which visitors see it and the dates it runs between are the module's own menu assignment, access level and publishing dates.

Administrators can also configure responsive column counts, grid captions, tag filtering and pagination, open and slide animations, zoom and drag behaviour, an optional slide counter, and a self-playing slideshow with a countdown bar across the top of the lightbox. Each gallery item supports individual overrides for title, description, dimensions, download access, visibility, and animation. The module handles dynamic content automatically: galleries embedded inside AJAX-loaded or language-switched content reinitialise without any additional configuration.

Key features:

Images – Full-size galleries with automatically generated thumbnails (custom thumbnails still supported), configurable aspect ratios, lazy loading, and hover effects
Videos – YouTube, Vimeo, and direct MP4 files with autoplay and mute support
Google Maps – Embed any location via iFrame, no API key required
Inline HTML – Display custom HTML or embedded Joomla modules ({loadposition}, {loadmoduleid}) in a lightbox
Album Mode – Several folders in one module, each shown as a single cover in the grid; the lightbox navigates the album that was opened and nothing else. Off by default, so existing galleries are unchanged
Album Covers – Any item can be the cover, and the first item of the album is used when none is chosen, so albums work without touching the setting; a cover's own custom thumbnail still decides what the grid shows
Clicking a Cover – Open the album straight into the lightbox, or replace the covers with that album's thumbnails and a way back; tag filters and pagination then act inside the open album
Album Tokens – {album} and {count} in grid captions, for the album's name and how many pictures are behind the cover
Popup Mode – One switch turns the module from a gallery into a popup that opens itself; no grid is drawn, the first item opens on its own, and any item type works — an image, a video, a map or a Joomla module inside inline HTML
Popup Triggers – Open on page load after a delay, or on exit intent when the pointer heads for the address bar (desktop only, and it says so)
Popup Closing – Close after a set time with an optional countdown bar, or when a video slide ends; close button, click outside, Escape and swipe each switchable, never all at once
Popup Frequency – Show on every page load, once per browser session, or once per period, recorded in local storage or a cookie and decided in the browser so it works on a cached page; an opt-out tick box stops it returning for that visitor
Responsive Columns – Separate column counts for mobile, tablet, and desktop, laid out with CSS Grid
Thumbnail Strip – A scrollable row of thumbnails under the lightbox image, with the current slide kept centred and every thumbnail clickable; drag it with the mouse, and the picture makes room for it rather than being covered
Full-Resolution Zoom – Click to magnify a slide and the full-resolution original is loaded in the background, so serving smaller files to the lightbox costs nothing in detail
Generate Images – Make every thumbnail and lightbox copy from the settings page instead of leaving them to the front end: one image per request so it cannot time out, with a progress bar, a stop button, and a choice between filling in what is missing and rewriting all of it
Lightbox Images – Serve resized copies to the lightbox so a phone downloads a screen-sized file instead of a full-resolution original; the original stays the download and the largest option
WebP Output – Optional WebP copies of generated images, typically around a third smaller, with automatic fallback for browsers that cannot read them
Thumbnail Storage – Keep generated images in one shared cache folder, or in a thumbs/ subfolder beside each photo so they travel with your originals through backups and folder moves
Photo Information – A lightbox panel showing camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and date, read from the photo itself; choose which details appear. Location data is never read or shown
Photo Tokens – Write {camera}, {aperture}, {shutter} and more into grid captions or an item's description; every item resolves its own values, and lines with nothing to show are dropped
Grid Captions – Token-based captions under or over each thumbnail ({title}, {description}, {alt}, {tags}, {type}, {album}, {count}), with overlay positioning and hover visibility
Caption Panel – The caption in the lightbox takes its own background colour and opacity, and sits at the top, middle or bottom of its panel beside the picture, at the left, centre or right above and below it, or centred over the picture with the picture cropped to fill behind it
Frosted Backdrops – Blur and saturation behind the caption panel, and the same behind the whole lightbox, frosting the page the gallery is sitting on
Independent Instances – Two galleries on one page keep their own backdrop, buttons, caption panel, thumbnail strip and countdown, rather than the last one on the page deciding for both
Tags and Filtering – Tag items individually or in bulk, then add a filter bar that narrows both the grid and the lightbox
Grid Pagination – Numbered pages for large galleries, while the lightbox still navigates the whole filtered set
Gallery Order – Manual, by title, by file name, by the date the photo was taken, or random; in album mode the order applies within each album rather than across them
Import from Folder – Turn an entire media folder into gallery items in one step, with wildcard-based titles, alt text, tags and album names, and photo tokens ready to use in descriptions; with subfolders included, a whole folder tree becomes a set of albums in one press
Bulk Actions – Select, tag, set the album, delete, or change the status of multiple gallery items at once
Per-Item Status – Show, hide from the grid but keep in the lightbox, or fully unpublish any item
Multi-Module Galleries – Set the same Gallery Name on multiple modules to merge them into one unified gallery
Deep Linking – Link directly to a single slide; the address bar updates as visitors browse, with a one-tap copy-link button
Slideshow – A play button advances the gallery on a timer, with a countdown bar across the top of the lightbox and automatic handling of video slides
Bounce at the Ends – At the first or last item, clicking the arrow that has nowhere left to go tugs the picture and lets it spring back, so the end of a gallery reads as an edge rather than a dead button
Downloadable Files – Optional download button for images and direct video files, per-item overridable
Appearance Controls – Colour and opacity for the backdrop, the thumbnail strip and the countdown bar, plus the size and active colour of the strip's tiles
Structured Data (JSON-LD) – Describe the gallery to search engines as a schema.org ImageGallery, or as one gallery per album in album mode
Slide Counter – Optional "current / total" indicator in the top-left corner of the lightbox
Two Layouts – Default (ul/li structure) and Minimal (anchor tags only, ideal for fully custom CSS)
Configurable Animations – Separate open, close, and slide effects: Zoom, Fade, Slide, or None
Per-Item Overrides – Title, description, dimensions, animation, zoom, drag, download, album, cover and status, all configurable per item
Grouped Settings – The module's gallery options are laid out on one page under clear headings — grid, albums, image files, lightbox behaviour, backdrop, caption, thumbnail strip, slideshow — with the popup settings on a tab of their own
Respects Reduced Motion – Decorative movement is switched off for visitors whose system asks for less motion
Safe by Default – Item titles and descriptions are filtered as safe HTML on save: formatting and links are kept, scripts and event handlers are not
Multilingual Support – Complete Hungarian and English admin interface
No External Dependencies – No jQuery; GLightbox and the Plyr video player are bundled with the module, nothing is loaded from a CDN
Free and Open Source – GNU GPL v2+, no license restrictions
Simple Installation – Upload ZIP, activate module, add or import items, publish