MW Quick Gallery is a lean yet powerful content plugin for Joomla 5 and 6 that lets you create modern, responsive image galleries from folders in just a few seconds – no extra framework, no complex components, no media chaos.

Short Description

With a simple shortcode like
{gallery path='images/my-folder'}
MW Quick Gallery turns any image folder into an elegant, mobile-optimized gallery with a lightbox and keyboard navigation. Perfect for project overviews, team pages, product galleries, or event photos.

Developer: Mertsch-Web
Version: 1.0.2
License: GPLv2 or later
Compatibility: Joomla 5.x – 6.x, PHP ≥ 8.1

Key Features

• Folder-based gallery
  Automatically reads all images from a given folder (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP) and builds a gallery.

• Modern responsive grid
  CSS grid layout without any additional CSS framework, with configurable number of columns (2–5 columns).

• Professional lightbox
  Glassmorphism-style design with blur effect, fullscreen view, close button, ESC to exit, and keyboard navigation (left/right).

• Unified thumbnails
  Square thumbnails for a clean, professional look.

• Performance-focused
  Lazy loading and optimized rendering for fast load times, even with larger galleries.

• Simple content integration
  Controlled via shortcodes in the editor; all default options can be configured globally in the plugin backend.

• No framework dependencies
  Vanilla JavaScript and pure CSS – no jQuery, no mandatory Bootstrap.

• Automatic updates
  Integrated with Joomla’s Extension Update system via an update server for convenient upgrades.

Typical Use Cases

• Project and portfolio galleries
• Team and staff overview pages
• Product category image overviews
• Event, trade fair, and conference photos
• Quickly assembled image pages without a separate component structure

Usage in Articles

After installation and activation, simply insert the shortcode into your article, for example:

• Basic example:
  {gallery path='images/projects/2025'}

• With column count and title:
  {gallery path='images/team' columns='5' title='Our Team'}

• With custom column count:
  {gallery path='images/products/category-a' columns='3'}

The path is relative to the Joomla root. Global defaults like column count, thumbnail size, and lightbox behaviour are managed centrally in the plugin options.

Configurable Settings (Backend)

In the plugin settings you can define global defaults, which can be overridden per gallery if needed:

• Number of columns: 2–5 columns in the grid (default: 3)
• Thumbnail size: Thumbnail edge length in pixels (default: 200)
• Gap: Spacing between images in pixels (default: 10)
• Lightbox: Enable or disable the lightbox feature (default: enabled)

Technical Details

• Type: Content plugin
• System: Joomla 5.0 – 6.999
• PHP: 8.1 or higher
• Layout: CSS Grid, mobile-first, fully responsive
• JavaScript: Vanilla JS, no jQuery dependency
• Performance: Lazy loading, optimized output, minimal overhead

Changelog (Excerpt)

Version 1.0.2 (27 November 2025)

• Improved, consistent square thumbnail rendering
• Optimized lightbox with glassmorphism styling and enhanced navigation
• Update server integration for Joomla’s update system
• Verified compatibility with Joomla 5 and 6
• Various performance optimizations
• Added donation button in the backend

Version 1.0.0 (November 2025)

• Initial release
• Basic gallery functionality
• Lightbox integration
• Responsive grid layout

Support and Development

MW Quick Gallery is developed and maintained by Mertsch-Web as a free solution.
Support requests, feedback, and feature ideas are welcome.

Author: Mertsch-Web
Website: [https://mertsch-web.de]
Email: [info@mertsch-web.de]

If you would like to support ongoing development, the author appreciates voluntary donations.