I’ve been confused about the differences between a gallery and a portfolio. I’ve not been able to find this spelled out anywhere: when it’s most appropriate to use one or the other. I want to display a gallery of images in a grid on a site, with a small amount of information when you click on the image – so I’m guessing I need to create a gallery. However there is no Create Gallery option under Media on the dashboard, as shown in the video. Why would that be? What do I need to do?

I’m using the Renew child theme version 1.0.0 and WordPress 4.0

Thank you very much

Rob

If that is the case, I recommend that you use Portfolio. A gallery is only for images only. If you want to put some information, you will need the portfolio. Please see http://theme.co/x/member/kb/portfolios/ on how to setup a portfolio. Also see http://theme.co/x/member/kb/meta-options-portfolio-items/ for a walkthrough on Portfolio items.

Thanks.

I guess I’ll try to explain what I want first. I want a grid on a page. Let’s say 6 images. Each image in the grid has hover-over text representing the subject of the gallery/portfolio. Babies, toddlers, kids, teens, families, maternity. When the visitor clicks on babies a lightbox pops up and they can scroll through the images of the babies from this same page. But they never are forced onto an additional page where all of the images in that gallery/portfolio are listed, or thumbnail or previewed in anyway. I don’t want any text. No title, no excerpts, nothing and to top it off, I don’t want Google to punish me for this as some sort of SEO crime.

I’ve asked for this from various themes before and the answer has always been “no can do”, but I’m going to give it one last shot with you guys. I know it’s not a Theme issue, but a WP issue, still, is there anyway to get this?

If not, I still don’t understand portfolios vs. galleries. I don’t know what to name them, how to tell the difference between them. If categories for portfolios are different than categories for blog posts.

The only look I really like is the lightbox, but it bothers my eye to have to click on a grid block to be taken to a second page only to click again to fire up the lightbox. Does that make sense?

I want nice large photos (just shy of full width), very minimal.

I was thinking of using the slider for this, but I worry that this will be a slow user experience. Does the slider slow things down quite a bit more?

Edited to add that I have watched your videos and read up on this, but it just goes straight over my head. I still don’t get it. It feels like Algebra in 7th grade.

Thank you!
~Trish

Thank you for writing in!

Portfolio and gallery are different from each other. Portfolio is a custom post type in WordPress just like normal blog posts while gallery is simply images added to your static or posts pages.

In your case, I’d advise using portfolio, but as you said you want to open them in a lightbox instead of a new page. This isn’t possible out of the box but can be achieved by some custom development. To achieve it, review this article: https://theme.co/x/member/forums/topic/portfolio-lightbox-2/page/2/#post-200414

Hope this helps. 🙂

Thank you.

Thanks.

First of all, I still can’t figure out how to get the lightbox to work. So before I mess everything up, will you tell me where I’m about to go wrong?

1. switch over to my child theme
2. Upload images to the demo portfolio
3. Enter the php code copied below. But where to I put this code? I only see css and javascript code boxes.
4. Somewhere I’ve gone wrong, I know it. The lightbox short code? I’ve watched the video, but I still don’t know where to put that code and how to draw the images I want to it.

I’m sorry. Coding is not my thing. I’m happy to learn it, but I’m just letting you know you’re talking to a coding kindergartener.

thanks in advance.

// Liking Portfolio Items to Featured Image URL to Open Them in a Lightbox
// =============================================================================

add_filter( ‘post_type_link’, ‘x_remap_portfolio_to_page’, 10, 4);
function x_remap_portfolio_to_page($post_link, $post, $leavename, $sample) {

if ( ‘x-portfolio’ == $post->post_type ) {
return $image_link = wp_get_attachment_url( get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID) );
}

return $post_link;
}

add_action(‘wp_footer’, ‘enqueue_lightbox_script’);
function enqueue_lightbox_script() {
echo ‘
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”‘ . home_url() . ‘/wp-content/plugins/x-shortcodes/js/dist/site/vendor-ilightbox.min.js”></script>
<script>jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
$(\’.page-template-template-layout-portfolio .entry-featured .entry-thumb\’).click(function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
});
});
jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery(“.x-portfolio .entry-title a”).iLightBox({skin: “light”,linkId: “gallery-image”,overlay: {opacity: 0.875,blur: true},styles: {prevScale: 0.75,prevOpacity: 0.75,nextScale: 0.75,nextOpacity: 0.75},path: “horizontal”,controls: {thumbnail: false}});});
</script>’;
}

So I followed directions, but I’m sure I’m missing something in the code. I don’t think I understand exactly “image class”. Also, my images have titles already. Do I have to go back and copy each url and title from each photo? That seems like a lot of work for the number of images I eventually would like.

Additionally, just an FYI, I had the hardest time finding “image shortcode” in the help section. The search just kept bringing me to the lightbox shortcake, but that video tells me to refer to the “image short code” video. I did finally find it, but you might want to take a look and make that video better searchable.

I’m posting my login information and link to the messed up page below. Thank you!