Easy FancyBox plugin for WordPress websites gives you a flexible and aesthetic light box solution for just about all media links on your website. Easy FancyBox uses the packed FancyBox jQuery extension and is WP 3+ Multi-Site compatible. After activation you can find a new section FancyBox on your Settings > Media admin page where you can manage the plugins options.

After activation, all links to JPG, GIF and PNG images are automatically opened in the FancyBox Mac/Gnome-style lightbox that floats over the web page. Most options available can be managed with this plugin along with some extra features.

Also supports:

• All common image types including webp and image maps
• WordPress Galleries
• NextGEN galleries (see FAQs for instructions)
• Youtube galleries via Youtube Simple Gallery plugin (see FAQs for instructions)
• SWF (Flash) movies
• SVG media images (thanks to Simon Maillard)
• Links to Youtube, Vimeo and Dailmotion
• Hidden inline content
• iFrames
• PDF files
• Auto-popup on page load
• links inside Gravity Forms in ajax mode

For advanced options and priority support, there is a Pro extension available.

See Screenshots for an impression on how images and YouTube movies will be presented on your site as soon as you have installed and (network) activated this simple plugin.

See FAQ’s for instructions to manage YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo movies (and similar services) and tips to make inline content display in a FancyBox overlay. Subscribe to Status301 for tips on how to get a high degree of control over what will be shown in a FancyBox overlay on your website.

Get support on the Easy FancyBox web page or WordPress forum.

Visit FancyBox for more information, examples and the FancyBox Support Forum. Please consider a DONATION for continued development of the FancyBox project.

Recommended:
– For increased site performance, simply install and activate the plugin Use Google Libraries to load jQuery from Googles CDN.

Translators

Please go to https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/easy-fancybox/ and share your knowledge!

Current contributors:

• Belarussian * Natasha, https://www.ustarcash.com (version 1.5.8)
• Croatian * Ivan Capan (version 1.5.6)
• Czech * Eldenroot (version 1.5.5)
• Dutch * R.A. van Hagen, http://status301.net (version 1.5.6)
• French * Emmanuel Maillard (version 1.5.5)
• Greek * Dimitrios Kaisaris, http://www.foodblogstarter.com (version 1.5.7)
• Gujarati * Apoto Team, http://www.apoto.com (version 1.5.0)
• Hindi * Outshine Solutions, http://outshinesolutions.com (version 1.3.4.9)
• Indonesian * Nasrulhaq Muiz, http://al-badar.net (version 1.5.5)
• Lithuanian * Vincent G, http://www.host1free.com (version 1.3.4.9)
• Persian * Ali Akbar Kaviani, http://www.wiki10.net (version 1.5.2)
• Polish * Kamil Szymański (version 1.3.4.9)
• Romanian * Web Geek Sciense, http://webhostinggeeks.com/ (version 1.3.4.9)
• Russian * Ivanka Skakun from Everycloud, http://www.everycloudtech.com/ (version 1.5.8)
• Serbo-Croatian * Andrijana Nikolic, http://webhostinggeeks.com/wordpresshosting.html (version 1.5.2) + translation of this page on http://science.webhostinggeeks.com/easy-fancybox
• Slovak * Jan Fajcak, http://fajo.name/ (version: 1.5.7)
• Spanish * David Pérez, http://www.closemarketing.es (version 1.3.4.9)
• Turkish * Hakan Er, http://hakanertr.wordpress.com/ (version: 1.5.2)
• Ukrainian * Cmd Software, http://www.cmd-soft.com (version: 1.3.4.9)

Screenshots

1. 
   

   Example image with Overlay caption. This is the default way Easy FancyBox displays images. Other options are Inside and the old Outside.

2. 
   

   Example of a YouTube movie in overlay.

Frequently Asked Questions

BASIC

What’s FancyBox?

Basically, it is a fancy way of presenting images, movies, portable documents and inline content on your website. For example, if you have scaled-down images in your posts which are linked to the original large version, instead of opening them on a blank page, FancyBox opens those in a smooth overlay. Visit FancyBox for more information and examples.

Which version of FancyBox does this plugin use?

The same version as this plugin has. I aim to keep close pace to FancyBox upgrades and always move to the latest and greates version. Please, let me know if I’m lagging behind and missed an upgrade!

I installed the plugin. What now?

First, make sure that image thumbnails in your posts and pages are linked to their full size counterpart directly. Open any post with thumbnail images in it for editing and select the first thumbnail. Click the Edit Image button that appears and choose Link To: Media File. From now on, clicking that thumbnail should open the full size version in FancyBox.

The same thing goes for WordPress Galleries. Choose Link To: Media File when inserting a gallery tag.

I want to change something. Where is the settings page?

There is no new settings page but there are a few options you can change. You will find a new FancyBox section on Settings > Media. To see the default, check out the example under Screenshots …

Help! It does not work…

Please follow the trouble shooting steps on Other Notes to determine the cause. If that fails, ask for support on the Easy FancyBox WordPress forum or go to the development site
 

ADVANCED

Will a WordPress generated gallery be displayed in a FancyBox overlay?

Yes, but only if you used the option Link To: Media File when inserting the gallery! The gallery quicktag/shortcode should look something like [ gallery link="file" ].

The lightbox does not look good on mobile devices. What can I do about that?

The FancyBox 1.3.4 script that is used in this plugin was not developed with mobile devices in mind. The only way around this issue is currently to disable FancyBox for small screen sizes. You can do this by adding a text widget in your sidebar with the following code snippet.

<script type="text/javascript">
var pixelRatio = window.devicePixelRatio || 1;
if(window.innerWidth/pixelRatio < 641 ) {
  easy_fancybox_handler = null;
};
</script>

Tweak the value 641 to target other screen sizes.

Can I make a slideshow from my gallery?

In the Pro extension, there is an Advanced option called “Gallery Auto-rotation” for that.

Can I exclude images or other links from auto-attribution?

Yes. All links with class nolightbox that would normally get auto-enabled, will be excluded from opening in a FancyBox overlay.

<a href="url/to/fullimg.jpg" class="nolightbox"><img src="url/to/thumbnail.jpg" /></a>

Can NextGEN Gallery work with Easy FancyBox ?

NetxGEN has its own built in FancyBox version along with a choice of other lightbox scripts but if you prefer to use Easy FancyBox (because of better customisability) then you need to take some steps to make the two plugins compatible.

1. Go to your Settings > Media admin page and switch OFF the FancyBox “Auto-gallery” option in the Images section;
2. Go to Gallery > Other Options and set the Lightbox Effects option to “Custom” and click on Show Advanced Settings;
3. fill the Code field with

class="fancybox" rel="%GALLERY_NAME%"

1. Leave the other fields empty and save your settings.

Can I use ONE thumbnail to open a complete gallery ?

It can be done manually (using the internal WordPress gallery feature, or not) or in combination with NextGen Gallery.

Manual

A. Open your post for editing in HTML mode and insert the first image thumbnail in your post content (linking to the images file, not page) to serve as the gallery thumbnail.

B. Place the following code to start a hidden div containing all the other images that should only be visible in FancyBox:

<div class="fancybox-hidden">

C. Right after that starting on a new line, insert all other images you want to show in your gallery. You can even use the WordPress internal gallery feature with the shortcode . NOTE: if the gallery thumbnail is attached to the post, it will be show a second time when flipping through the gallery in FancyBox. If you do not want that, use an image that is not attached to the post as gallery thumbail.

D. Close the hidden div with the following code on a new line:

</div>

With NextGEN Gallery

You can choose between two shortcodes to show a gallery that (1) limits images per gallery using the shortcode [nggallery id=x] or (2) per tag name (accross galleries; you need to set tag name manually => more work but more control) using the shortcode [nggtags gallery=YourTagName,AnotherTagName].

General steps:

A. Place the shortcode of your choice in your page/post content.

B. Configure NextGen on Gallery > Gallery Settings to Display galleries as “NextGEN Basic Thumbnails” and then under the NextGEN Basic Thumbnails to at least have the following options set like this:

1. Number of images per page: 1
2. Use imagebrowser effect: No
3. Add hidden images: Yes

C. Optional: add the following new CSS rule to your theme stylesheet (or install Custom CSS or Jetpack and add it on the new Appearance > Edit CSS admin page) to hide the page browsing links below the gallery thumbnail.

.ngg-navigation {
display:none;
}

Can I play YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo movies in a FancyBox overlay?

Yes. Simply create a link using the Share URL (the full Page URL, the Short URL with or without options like HD etc.) to the YouTube/Vimeo/Dailymotion page in your post content. If you have Auto-detect enabled, the plugin will take care of the rest for you! 🙂

If you have disabled Auto-detection, give the link a class attribute like class="fancybox-youtube" for Youtube, class="fancybox-vimeo" for Vimeo and class="fancybox-dailymotion" for Dailymotion, to manually enable FancyBox for it.

Both YouTube and Vimeo movies can be made to play immediately after opening by adding the paramer autoplay=1 to the URL. For example, a short-url YouTube link that should play in HD mode, have the full screen button and auto-start on open, would look like:

<a href="http://youtu.be/N_tONWXYviM?hd=1&fs=1&autoplay=1">text or thumbnail</a>

I want that ‘Show in full-screen’ button on my YouTube movies

Append &fs=1 to your YouTube share URL.

Can I show a Youtube playlist in FancyBox?

Yes, just go to Youtube page of any movie that’s in the playlist and use the Share button to get the share URL just like with single movies, but this time place a checkmark at the ‘Share with playlist’ option.

Can I link a NextGEN thumbnail to a Youtube movie in FancyBox?

User Mark Szoldan shared a neat trick how to do this:

1. Follow the instructions to make Easy FancyBox work smoothly with NextGEN above and make sure it all works correctly for normal thumbnails linked to their full-size version.
2. Then give the image that you want to link to a Youtube movie the URL to the Youtube page as title.
3. Finally paste the code below into a text widget that will live in your sidebar or footer bar, or you can hard-code it into your theme but make sure it come before the wp_footer() call…

<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery('.fancybox [title*="www.youtube.com"]').each(function() {
  var title = jQuery(this).attr('title');
  var desc = jQuery(this).parent().attr('title');
  jQuery(this).attr('title', desc);
  jQuery(this).parent().attr('href', title);
});
</script>

This script snippet will scan the image titles and if it finds a Youtube URL there, it will replace the links href attribute value accordingly.

Can I create a gallery of Youtube thumbnails which open in FancyBox?

You could do this manually by uploading individual thumbnails that you can retrieve by using the unique movie ID in these URLs for three different sizes:

http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/default.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/mqdefault.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/hqdefault.jpg

Other locations might be

http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/0.jpg (same as hqdefault.jpg)
http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/1.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/2.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/3.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi_webp/UNIQUE-MOVIE-ID/0.webp (same as hqdefault.webp)
etc...

But an easier method is this one, shared by Shashank Shekhar (thanks!) :

To create Youtube thumbnail galleries, install http://wordpress.org/plugins/youtube-simplegallery/ and set the ‘Effect’ option to fancybox. Then disable Youtube autodetection on Settings > Media.

Can I display web pages or HTML files in a FancyBox overlay?

Yes. First, enable the iFrame option on Settings > Media. Then, in your post or page content create a link with either class="fancybox-iframe" or class="fancybox iframe" (notice the space instead of the hyphen) to any web page or .htm(l) file in your content.

NOTE: The difference between these two classes (‘-‘ or space) is in size of the overlay window. Try it out and use the one that works best for you 🙂

Can I show PDF files in a FancyBox overlay?

Yes. Just place a link with the URL ending in .pdf to your Portable Document file in the page content.

If you do’nt have Auto-detect checked under PDF on Settings > Media admin page, you will need to add class="fancybox-pdf" (to force pdf content recognition) to the link to enable FancyBox for it.

Can I play SWF files in a FancyBox overlay?

Yes. Just place a link with the URL ending in .swf to your Flash file in the page content.

If you do’nt have Auto-detect checked under SWF on Settings > Media admin page, you will need to add either class="fancybox" or class="fancybox-swf" (to force swf content recognition) to the link to enable FancyBox for it.

How do I show content with different sizes?

FancyBox tries to detect the size of the content automatically but if it can not find a size, it will default to the settings for that particular content type as set on the Settings > Media page.

The Pro extension provides an extra option to allow you to manually override this by defining the width and height wrapped in curly brases in the class attribute of the link itself. Make sure the option “Inlcude the Metadata jQuery extension script…” under FancyBox | Links on Settings > Media is enabled.

For example, a Flash movie with different size:

<a class="fancybox-swf {width:1024,height:675}" href="link-to-your-swf"></a>

The flash movie in the overlay shows BELOW some other flash content that is on the same page!

Make sure the OTHER flash content as a wmode set, preferably to ‘opaque’ or else ‘transparent’ but never ‘window’ or missing. For example, if your embedded object looks something like:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="200" height="300" data="...url...">
<param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" />
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />
<param name="movie" value="...url..." />
</object>

just add <param name="wmode" value="opaque" /> among the other parameters. Or if you are using an embed like:

<object width="640" height="385">
<param name="movie" value="...url..."></param>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
<embed src="...url..." type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="window"></embed>
</object>

just change that wmode="window" to wmode="opaque" or add the attribute if it is missing.

How can I display INLINE content in a FancyBox overlay ?

First go to your Settings > Media admin page and activate the Inline option under the FancyBox settings. After saving, the amin page will show a new section called Inline where you can tweak its parameters.

Next, open your page/post for editing in the HTML tab and wrap the inline content in

<div style="display:none" class="fancybox-hidden"><div id="fancyboxID-1" class="hentry" style="width:460px;max-width:100%;">
...inline content here...
</div></div>

Then place a FancyBox link tag with class attribute “fancybox-inline” anywhere else in the post/page content that will point to the inline content like

<a href="#fancyboxID-1" class="fancybox-inline">Read my inline content</a>

NOTE: The wrapping divs ID must be unique and it must correspond with the links HREF with a # in front of it. When using the above example for more FancyBox inline content (hidden div + opening link) combinations on one page, give the second one the ID fancyboxID-2 and so on…

NOTE 2: If you find that the inline contect shown in FancyBox is styled very different than the rests of the page content, then you might want to change the div tag attribute class="hentry" to something else that matches your theme. Find out what class name is used for the main content on your site and re-use that.

Can I display a contact form in FancyBox?

Yes. There are several methods imaginable but the easiest would be to use the Inline method. First go to your Settings > Media admin page and enable the Inline Content option. Next, go back to edit your post or page in the Text editor tab. The inline content can be a shortcode like in this example using Contact Forms 7 and Easy FancyBox:

<a href="#contact_form_pop" class="fancybox-inline">Contact Us</a>

<div style="display:none" class="fancybox-hidden">
    <div id="contact_form_pop" class="hentry" style="width:460px;max-width:100%;">
        [contact-form-7 id="87" title="Contact form 1"]
    </div>
</div>

Where you replace the shortcode (between the [ and ] characters) with the one given by the plugin. It can also work with shortcode by other plugins like Jetpack’s Contact Form module. Change the class attribute to reflect the class used for the div that wraps your post content to have any form CSS style rules that are limited to post content, be applied to the inline content inside FancyBox.

Can I make an image or hidden content to pop up in FancyBox on page load?

Yes. A link that has the ID fancybox-auto (Note: there can be only ONE link like that on a page!) will be triggered automatically on page load.

Use the instructions above for inline content but this time give the link also id="fancybox-auto" (leave the class too) and remove the anchor text to hide it. Now the hidden div content will pop up automatically when a visitor opens the page.

Same can be done with an image, flash movie, PDF or iframe link! But please remember there can be only one item using the ID fancybox-auto per page…

Can I make a menu item open in a FancyBox overlay ?

Yes. But it depends on you theme what you need to do to make it work. If you are on WordPress 3+ and your theme supports the new internal Custom Menu feature or if you are using a custom menu in a sidebar widget, it’s easy:

1. Go to Settings > Media and enable FancyBox iFrame support.
2. Go to Appearance > Menus and open the little tab “Screen Options” in the top-right corner.
3. Enable the option “CSS Classes” under Advanced menu proterties.
4. Now give the menu item you want to open in a FancyBox iframe the class fancybox-iframe.

If you are on an older version of WordPress or if you cannot use WP’s Menus, you will need to do some heavy theme hacking to get it to work. Basically, what you need to achieve is that the menu item you want opened in a lightbox overlay, should get a class=”fancybox-iframe” tag.

Is Easy FancyBox multi-site compatible?

Yes. Designed to work with Network Activate and does not require manual activation on each site in your network.

Download

Latest version: Download Easy FancyBox 1.5.8.2 [zip]
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