How many images is too many?

**mlegg** · 09-09-2012, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by jscheuer1

Oh Gawd, don't use Lightbox 2.03a! It's outdated, still uses the bloated prototype/scriptaculous libraries instead of jQuery and was never all that great except for that link feature DD added. That one you linked to looks much better, as is the current Lightbox version 2.51 I think it is. There are other box type scripts, some of which are good as well, more flexible than the official version.

OK thanks. What do you think about me using the Animated Collapsible DIVs? or would it be better to just have in my menu/navigation bar some drop down menus for the various features and have them on separate sub pages?

**jscheuer1** · 09-09-2012, 03:43 PM

A problem with most of these box scripts is that they use some hover in css and/or javascript which doesn't necessarily translate well on mobile and other touch devices. In fact, at least one such box script - Slimbox 2, specifically tests for these devices and does not initialize if they're detected. That approach can work out though, the link then takes you to the larger image.

I suggested Image Thumbnail Viewer II in part because if configured as I suggested it works off of click, which is supported in those devices. I haven't tested that theory though. I mean I know it works off of click. I'm just not sure if those devices work well with the script. They should. I have a mod of it BTW which transitions each larger image in over the previous, rather than blanking out each time before transitioning in the new content:

thumbnailviewer2.js

The width and height of the loadarea(s) should be set in style to the maximum width and the maximum height of the larger images to be shown in them. There are a couple of extra options available. And style should be set for loadarea images to display: block; margin: 0 auto;

Anyways, Animated Collapsible Divs have a potential issue. If what you're concealing within them needs to calculate dimensions as the page is loaded or onload, those calculations will fail because the unseen material is display: none; which prevents browsers from parsing dimensions. That can be changed by editing the script though. Another drawback is that even if the material in the collapsible divisions is hidden, it still has to load, so using that script doesn't help the byte load of the page. If used with Image Thumbnail Viewer II though, it should work out because Image Thumbnail Viewer II (if configured as I suggested) doesn't need dimensions of the sort I just mentioned and wouldn't load the larger images until requested.

At some point though, you just have to storyboard your ideas, set up some demos and compare the results and ask specific questions based upon them, providing us with links to them as examples. Discussing them only in the abstract as we have been here could lead to false assumptions and/or overlook serious issues with certain platforms/browsers. We may have already done some of that. No way to tell without setting some of these up to see what's what. I would just caution you that although it should carry some weight at this stage, not to get too attached to 'look and feel' at this point. That generally can be tweaked once the nuts and bolts of functionality are worked out.

**mlegg** · 09-09-2012, 04:25 PM

ok thanks John. I have a template all setup but I cannot legally upload it to the web just yet. As soon as the owner gets signatures I will upload it and then show you the site to see it and get more suggestions and/or help.