Customizing Gallery Templates – 2.0

Hey all – this is Erick from Photocrati. I just wanted to jump in and respond to the questions from some of you about “if not templates, then what.”

First, I just want to reassure you that when we say we’re deprecating templates, it doesn’t mean we’re going to stop supporting them. Given how popular templates are in the NextGEN ecosystem, I just don’t see how we could ever consider that. So our intent is to continue to support the template functionality exactly as it exists now to ensure full backwards compatibility, and compatibility with templates going forward.

At the same time, we’re not going to be investing time to improve or refine the template system. And we are going to be working improving and developing the “module” system that defines much of the logic of NextGEN 2.0. Right now, you can add new gallery types to NG 2.0 using modules and this system is more powerful and flexible. But right now, it’s also more complicated than adding a template. So we need to refine the functionality and documentation to make it easier to add new gallery types via modules. We’ll know we’ve done a good job with that when people start using it.

Until then, you are welcome to continue using templates with the knowledge that we’re going to continue to support them.

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Given everything I’ve said above, your current templates should be working and most templates are working. If they are not, that’s an issue or bug we need to address. The best thing you can do is submit a bug report with login credentials. We’d need to see your template and understand why it’s not loading correctly.

https://www.nextgen-gallery.com/report-bug/

@nfwro: just one additional note. You mentioned the NG Custom Fields plugin. There may be some separate compatibility issues there affecting your templates until that plugin is updated for full compatibility with NG 2.0.

I downloaded and installed next gen and next gen PRO today, got it up and running and then ran into this same problem.

I followed the instructions to create a nggallery folder in my theme folder and copy over the gallery.php file. Editing this file does not affect anything.

I’ve done quite a bit of searching, and can not seem to find clear documentation for implementing template changes for the pro grid album or for the thumbnail grid that displays for pages within the album.

It’s very frustrating, what should be taking me minutes is now stringing into hours. I just want the captions to show and to add a download button with the triggers. This shouldn’t take so much research!

@photocrati @edanzer
Thanks for the reassurances. I have to say that in a test environment I have the custom fields plugin working fine with NG 2.0 having amended the index.php in the relevant gallery type. However, this would obviously not be upgrade proof which is what I was looking for.

It’s good to know that I can do it the other way around and use the legacy template method. I will redo that in my test environment and raise a separate issue as instructed if I find anything not working as it should.

Thanks again

@nfwro: Thanks very much for the update. Keep us posted.

@mellowvision: I think the issue you’re seeing is that template functionality does not currently apply to NextGEN Pro galleries. It’s just something that’s in place for basic galleries that are part of the NextGEN Gallery.

Same issues here.
I upgraded to NextGen 2.0.33 with an upgrade to WP 3.7 and my custom templates all failed.
I use custom fields to add information to the images and the old method of template files in the theme folder worked really well.
I can select the templates in my child theme in the gallery settings but they are not honoured in the front end of the site.
This is a major for me so I am going to downgrade to 1.9 to fix it.

I have the same issue. I have the latest WP and NG as of today’s date (11/3/2013).

I can get it to work for galleries, but not albums or tag galleries. To work for galleries I do the following:
1. copy gallery.php into the themename/nggallery folder and rename it gallery-themename.php
2. in the shortcode add this template=themename e.g.
[ nggallery id=1 template=themename ]

However, this only works for galleries, not albums or tag galleries. Prior to NG2.0 I copied gallery.php to the nggallery folder and modified it, and it worked for everything. After NG2.0, changing gallery.php in nggallery doesn’t effect anything.

Any advice?

I am updated to 2.0.33 but I have not gone to WP 3.7 yet.

I am experiencing the single file issue. All my thumbnails are in a single column. I have the columns set to 0. This “might” be related to theme, as going to twenty thirteen seems to fix it. Unfortunately, I don’t have that option since it’s an existing site.

I am using Thesis 1.8.4 on the site. Everything seemed to work great until the 2.0 switch over.

Also, is there documentation for the 2.0 Module method? I am a developer and that could be very useful for another issue I am having with Album & Gallery templates.

Thanks

I tried to switch to new shortcode, but got the same results.

[ngg_images gallery_ids=”3″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails”]

Results in a single column of pics.