First issue- This works. But a general problem with videos is, if I do not load all of them. One has to click to get back to the page to load more…..so…. I guess with videos we have to load all for the best experience in using the viewer (not to interrupt to load more)?
Didn’t follow you. Why do you have to “get back to the page”? The videos will show up in the sequence that they are present in the gallery. You can launch a video and close it out. You will remain at the same place in the gallery.
Second issue-I noticed when I tried Photos and then Videos as the two galleries, the bottom one did not display. Is that a known issue? Or should I make more sample pages to show you? Does it possibly have to do with the type of gallery? Like mosaic vs something else??
Not seeing this on your site, and there is no such issue that I am aware of (multiple galleries have been supported in Photonic since its inception in 2011). I have several demo pages that have dedicated galleries with videos or photos, and they all load fine. This is independent of the layout I use.
Third issue-How many galleries can one have on a single page? If unlimited, I guess I would have to use anchors to let people find the galleries, right?
I am not sure why this is an “issue”; this is more of a question. Yes, you can have unlimited galleries. You can consider adding anchors if you are going to have many galleries. I do it on my demo pages.
Fourth issue-Also, it seems if doing multiple galleries, it would be absolutely necessary to keep the load buttons and have good navigation.
Again, similar to the above, I am not sure why this is being called an “issue”. Load buttons and navigation are generally unrelated. I generally use load buttons if I am doing examples where I am trying to explain something. But, at the end of the day, it is something you can use to effectively handle navigation.
Am I right also that the load button allows people to get their images faster than allowing the whole gallery to load?
Yes, but you have taken it a step too far in your Spain page. What you are using is called deferred loading. If you notice what I have done on pages with multiple galleries, I have actually displayed photos in all galleries with a “Load more” button.
I use a feature called the JavaScript load mode (found under Photonic → Settings → Generic Options → Advanced → Loading Mode). This loads the rest of the page fast, and shows up the galleries when they become available.
Revised question- It seems after reading your help section, if I want two or more galleries on a page, the first should be loaded as php and the other one(s) shoukd be loaded as JS.
This is true if you want to avoid what is known as cumulative layout shift (CLS), which causes content to “pop” into its rightful position once available.
When I first tried it with photos for the first gallery and videos for the second, I used LOAD GALLERY or NEXT X photos/videos. It seemed that the NEXT button actually resulted in a long wait with a spinning ball.
It the wait never ended, you likely encountered a JavaScript error. I cannot say without seeing a live example.
Or is there some advantage to the LOAD or NEXT X buttons?
Performance. That is the sole advantage.
One thing I have noticed on your site is that you are loading full-sized photos in the galleries. Note that for the Mosaic layout (and the Justified Grid and Masonry layouts), there are two different types of sizes – a “tile image size” and a “main image size”. The tile governs what you are seeing on your page, and the main governs what you see in the lightbox. By default “tile” takes on the size of the “main”, but if you do that, you run the risk of dramatically increasing your page’s load time. A much better strategy is to use a smaller tile size. In case of SmugMug, you can pick a “medium” size instead of the “Largest”. You can do this by setting it globally via Photonic → Settings → SmugMug → Tile image size, or by setting it for each gallery individually.
