Widget no longer works after update to NextGen

Not this widget. It’s one called simply NextGEN Widget. Which I can’t find. Sorry. Can’t delete the post though.

Ok it must be an integral part of NextGen, though I can’t find any settings in NextGen itself, only on the widgets page in Appearance.
I’ve got it set to show random thumbnails from a particular gallery, set in Gallery ID. On site it says ‘no images were found’. Changing the gallery ID makes no difference however if I change the setting to ‘all galleries’ instead of ‘only which are listed’, the widget comes back to life.

I think I might have found the offending file.
plugins/nextgen_gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/nextgen_galler_display/class.displayed_gallery.php

Line 80 on:

// Allow ONLY recent & random galleries to have their own maximum_entity_count
            if (!empty($this->object->display_settings['maximum_entity_count'])
            &&  in_array($this->object->source, array('random_images', 'recent_images', 'random', 'recent'))) {
                $this->object->maximum_entity_count = $this->object->display_settings['maximum_entity_count'];
            }

If one comments out these lines the widget reappears. At least on localhost. No idea why.

Hmmm. It reappears but it only shows the same thumb each reload, instead of being random.

Ok you also have to comment out lines 348 on and inset $sort_by = 'rand()'; –

// If the source is random but entity_ids are present we assume that this is a temporary/"fake" random
        // gallery created by randomly selecting X image ids that are then set as the gallery entity_ids
		elseif ($this->object->source == 'random_images' && empty($this->object->entity_ids)) {
           // $table_name = $mapper->get_table_name();
          //  $mapper->_where_clauses[] = " /*NGG_NO_EXTRAS_TABLE*/ <code>{$image_key}</code> IN (SELECT <code>{$image_key}</code> FROM (SELECT <code>{$image_key}</code> FROM <code>{$table_name}</code> i ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT {$this->object->maximum_entity_count}) o) /*NGG_NO_EXTRAS_TABLE*/";
					$sort_by = 'rand()';
		}

Brings back the randomness.
Pity the thumbs are blurry. I’ve tried ‘Random image gallery with light box’ which has a beautifully crisp thumbnail, but is unable to display the photo title.

@digbymaass – Just seeing this topic(?!) … there is a known issue with the NextGEN Widget when using the “random” option and choosing specific galleries (excluded or included) that we recently found.

We are aware of this and working to find the best solution to the issue.

Thanks!

– Cais.

PS: NextGEN Gallery Sidebar Widget is not a Photocrati product.

I did link to it from the other thread but it wasn’t very prominent!

In case anyone sees this it’s at https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/after-update-widget-wont-work?replies=19#post-5854683, where there is another work-around.

The solution to blurry thumbnails is to select ‘use original image’, which resizes the original rather than the stored thumbnail.