Lightbox (JavaScript): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:43, 29 October 2009

Revision as of 08:38, 10 December 2009

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Lightbox permits users to view larger versions of images without having to leave the current page,<ref name="Zervaas">{{cite book | last = Zervaas | first = Quentin | year = 2007 | title = Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP | publisher = Springer | isbn = 1590599063 | pages = p. 423 }}</ref> and is also able to display simple slideshows. The use of the dark background, which dims the page over which the image has been overlaid, also serves to highlight the image being viewed.

While Lightbox is dependent upon a browser's compatibility with Prototype to function,<ref name="Schmitt">{{cite book | last = Schmitt | first = Christopher | year = 2006 | title = CSS Cookbook | publisher = [[O'Reilly]] | isbn = 0596527411 | pages = p. 207 }}</ref> Lightbox is triggered through a standard link tag. Thus browsers that do not support JavaScript simply load the image as a separate file, losing the Lightbox effect but still retaining the ability to display the full-sized image.<ref name="Zervaas" /> Even so, some compatibility problems have been identified with versions of Lightbox, in particular when displaying larger images on [[Firefox]] or [[Opera (web browser)|Opera]].<ref name="Campbell">{{cite web | last = Campbell | first = Debbie | date = [[February 15]], [[2007]] | title = Thickbox - For Image Display and Slideshows | work = WebProNews | url = http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/02/15/thickbox-for-image-display-and-slideshows | accessdate = 2008-05-21 }}</ref>

Many users have also noted that there is a lack of compatibility across the Internet Explorer range of browsers. Even Internet Explorer 8 Beta has shown issues on some sites. However, many times the compatibility issues can be attributed to users not reading the documentation on how to make lightbox function correctly in these browsers.