Old & new | Fancybox 2
Before my Bluelake website renovation, I updated the server software from PHP 7.4 to PHP 8.4, the current version. I also updated the application that built the website from Textpattern 4.8.7 to 4.9.1, the current version. My tramping website worked on desktop computers, but it’s really just basic HTML with a few tricks.
Except…
I used a pop-up slideshow gallery called Fancybox 2 for a few photo galleries. It stopped working on both that website and my bigger tramping one, which has pop-up slideshows on each of 44 track pages, plus another four for Te Araroa.
Fancybox 2 was from 2012, now 14 years ago. No wonder it didn’t work.
Qwen 3.7 is the AI I have found to be useful. I tried a few. Claude seemed obvious, but I quickly burned through my token allocation for the day. Maybe I needed to test that one more rigorously.
Anyway, I asked Qwen why Fancybox was failing. It suggested I update to Fancybox 5, which is more industry-standard-compliant these days and likely to be maintained for the next 10 years for a host of reasons. It now offers a full mobile experience and is the industry standard for large websites. Maybe too complicated and having many capabilities I would never need. I just wanted a 50 image slideshow with all images the same size and straightforward captions in a line or two beneath.
An alternative is an open-source app, GLightbox, which doesn’t have the full range of capabilities, but is more than sufficient for my needs. It’s easy to install, lightweight, and, because it’s so common, is likely to be maintained for a long while.
I went with that, since it is free and will always remain that way as open source. Fancybox 5 now needs a $99 licence for commercial use, and although I’m unlikely to ever make money, it could change in the future.
It installed quickly while still keeping the old one running. Maybe too quick.
GLightbox didn’t work straight out of the box.
Qwen told me that PHP 8.4 is more rigorous with its parsing, and the type of code that worked in the footer for Fancybox now needed to be in the HTML head for GLightbox, ie, moved from the bottom of the code page to the top.
Suddenly, the basic slideshow was working on my desktop. No urgency, but I still needed mobile phone support sorted.
The captions were a separate story. I spent the next couple of weeks getting them all to work across the 48 different slideshows on my website, tramping.net.nz.