Dynamic Content Gallery

Creates a dynamic gallery of images for latest or featured content selected from one or more normal post categories, pages, Custom Post Type posts, or a mix of these. Highly configurable options for customising the look and behaviour of the gallery, and choice of using mootools or jquery to display the gallery. Compatible with Network-enabled (Multisite) Wordpress. Requires WP version 3.0+.

Demo

Resources on this page

Description | Installation | Notes for Multisite | Troubleshooting | Screenshots

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Download

Download the current version of Dynamic Content Gallery (v3.3.6). Downloaded 314,139 times.

Compatibility

  • Current version of the plugin: 3.3.6
  • Requires at least: WordPress 3.5.2
  • Compatible up to: WordPress 3.5.2

Description

This plugin creates a dynamic gallery of images for latest and/or featured content using either the JonDesign SmoothGallery script for mootools, or a custom jQuery script. The plugin dynamically creates the gallery from your latest and/or featured content by either automatically pulling in the first Image Attachment from relevant Posts/Pages, or by specifying image URLs in a DCG Metabox in the Write screen for the relevant Posts/Pages. Additionally, default images can be displayed in the event that Posts/Pages don't have an Image Attachment or manually specified image. A Dashboard Settings page gives access to a comprehensive range of options for populating the gallery and configuring its look and behaviour. The DCG can be added to your theme as a Widget, or by using a template tag.

For best results, make sure that your theme supports Post Thumbnails, introduced in WP 2.9.

Compatible with network-enabled (multisite) WordPress 3.0+, though available plugin options are slightly reduced.

Key Features
  • Auto Image Management option - automatically pulls in first Image Attachment from relevant Posts/Pages
  • Auto Carousel thumbnails, using WP's Post Thumbnail feature.
  • SmoothGallery javascript updated to use latest version of mootools (v1.2.4).
  • New custom jQuery script - now much closer in look and feel to the mootools version
  • A choice of 4 different methods for populating the gallery - Multi Option, One Category, ID Method or Custom Post Type.
  • Up to 15 gallery images (One Category/Custom Post Type methods), 9 gallery images (Multi Option), or unlimited for ID Method (with custom page Sort Order).
  • Provides for a system of default images which will be displayed in the event an image has not been defined.
  • Displays the Post/Page title and a user-definable description in the Slide Pane.
  • Images can be linked to external URLs.
  • User settings for image file management, CSS and javascript options.
  • Built-in configuration validation checks and error message reporting.
  • Valid xhtml output.
  • WP Multisite compatible (with some differences in the Settings available to the user).
Further information

Comprehensive information on installing, configuring and using the plugin can be found here

All support is handled at the plugin's WordPress.org Support Forum.

Installation

Warning: The Dynamic Content Gallery requires WordPress 3.5.2 or greater. Do not install it on a lower version of WordPress – it won’t work. Please upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. For best results when using the plugin with Mootools, your theme needs to support WordPress Post Thumbnails. If your theme doesn’t currently support this feature, please read this faq.

Upgrading from a previous version? Please follow the Upgrading from a previous version instructions.

Installing for the FIRST TIME

Either use the WordPress Plugin Installer (Dashboard > Plugins > Add New, then search for "dynamic content gallery"), or manually as follows:

  1. Download the latest version of the plugin to your computer.
  2. Extract and upload the folder dynamic-content-gallery-plugin to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. Please ensure that you do not rename any folder or filenames in the process.
  3. Activate the plugin in your Dashboard via the "Plugins" menu item.
  4. Go to the plugin's Settings page, and configure your settings.

Note for WordPress Multisite users:

  • Install the plugin in your /plugins/ directory (do not install in the /mu-plugins/ directory).
  • In order for this plugin to be visible to Site Admins, the plugin has to be activated for each blog by the Network Admin. Each Site Admin can then configure the plugin's Settings page in their Admin Settings.
Upgrading from version 3.2 and higher

Follow the upgrade instructions here.

Upgrading from version 2.2, 3.0, 3.1

Follow the upgrade instructions here. Version 3.2 introduced some changes to the handling of Custom Fields dfcg-desc, dfcg-image and dfcg-link, which requires existing Custom Field data to be upgraded. The first time you visit the plugin's Settings page after upgrading from version 3.1 or earlier, you will be prompted to perform this Custom Field upgrade. Follow the on-screen instructions to perform this upgrade. Further information regarding this Custom Field upgrade can be found here.

Using the plugin with network-enabled WordPress (Multisite):Basic configuration and set-up of the plugin is exactly as described above.

Note that Default images options are not available when the plugin is installed on WordPress Multisite.

Troubleshooting

If you have problems getting the gallery to display properly, start off by re-reading the Quick Start guide and checking that you’ve followed the basic steps described there.

If you still experience problems, follow these tips:

  • Check that you don’t have any red validation error messages shown at the top of the plugin’s Settings page. If you do, follow the instructions in the error message to fix the problem. Yellow warning messages are not critical and won’t prevent the gallery from working.
  • Turn on Error Messages in the Settings page and look at the Page Source of your gallery page. If the plugin has detected any configuration errors you should see one or more Error Messages (shown as HTML comments) in the Page Source. They are fairly self-explanatory, but more information on what they mean, and how to fix them, can be found on the Error Messages page.
  • Look at your Page Source and check that your image URLs are correct, ie check that you haven’t made a mistake when entering the Image URL in the DCG Metabox, and that the image really does exist at that URL. The vast majority of problems reported on the Support Forum relate to errors with image URLs. This is especially true if you can see a black box and loading bar, but no images.
  • If you can’t see any code in your Page Source related to the Dynamic Content Gallery, the chances are you have either added the plugin’s template tag to the wrong template file, or forgotten to add it altogether. Refer to the Configuration Guide for detailed instructions on the use of the plugin’s template tag in different template files. Check the Load Scripts options Settings too.
  • Refer to the FAQ for other troubleshooting tips.
  • Disable other plugins – particularly those which also use javascript – in case there are any conflicts. Alternatively, switch the Javascript Framework option in the Settings page from the default mootools to jquery. Generally speaking, using the JQuery option gets around conflicts between the Mootools script and other plugins.
  • If all else fails, and you have checked the FAQ for a possible solution, post a question on the Support Forum. Please note that I don’t monitor the wordpress.org forums, so post your question on my site if you want a speedy response!

Screenshots – current version

  1. dynamic-content-gallery-plugin screenshot 1

    Dynamic Content Gallery screenshot