Responsive Lightbox by dFactory – [Review]

Hello friends,

In this post I will make a review on one plugin that will allow your website visitors to experience better image viewing on your posts and pages.

The plugin that will allow you to achieve this is called Responsive Lightbox by dFactory.

What does Responsive Lightbox by dFactory do?

It will simply add the beatiful lightbox (overlay) effect for your WordPress website. Thus your images will stand out when clicked upon. They will appear in a stylish window that will provide options for switching images and closing the current view. Also some info about the image will be presented as well.

What is so special about this plugin?

Responsive Lightbox by dFactory will not only present your images in style but it will also do this with consideration for the devices that your visitors are using to browse your WordPress website. This means that the lightbox effect will look great on any device due to its responsiveness. And let’s not forget that having an optimized responsive website is very important for SEO (especially for mobile optimization).

How to work with Responsive Lightbox by dFactory?

Begin by downloading the plugin (ether from WordPress.org or from the plugin installer system in your dashboard).

Then install and activate it. Next you need to set some settings in the admin panel of your WordPress website.

The General Settings are first.

There you need to decide what your default lightbox will look like. You can choose from SwipeBox, prettyPhoto, FancyBox, Nivo Lightbox, Image Lightbox, TosRUs, Featherlight.

Next you need to set up the rel selector that the effect will be applied to.

After this you have to decide whether or not to enable the effect for WordPress image links.

Next you can choose a single image title and then choose to display your images as a gallery or not. Speaking of galleries – Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can be enabled for them as well. You can even set the image size for them and the image title as well.

What is more important is that Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can be used to display embedded videos from YouTube and Vimeo in a stylish lightbox effect. You can read more on the topic of embedding videos from this post in our website.

Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can be enabled for widgets and comments. The plugin can be forced for different WordPress gallery replacements like Jetpack or Visual Composer galleries. Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can also replace the default product gallery lightbox from WooCommerce.

There are some other settings that you need to take care of before you go on to the next tab. Remember to save your changes.

The Lightbox tab is second.

Here you need to adjust stand-alone settings for each of the default lightbox effects. Simply select the one that you chose in the General tab and adjust its settings. The image below presents the options for SwipeBox:

Again you need to save your settings or progress will be lost. After you are done you can start enjoying your new lightbox effects.

This plugin also comes with its own *.pot file for translations.

A few words on the premium extensions for Responsive Lightbox by dFactory.

This plugin provides premium extensions that will enhance its functionality. For most website the free version will be enough but if you are aiming at providing premium experience for your visitors and you have the budget, you can consider bringing Responsive Lightbox by dFactory to another level by purchasing some (or all) of the extensions. The third tab in the plugin settings can provide more information as well as the official website of the plugin developers: dfactory.eu .

So what do you think friends? Will you give this plugin a try? Share any thoughts and questions in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends!

*The images are embedded from the WordPress.org page of the plugin

Various ways of embedding YouTube videos in WordPress

Hello friends,

As you know YouTube is a powerful social network that can increase your website traffic and brand awareness (if used properly). That is why it is always a good idea to consider creating your own channel and start uploading videos related to your business. These may be presentations, tutorials, reviews, etc. You should keep in mind that this channel and each of the videos, that you are going to create and upload, need to be branded appropriately with texts that contain relevant keywords and phrases. This will help for SEO as well. Also you should bear in mind that you have to follow YouTube rules when uploading video content, so make sure that you get familiar with the requirements.

So if you are really considering starting your own channel you need to be familiar with the ways of integrating your content with your website. That is why in this post I will present to you various ways of embedding YouTube videos in WordPress.

You can also find this post useful if you just want to embed content created by others to your personal blog or website.

Why do I need a guide on embedding YouTube videos in WordPress? Isn’t this supported out of the box?

You are right! WordPress does support out of the box embedding of YouTube videos (and videos from other websites). By default all you need to do is just paste the link of the video and voila – it will be added to your post or page without any problems.

However there are some cases that require a different approach than the default one. You may want to place a video at a special location on your website with special formatting. And these are the tips and tricks that you are going to find in this post.

OK – What other ways of embedding YouTube videos do exist?

The next popular method is related to the embed code that you can get from YouTube for each video. Simply right click on one and select the option to copy the embed code. Then paste it in the desired location on your WordPress website.

By default this code may look like this:

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="YOUTUBE VIDEO URL" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You will be able to change the width and height values in this iframe. A suitable location for it may be a text widget.

Another way of embedding a YouTube video in WordPress is by using the “embed” shortcode. You can find more information about it in the WordPress Codex (click to read). This method is suitable when you want to add videos as part of your sentences. By default this is not possible as any additional text that wraps the oEmbed code will be considered as part of it and you will encounter an error. But the “embed” shortcode fixes this issue. Here is how to use this method (replace the …… with the video url and ** with [ at the beginning and respectively ] at the end for both “embed” and “/embed”) :

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit -**embed**……**/embed**. Sed semper urna et enim pulvinar faucibus.

This will add the video as part of the first sentence (as you can see the dot is placed after the embed structure).

Another method is by using Jetpack. Simply install and activate this plugin and then go to the admin panel. Select Jetpack – Settings and activate Shortcode embeds. This will allow you to easily manipulate the width and height of the video. Here is an example (again replace ** with [ at the beginning and ] at the end of the url):

**YouTube URL**&w=800&h=600

And you should be able to receive an embedded YouTube video with the desired dimensions.

Any other methods that I may find suitable for embedding YouTube videos in WordPress? Some plugins maybe?

If you thought that there are no plugins for this purpose – you thought wrong. There are various great solutions that you may use. Here are some of them:

Page Builders

Most (if not all) page building solutions for WordPress provide ways of embedding YouTube videos. You can easily set up different options (not only related to size but to similar videos, autoplay, etc). What is most important is that this method will allow you to place the video where you want exactly the way you want it. Without any coding, of course. Check our selection of great page builders from here.

YouTube Embed

This plugin will provide various options embedding YouTube videos in WordPress.  Download it from here.

Lazy Load for Videos

Lazy loading is essential for faster website. Especially if you have many embedded YouTube videos on one place. This WordPress plugin is a great solution for YouTube and Vimeo embeds as well. Get it from here.

WP Video Lightbox

If you want to embed YouTube, Vimeo and other videos in a stylish lightbox then this is the WordPress plugin for you! Grab it from here. You can also read our review for this great plugin.

That’s all friends! Share your thoughts and questions on these methods in the comment section below. I hope that you are going to find them useful.

See you soon!