The Tech Diary

mavik Thumbnails is a simple plugin for Joomla! that automatically creates thumbnails for any and all images in your content.  Just like any other Joomla plugin, it's simple to install and configure.  However, I struggled for hours to get it to work, particularly with MyBlog for use here on Tech Diary.  Turns out it was working exactly like it was supposed to and I didn't know it.

 Here's how to use it:

• Install & enable mavik Thumbnails
• Insert an image into your content using the standard Joomla! editor method.  You can upload the image in the editor or use the Media Manager.
• Resize your image in the editor to the size you'd like like thumbnail to appear.

When you view the content, you'll see the smaller "thumbnail" image, just like it would appear without this plugin.  However, the thumbnail is now linked to the original full-sized image.  You configure whether the full-sized pic opens up in Slimbox, Highslide or a Joomla! Modal pop-up.

My struggles were two-fold:

1. I was using my frontpage as the test
2. I was using MyBlog entries to test

In both of these test cases, the smaller thumbnail would show up properly, but was not linked to the original image.

In the case of 1, it turns out that mavik Thumbnails is set to NOT link to the original image when the content is displayed on the frontpage.  If you view the article itself, the thumbnail link automatically appears.  In a way, this makes sense, although I would have liked a heads-up about this "feature".

For 2, I had to publish the mavik Thumbnails plugin in the Content Mambots Integration section of the MyBlog configuration page.

I think the author assumes it to be intuitive, and maybe for other people it will be, but in my case, it was an exercise in frustration.

In my searches I also found FBoxBot, which does much the same thing, but adds a little magnifying glass to the lower-right corner of the image.  If you'd like some to give the use indication they can click on the image, this one might be a better choice for you.