Starting with version 3.4 the following new functionalities are available for this plugin:

fancybox will now display exif data

The build in fancybox provided by this plugin now displays a new tool icon: camera
Activating this tool icon will display exif data of the currently displayed image, if exif data are included in the imagefile.
Per default the tool icon camera is not available. You have to activate it in the plugin settings.

If activated, you can use the shortcode parameter exif_scope for the short code hr_SIS_display_images to further specify the extend of exif data being displayed. Per default exif_scope=2 will display up to 16 values, if available. exif_scope=1 will only display 4 values (focal length, apperture, exposure time, ISO), if available. exif_scope=0 will provide no exif data at all.

If the tool icon camera is activated and if exif_scope is not set to zero, than exif data are provided for each image in a seperate exif-data-container in the browser. NextGEN drops many exif data items when compressing. Therefore exif data are extracted by means of exiftool from the image backup files, if these files exist on the server.

fancybox will now optionally display backup images, if they exist

When uploading images to a NextGEN gallery, NextGEN offers the option to resize and compress the uploaded images for an optimized web-display. When optimizing images for web-display, NextGEN also offers the possibility to keep the original uploaded file as a backup file (<filename>_backup) in the gallery.

The display types  display=li  (linked-images) and  display=at  (advanced thumbnails) will display found images using fancybox v5, which is provided by the NGG Smart Image Search plugin (it does not use the old fancybox v3 version provided by NextGEN). The new extended display types display=lix  and  display=atx  will display the original uploaded images, if these images are saved as backup files when being compressed. Otherwise it will display the images as provided by NextGEN.

shortcode hr_SIS_display_images now defaults to display=li

The default display type for the search results is now set to type linked-images (with shortform li) which uses the updated fanybox v5 for image displays. Previously it was set to type ngg-ingle-images (shortform si) which uses NextGEN image displays.

Starting with version 3.0 the following new functionalities are available for this plugin:

paging of search results

It is now possible to display the search result list with paging. The display shortcode now accepts the parameter images_per_page. If this parameter is set to a value > 0 it dynamically defines paging of the search result list, if the length of this list exceeds the parameter value.

Please note that during paging the search result list is fixed. The search term will not be reevaluated during paging.

new basic search mode

The plugin settings can now define the search mode as basic or as extended. The basic search mode is new. Basic search mode will search images which at least satisfy one search item. I.e., searching for „wood moon“ will search for images which either list „wood“ as part of their title, description etc. or „moon“.

In contrast, the already existing extended search mode will search for images which will list „wood moon“ in exactly this spelling (including blanks). Extended search mode will also facilitate to search for „wood & moon“. This will list all images which will have „wood“ and „moon“ in one of their search fields.

You can enable an escape character +/- by plugin settings.  If enabled, you can dynamically switch the defined search mode by entering the escape character as the first character of the search string.  In basic mode ‚+‘ will switch to extended mode. In extended mode ‚-‚ will switch to basic mode.

the display shortcode now acceps NextGEN Gallery parameters

Previously the display shortcode dynamically called a predefined NextGEN Gallery type by name without adjusting any parameters. The display of the search result therefore depended on the default settings of the corresponding native NextGEN Gallery.

Now you can pass the following native NextGEN Gallery parameters to the display shortcode (and overwrite any defaults):

• display_type_view ( will select templates )
• override_thumbnail_settings
• images_per_page
• thumbnail_width
• thumbnail_height
• thumbnail_crop
• ngg_triggers_display ( possible values ‚always‘ or ’never‘ )
• captions_animation
• captions_display_title
• captions_display_description
• is_ecommerce_enabled

The already existing display parameter will now accept all inputs, not only the previously defined and checked values.

You can check all these parameters and their possible values by defining a native NextGEN Gallery with the wanted settings, switch to text mode and examine the resulting parameters and their values.

For example, to activate ecommerce for NextGEN Pro Galleries you have to set the parameters  ngg_triggers_display=’always‘ and is_ecommerce=’1′.

One easy way of using a native NextGEN Gallery layout for the search result list is to use the NextGEN Insert Gallery  Window. Set up the desired layout for an arbitrary selected gallery and insert this gallery layout on a post/page. Then switch to text mode and replace the term ngg in the generated shortcode by hr_SIS_display_images. This will produce the desired layout result. The NGG Smart Image Search plugin will interpret or ignore all NextGEN Gallry parameters. Ignored parameters (defining the source etc.) will be listed in warning messages and can be easily dropped.

Sort options for the display shortcode

The display shortcode now accepts the following new parameters:  order_by  and order_direction.

Possible values for order_by are:

pid sorting by picture id (pid). Uploaded images are identified by their unique pid, which is automatically incremented by nextGEN gallery during upload. This sort order provides the upload sequence of images.

imagedate sorting by the exif provided image date, which normally is the date where the image is taken.

alttext sorting by the title of the image.

filename sorting by the filename of the image

random produces a randomized image sequence, which changes with each update

Possible values for order_direction are

asc for ascending

desc for descending

Please note that these sort options are only available for the display shortcode, not for the search widget or search shortcode (no need for that).

target option for the search shortcode

Previously the search shortcode could only automatically address the same page for displaying the search result by means of the display shortcode.

Now the search shortcode also accepts the new parameter target. This optional parameter sets the target url for displaying the search result. Of course, the target url post/page must contain the display shortcode in order to display the search result. If you want you can now direct the search result display to the standard search page.

Example:  target=’https://r-fotos.de/suche-ngg-bilder‘ or even better just use the relative address target=’/suche-ngg-bilder‘.