BSS Picture Gallery

Created on: May 11, 2026

The Picture Gallery plugin for nopCommerce is a high-performance solution designed to enhance how customers interact with product imagery. It provides a fully responsive and customizable gallery featuring hover-to-zoom functionality and a sophisticated full-screen lightbox with multi-level zoom support. The plugin is built for speed and efficiency, offering advanced performance features like lazy and progressive loading, alongside SEO optimization through JSON-LD metadata. With the ability to sync images with attribute changes and provide device-specific thumbnail layouts, it ensures a seamless and professional shopping experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
PRE-REQUISITES
  • The plugin requires you to install the BSS Core plugin first.

INSTALLATION
  • Download the BSS Picture Gallery plugin from our store https://store.bssoln.com/

  • Go to Administration → Configuration → Local plugins

  • Upload the BSS.PictureGallery zip file using the ‘Upload plugin or theme’ button

 

  • After uploading, install the ‘BSS Core’ Plugin first.

  • Then scroll down or write the name of the plugin in the search bar to find and install ‘BSS Picture Gallery’

  • To make the plugins functional, restart the application

  • After installation, the plugin will show in the menu.
CONFIGURE
  • Go to Admin → BSS → Plugins → Product Image Gallery → Configuration

  • Enter the License string and save it. Then clear cache.

  • Then again go to BSS → Plugins → Product Image Gallery → Configuration to set the configuration.

GENERAL SETTINGS

  • Enabled: A simple checkbox used to globally activate or deactivate the gallery plugin.

  • Direction: A dropdown menu to define the primary orientation of the gallery, such as "horizontal".

  • Thumb position: Allows you to specify where the thumbnails are located relative to the main image.

  • Sync with attribute combination changes: When enabled, the gallery will automatically update the displayed images as customers select different product attributes, ensuring they always see the correct variant.

  • Emit JSON-LD (SEO): An essential feature for search engine optimization that generates structured data (JSON-LD) for your product images, helping them rank better in search results.

MAIN IMAGE

  • Performance Optimization: Includes options for Lazy loading, Progressive loading, and Preloading the first image (LCP) to optimize page speed.

  • Navigation Controls: Toggle Main image arrows and pagination dots, and enable interaction via keyboard control, mousewheel control, and a grab cursor.

  • Animation & Transitions: Customize the Main slide speed (ms) and the Main transition effect with an additional option for a crossfade effect. You can also enable a Main loop for continuous scrolling.

  • User Interaction: Features like Main simulate touch, Long swipes, and the Resistance ratio (adjustable between 0–1) enhance the tactile feel on mobile and desktop.

  • Layout & Display: You can set the number of Main slides per view, enable Main auto height, or use Main centered slides to customize the gallery's physical appearance.

  • Special Features: There are dedicated toggles for Main autoplay, Watch slides progress, and the ability to enable Inline zoom on the main image.

THUMBNAIL GALLERY

  • Appearance: Control the physical layout by setting the Thumbs direction and defining the exact Space between thumbs (px), and whether they should loop or rewind.

  • Responsive Behavior: Set Thumbs per view specifically for mobile, tablet, and desktop. Enable Collapse vertical thumbs to horizontal for small screens with a customizable breakpoint.

  • Slide Speed & Autoplay: Set the exact Thumbs slide speed (ms) for animations and enable Thumbs autoplay for a hands-free experience. Determine how many thumbnails move at once by setting Thumbs per Group.

  • Navigation: Toggle Thumbs arrows, Thumbs pagination, and the ability to Slide to clicked thumb.

  • Multi-input Support: Enable keyboard control and mousewheel interaction specifically for the thumbnail strip.

  • Free Mode & Centered: Thumbs free mode allows for fluid, non-snapping scrolling, while Thumbs centered ensures the active thumbnail always stays centered.

HOVER ZOOM & FULL-SCREEN LIGHTBOX

  • Hover zoom (Drift): A dedicated toggle to enable or disable zoom functionality when hovering over the main image.

  • Lightbox Activation: Use the Lightbox enabled checkbox to turn the full-screen viewing mode on or off.

  • Magnifier Cursor: You can enable a magnifier cursor (desktop) to provide a visual cue to users that the image can be expanded.

  • Zoom Controls: Set Initial, Secondary, and Max zoom levels, and define actions for image clicks or double-taps.

  • Gesture-Based Closing: Toggle the ability for users to exit the lightbox using a vertical drag or a pinch gesture.

  • Click-to-close non-zoomable: A helpful utility that automatically closes the lightbox if a user clicks on a non-zoomable image.

  • Thumbnail Strip: Enable a thumbnail strip within the lightbox for quick navigation between items and choose its direction.

  • Panning & Zooming: Control how users move through the gallery with Allow pan to next and the option to enable Wheel to zoom for desktop users.

  • Lightbox Loop: When enabled, users can cycle through the images infinitely without stopping at the last one.

  • Keyboard Controls: Includes toggles for Arrow keys navigation and Close on Escape to allow users to navigate or exit the lightbox without a mouse.

  • Focus Management: Features like Return focus on close and Trap focus inside lightbox ensure a seamless experience for users relying on assistive technologies.

  • Transition Styles: You can choose the specific Show/hide animation and define the Easing function for all movements.

  • Timing Control: Provides granular control over animation durations, allowing you to set the exact milliseconds for Show animation, Hide animation, and Zoom animation.

  • Styling & Feedback: Fine-tune the lightbox appearance with Background opacity, Lightbox padding, and and customize the Image error message for instances where a file cannot be loaded.

  • Display Overlays: Options to Show counter, with a customizable Counter separator, and Show caption, which can be pulled from a Caption source like the image's alt text.

  • Action Buttons: Toggle the visibility of the Zoom button, Close button, and Fullscreen button.

ADVANCED

  • The Advanced (raw JSON overrides) section is designed for power users and developers who require deeper customization beyond the settings available in the standard administration form.

  • Targeted Overrides: You can apply custom JSON code to four specific areas of the plugin's core libraries:

    • Main Swiper options (JSON)

    • Thumbs Swiper options (JSON)

    • PhotoSwipe options (JSON)

    • Drift options (JSON) 

  • If these fields are left empty, the plugin will simply use the default settings configured in the earlier sections.

PUBLIC VIEW

FEATURES
  • Attribute Syncing: Automatically updates the displayed image when customers select different product variants.

  • SEO Optimization: Emits JSON-LD structured data to improve product image visibility in search results.

  • Performance Built-in: Includes lazy loading, progressive rendering, and LCP preloading to ensure fast page speeds.

  • Flexible Layouts: Customizable gallery orientation and thumbnail positioning.

  • Device-Specific Views: Set different thumbnail counts for mobile, tablet, and desktop.

  • Adaptive Design: Automatically collapses vertical thumbnails to horizontal on smaller screens based on a custom breakpoint.

  • Fluid Navigation: Supports touch gestures, keyboard arrows, mousewheel scrolling, and grab-to-swipe interactions.

  • Interactive Strips: Features slide to clicked thumb, infinite looping, and optional navigation arrows.

  • Visual Customization: Adjustable slide speeds and transition effects, including a smooth crossfade option.

  • Inline Zoom: Allows customers to view fine details directly within the main product image container.

  • Hover Zoom (Drift): Provides a professional magnifier effect when hovering over product images.

  • Full-Screen Lightbox: A sophisticated PhotoSwipe integration with multi-level zoom, image counters, and captions.

  • Touch & Gesture Support: Intuitive mobile controls including pinch-to-zoom, double-tap actions, and vertical drag-to-close.

  • JSON Overrides: Developers can inject raw JSON objects to deep-merge custom settings for the underlying slider and zoom libraries.