SIGE - User Guide - Joomla! 6

1. Download the latest SIGE package (version 6.1.2.0-PRO or higher)
2. In your Joomla! administrator panel, go to System → Install → Extensions
3. Upload and install the SIGE package
4. You should see a success message confirming the installation

SIGE includes both a plugin and a component. The installation package installs both automatically.

1. Go to System → Plugins in your administrator panel
2. Search for "Simple Image Gallery Extended" or "SIGE"
3. Click on the plugin name to open its configuration
4. Configure your preferred settings (see the Configuration Tips section below)
5. Set Status to Published (green toggle)
6. Click Save & Close

Important: The plugin must be published for galleries to display on your website!

1. Go to Components → Simple Image Gallery Extended in your administrator menu
2. Click New to create a new gallery
3. Enter a Gallery Title (e.g., "Summer 2026 Photos")
4. Save the gallery

1. Click on the images icon in the gallery list
2. Upload your images by drag-and-drop or via the file button
3. Supported formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP (and more)

• Add a title and description to each image after uploading
• Optimise images before uploading for better performance (optional)

• Drag-and-drop a .zip onto the upload area, or select it via the file button
• All valid images inside the archive are automatically extracted and added to your gallery
• Non-image files inside the ZIP are silently skipped
• Filenames are automatically sanitised (spaces become underscores, special characters are cleaned up)

• Click any editable cell to open it for editing
• Changes are saved automatically via AJAX and appear immediately without a page reload
• Green flash = saved successfully / Red flash = error

• Enter — Save → move to same field in next row
• Shift + Enter — Save → move to same field in previous row
• Tab — Save → move to next field in same row
• Shift + Tab — Save → move to previous field in same row
• Escape — Discard changes, restore original value
• Click elsewhere — Save (blur)

• Description and Short Description use a resizable multiline textarea
• Press Alt/Option + Enter to insert a real line break inside the text
• Line breaks are preserved and displayed correctly in the table after saving
• HTML markup in descriptions is handled correctly — the editor shows the raw HTML code, not encoded entities like <strong>

{gallery}id1{/gallery}

{gallery}id5{/gallery}                    — Display gallery with ID 5
{gallery}id5|type=masonry{/gallery}       — Override view type to masonry
{gallery}id5|limit=12{/gallery}           — Limit to 12 images
{gallery}path/to/gallery{/gallery}        — Legacy: load from a path inside the images folder

1. Edit (or create) any article in Content → Articles
2. Paste the gallery syntax where you want the gallery to appear, for example:

<p>Check out our latest photos!</p>{gallery}id5{/gallery}<p>More content here...</p>

1. Save the article
2. View the article on your website to see the gallery in action!

• Normal — Classic grid layout
• Masonry — Pinterest-style layout (no gaps!)
• Slideshow — Automatic rotating display
• List — Vertical list with details

• PhotoSwipe — Modern, touch-friendly (recommended)
• GLightbox — Lightweight and fast
• Lytebox — Classic lightbox
• Shadowbox — Feature-rich
• Slimbox2 — Minimal style
• Venobox — Video support

• Grayscale, Sepia, Blur, Brightness
• Contrast, Saturate, Hue Rotate
• Vintage, Cool, Warm presets
• Smooth hover transitions

• Enable Lazy Loading for faster page loads
• Enable Gallery and Image Caching for better performance
• Enable Cache Thumbnails to store generated thumbnails
• Set appropriate Thumbnail Sizes (default: 250×250 works well)

• Choose your preferred View Type (can be overridden per gallery)
• Select a Lightbox library (PhotoSwipe recommended)
• Configure Columns for grid layouts (responsive)

{gallery}id5|type=normal|imagesPerRow=4|limit=10{/gallery}

• type — View type: normal, masonry, slideshow, list
• imagesPerRow — Number of columns: 3, 4, 5 …
• limit — Maximum number of images to show
• sort — Sort order: name, date, random, manual
• filter — CSS filter effect on thumbnails: grayscale, sepia …
• filterImage — Only show images whose filename contains this term (e.g., filterImage=poster)

• Desktop computers
• Tablets
• Smartphones & touch-enabled devices

Before troubleshooting any issue, please make sure you have the latest available release of SIGE installed. Many problems are already fixed in newer versions.

• Check that the plugin is published (System → Plugins)
• Verify the syntax is correct — {gallery}id1{/gallery} (not {galler})
• Clear Joomla cache (System → Clear Cache)
• Hard refresh your browser (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R)

• Check file permissions — the gallery images folder must be readable by the web server
• Verify the file path in the gallery configuration
• Check the image format — use JPG, PNG, GIF, or WebP
• Check file size — very large images may time out during upload

• Check that a lightbox is selected in the plugin settings
• Clear browser cache and hard refresh
• Check for JavaScript conflicts — temporarily disable other scripts
• Try a different lightbox — PhotoSwipe is the most reliable

• Make sure the file is a valid .zip archive (not just a renamed file)
• Check that the gallery folder is writable by the web server
• Very large ZIP files may exceed the server's upload limit — check upload_max_filesize and post_max_size in php.ini
• Check the server's PHP memory limit if extraction fails on large archives

• Clear browser cache and hard refresh (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R)
• Check for JavaScript errors in the browser console (press F12)
• Verify your Joomla user account has the necessary permissions for com_sige
• After an inline edit, the frontend gallery cache is cleared automatically — if the frontend still shows old data, clear the Joomla system cache manually (System → Clear Cache)

• Clear Joomla cache after adding the parameter (System → Clear Cache)
• The search term matches against part of the filename (case-insensitive)

• Enable Gallery and Image Caching in plugin settings
• Enable Cache Thumbnails to avoid re-generating images on every load
• Optimise images before uploading (compress and resize)
• Enable Lazy Loading for galleries with many images
• Use the limit parameter to cap the number of images displayed

• User Manual: Full parameter reference on the documentation page
• Support Forum: Post questions and get help from the community

• Joomla version
• SIGE version
• Description of the problem
• Screenshots (if applicable)
• Browser console errors (press F12)