# What is the preferred "lightbox" plugin?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 18, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572 "2008-11-18T22:05:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phallstrom)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572/1 "2008-11-18T22:05:43Z")

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Hi all -

I need to do an overlay with something that supports ajax/remote  
html. There’s lots of options and quite a few rails plugins. Some  
seem out of date however.

Any suggestions on which one is “best” where “best” is defined as easy  
to implement, works in all browsers, supports ajax or remote html.

Thanks!

-philip

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phallstrom)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572/2 "2008-11-18T23:24:57Z")

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Hi Philip,

Philip H. wrote:

> I need to do an overlay with something that supports ajax/remote  
> html. There’s lots of options and quite a few rails plugins. Some  
> seem out of date however.
> 
> Any suggestions on which one is “best” where “best” is defined as easy  
> to implement, works in all browsers, supports ajax or remote html.

I’m in the same boat. I’ve been in touch with Craig A. and let him  
know there were some ‘problems’ with Redbox. I’m hopeful he’ll whip out  
something real quick ;-). Seriously though… I’ve got Redbox working  
except for the automatic positioning. There seems to be some code  
missing.  
I specifically queried Craig about that. In the meantime, I’ve been  
working  
today on getting the positioning working. If you’re intersted, I could  
send  
you what I come up with. I’ll warn you, though… JS is _not_ one of my  
strengths 😉

Best regards,  
Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phallstrom)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572/3 "2008-11-18T23:34:54Z")

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If you are willing to use JQuery then  
[http://handlino.com/blog/2008/02/26/57/](http://handlino.com/blog/2008/02/26/57/)  
is a good plugin. I’m on 2.1 and 2.2 for the projects where I’m using  
this plugin.

I installed jrails and replaced prototype completely…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phallstrom)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572/4 "2008-11-18T23:55:28Z")

</div>

> I need to do an overlay with something that supports ajax/remote  
> html. There’s lots of options and quite a few rails plugins. Some  
> seem out of date however.
> 
> Any suggestions on which one is “best” where “best” is defined as easy  
> to implement, works in all browsers, supports ajax or remote html.

Thanks to those that replied… I should have clarified no-jquery. I  
love jquery, but the site uses a lot of Prototype and I’d rather not  
double up on JS libraries.

I found one and got it working. Seems to do the right thing 🙂

[http://code.google.com/p/rb-lightbox-plugin/](http://code.google.com/p/rb-lightbox-plugin/)

Not too much of a pain to implement either. centers, works in IE/  
Firefox.

There do seem to be a lot more jquery based ones. Will have to go  
that route right off the bat next time 🙂

-philip

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phallstrom)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572/5 "2008-11-21T00:25:42Z")

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I have a site with a fair amount of prototype too, and am wondering  
about integrating jquery for only the login popup modal box. Isn’t it  
possible to only load jquery for the login partial when someone clicks  
to login, so that I am not doubling up on JS libraries on other pages?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@phallstrom](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phallstrom)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-the-preferred-lightbox-plugin/153572/6 "2008-11-19T16:16:50Z")

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Ive been using this on my latest project and found it to be very  
stable, easy to style, easy to use…

[http://famspam.com/facebox](http://famspam.com/facebox)

Good Luck