The 2.21.0 release of Metaslider Gallery focuses on making gallery and slideshow lightboxes more reliable. It fixes several front-end display issues, including duplicate images, unwanted lightbox behavior, cropped carousel images, and small-image layout problems, while also including a security-related fix that makes this a recommended update.
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Feature highlights
This is primarily a maintenance and reliability release, but there are a couple of visible additions for users and site managers.
- Pro Features area — Free plugin users now have clearer in-dashboard information about available Pro features and upgrade options.
- Accessibility test coverage — The plugin now includes additional accessibility testing to help maintain a better experience for visitors using assistive technologies.
Lightbox and gallery fixes
Most of the update is dedicated to tightening up how the lightbox behaves across galleries, slideshows, thumbnails, carousels, and WooCommerce product galleries.
- Duplicate images fixed — The release addresses cases where images could appear more than once in the lightbox flow.
- Disabled lightboxes stay disabled — Slideshows should no longer receive lightbox behavior when the lightbox option is not enabled.
- Thumbnail navigation excluded — Lightbox support is now skipped for thumbnail and filmstrip navigation in MetaSlider slideshows.
- Carousel cropping improved — The first carousel slide should no longer open as a cropped image in the lightbox.
- Small image handling improved — The “Open in Lightbox” control has been adjusted for smaller images where it could appear outside the image area.
- WooCommerce gallery handling fixed — Automatic mode has been improved for WooCommerce products and galleries.
- Image cursor behavior corrected — Gallery images should now show the expected pointer cursor when they are clickable.
Other improvements
- Security hardening — This release includes a security-related fix, so updating promptly is recommended.
- Translation updates — Italian, Spanish, and French translations have been refreshed.
- Recursion guard added — The plugin now has extra protection against repeated processing loops that could affect reliability.
Developer improvements
Metaslider Gallery now stores the plugin version and plugin path in the database. This can help with update routines, compatibility checks, and future migration logic.
The new recursion guard is also relevant for developers and integrators because it reduces the risk of repeated callbacks or processing loops when galleries are modified by other plugins, themes, or custom code.
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