Another ***box!
LightBox, HotBox, GreyBox,ThickBox,SlimBox! Yet, it seems there is room for one more, “ColorBox” - in it’s demoed configuration, its positively ugly and clunky - however, there is a very nice and serviceable Ratings script on another tab which is worth a look!

Hi Mark,

I wrote this lightbox but I realize there are a lot of alternatives.  This provides the same functionality as the rest, but the main point is that it allows users to style the lightbox to match the theme of their own website.

The examples are clunky, but it’s just to give an idea of what all can be done or changed without having to alter the core CSS and JS files.  Please don’t focus on personal preference of the examples as that is missing the point that it isn’t about my personal preferences, but the users preferences.  Thanks.

Arent they ALL controllable via CSS?

....looking it at a second time, you have 4 links (to the same set of examples, but with different ‘skins’) it wasn’t immediately obvious that that was what you were doing, nor was it mentioned in the text (hey look! easy skinning & layout options!)
If maybe you had it where in the code, you could pass a parameter to tell it what skin to use (Alert, Warning, Dark, Light) then maybe you would have something, but if your ‘configurability’ is just a folder filled with CSS/images I dont see what new *anything* you bring to the table

..If you ever update your site, it may be helpful to maybe show some of the various skins you have and maybe go into the css a little bit.

Please don’t focus on personal preference of the examples as that is missing the point that it isn’t about my personal preferences, but the users preferences.

It would only have taken one graphic - the shoutbox with various ‘skins’ shadowed behind it - to illustrate what you claim is the big selling point of you xxxxbox vs the other 200! :)

People tend to focus on what they see - thats where design comes in, to make them ‘see’ what we want them to focus on :)

Arent they ALL controllable via CSS?

Not by a long shot.  They call can be alter slightly, change the background color, border color, swap out the back image for the close button, but you are pretty much limited to those minor things.  I had to take in many considerations just to be able to create a border that sized with the content that would work with anything users set it to.

The reason I started this is because I had worked with the popular lightboxes out there and modifying them was such a hassle. I always ended up digging though and altering their JavaScript, which is Not what I want to be doing.

The download comes with all the examples, and the demo’s on the site are kept very basic so the source can be reviewed.  The css should be fairly straightforward as everything is very semantic, indented to show relationship to the html structure, and complicated parts have comments explaining them (mainly the ie-specific rules).  div#borderTopLeft is the top left border corner, for example, I don’t think it needs more more explanation from that if you are working from an example.  Following the examples should be a very good guide.

This is a personal project I put out for others to take advantage of, if you don’t have the need to be able to customize it, then stick with one of the alternatives.  There are some that are extremely good if you don’t need to extend it in any way.

You are right about needing to drive home the point about user styles though, you aren’t the first person to miss the point.  I will go back in and try to address that when I have some time.

... yeah you ARE right, I remember now, the issue I had tweaking the “Facebook like box (Facebox?) some time ago :)

also, i had to redesign and relocate a search widget I had, when i noticed a lot of usernames and passwords in it!

I’ll download and play with your widget in more detail and write a proper review in the forums later. Thanks

I wrote this lightbox but I realize there are a lot of alternatives.  This provides the same functionality as the rest, but the main point is that it allows users to style the lightbox to match the theme of their own website.<a >cobro</a>