VistaView

A lightweight, zero-dependency image lightbox with smooth animations, touch/pinch support, zoom, and an extension system. Works with vanilla JS or any framework.

Documentation

Installation

npm install vistaview
# yarn add vistaview
# pnpm add vistaview

Quick Start

<div id="gallery">
  <a href="/images/photo1-full.jpg">
    <img src="/images/photo1-thumb.jpg" alt="Photo 1" />
  </a>
  <a href="/images/photo2-full.jpg">
    <img src="/images/photo2-thumb.jpg" alt="Photo 2" />
  </a>
</div>

import { vistaView } from 'vistaview';
import 'vistaview/style.css';

const gallery = vistaView({ elements: '#gallery a' });

You can also pass an array of objects instead of a CSS selector:

vistaView({
  elements: [
    { src: '/images/photo1.jpg', alt: 'Photo 1' },
    { src: '/images/photo2.jpg', alt: 'Photo 2', srcSet: '/images/photo2-800.jpg 800w, /images/photo2-1200.jpg 1200w' },
  ],
});

CDN (no bundler)

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/vistaview/main/dist/style.css" />
<script src="https://unpkg.com/vistaview/main/dist/vistaview.umd.js"></script>
<script>
  VistaView.vistaView({ elements: '#gallery a' });
</script>

API

vistaView(options) returns an instance with these methods:

Method	Description
open(index?)	Open the lightbox, optionally at a given index
close()	Close the lightbox (returns Promise)
next()	Go to the next image
prev()	Go to the previous image
view(index)	Jump to a specific index
getCurrentIndex()	Returns the current index
zoomIn()	Zoom in
zoomOut()	Zoom out
reset()	Re-scan elements (call after DOM changes)
destroy()	Tear down the instance and remove listeners

Options

vistaView({
  elements: '#gallery a',        // CSS selector or VistaImgConfig[]
  animationDurationBase: 300,    // Base animation duration in ms
  maxZoomLevel: 2,               // Maximum zoom multiplier
  preloads: 1,                   // Number of adjacent images to preload
  keyboardListeners: true,       // Enable arrow/escape key navigation
  arrowOnSmallScreens: false,    // Show nav arrows on small screens
  controls: {
    topLeft: ['indexDisplay'],
    topRight: ['zoomIn', 'zoomOut', 'close'],
    bottomLeft: ['description'],
  },
  extensions: [],
  onOpen: (vistaView) => {},
  onClose: (vistaView) => {},
  onImageView: (data, vistaView) => {},
  onContentChange: (content, vistaView) => {},
});

Framework Bindings

React

import { VistaView } from 'vistaview/react';
import 'vistaview/style.css';

function Gallery() {
  return (
    <VistaView selector="> a">
      <a href="/images/full.jpg"><img src="/images/thumb.jpg" alt="Photo" /></a>
    </VistaView>
  );
}

For imperative control, use the ref:

import { useRef } from 'react';
import { VistaView } from 'vistaview/react';
import type { VistaComponentRef } from 'vistaview/react';

const ref = useRef<VistaComponentRef>(null);
// ref.current.vistaView.open(0)
<VistaView ref={ref} selector="> a">...</VistaView>

Or use the hook directly:

import { useVistaView } from 'vistaview/react';

const gallery = useVistaView({ elements: '#gallery > a' });

Add 'use client' at the top of the file when using Next.js or other RSC frameworks.

Vue

<script setup>
import { VistaView } from 'vistaview/vue';
import 'vistaview/style.css';
</script>

<template>
  <VistaView selector="> a">
    <a href="/images/full.jpg"><img src="/images/thumb.jpg" alt="Photo" /></a>
  </VistaView>
</template>

Svelte

<script>
  import { VistaView } from 'vistaview/svelte';
  import 'vistaview/style.css';
</script>

<VistaView selector="> a">
  <a href="/images/full.jpg"><img src="/images/thumb.jpg" alt="Photo" /></a>
</VistaView>

Solid

import { VistaView } from 'vistaview/solid';
import 'vistaview/style.css';

function Gallery() {
  return (
    <VistaView selector="> a">
      <a href="/images/full.jpg"><img src="/images/thumb.jpg" alt="Photo" /></a>
    </VistaView>
  );
}

Extensions

Extensions are passed in the extensions array and can optionally add controls to the toolbar.

import { vistaView } from 'vistaview';
import { download } from 'vistaview/extensions/download';
import 'vistaview/style.css';

vistaView({
  elements: '#gallery a',
  controls: { topRight: ['zoomIn', 'zoomOut', 'download', 'close'] },
  extensions: [download()],
});

Available extensions:

Import path	Description
vistaview/extensions/download	Download button for the current image
vistaview/extensions/youtube-video	Embed YouTube videos
vistaview/extensions/vimeo-video	Embed Vimeo videos
vistaview/extensions/dailymotion-video	Embed Dailymotion videos
vistaview/extensions/streamable-video	Embed Streamable videos
vistaview/extensions/vidyard-video	Embed Vidyard videos
vistaview/extensions/wistia-video	Embed Wistia videos
vistaview/extensions/google-maps	Embed Google Maps
vistaview/extensions/mapbox	Embed Mapbox maps (access token required)
vistaview/extensions/openstreetmap	Embed OpenStreetMap
vistaview/extensions/image-story	Instagram-style story layout
vistaview/extensions/logger	Debug logging

AI Tooling

VistaView's documentation is agent-ready. AI assistants can look up docs, check versions, and verify build status via MCP Server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vistaview": {
      "url": "https://vistaview.jujiplay.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

• get_package_info — npm registry
• get_build_status — GitHub Actions
• search_docs — search all docs

Or just set Accept: text/markdown on any doc URL for clean markdown.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm dev

pnpm test:core   # Core library tests
pnpm test        # All packages
pnpm test:e2e    # Playwright end-to-end tests

Support

If you find this project useful, consider sponsoring ❤️

License

MIT