Photonic Gallery & Lightbox for Flickr, SmugMug, Google Photos, Zenfolio and Instagram

Hi,
I am the author of Photonic. Thank you for covering this.

I have a few questions/comments about what you have posted here:

I actually had to guess that there is a parameter to limit the number of photos: count=’5′, otherwise the shortcode will show ALL my images with that tag (hundreds, in this case).

If you look at the screenshot you have posted right under “Settings, settings, settings. Nice”, there is an option that says “Number of photos to show”. Can’t you use that? That is what the count parameter corresponds to.

and surely not a Gutenberg block by any standards

Photonic generates a full Gutenberg block, so I am not sure what is helping you draw this conclusion. Yes, it also lets you use a shortcode in lieu of a Gutenberg block, but that is only because at the time its Gutenberg integration was written, Gutenberg itself was not a part of WP core and was exceptionally buggy. The shortcode alternative was provided when due to some random Gutenberg issue users wouldn’t be able to insert a block – the native shortcode blocks for WP always seemed to work, so this was provided as an escape route. This is how Photonic works:

If you are using the block editor and you create a and insert a Photonic block, it will generate the block markup for you. You can verify this using the code editor – there is no shortcode created.
If you are using the block editor and for some reason the block is not getting inserted (JS conflicts are prime culprits), you could resort to using the shortcode it generates. The key thing to note here is that the wording specifically says “If for some reason you are unable to create a Photonic block” – it doesn’t say that you have to put this in a shortcode block always.
If you have disabled the block editor, the same UI generates and inserts a shortcode in the post.

Bear in mind that Photonic has existed since 2011, but Gutenberg has only been around for less than a year. Photonic has historically operated with a shortcode, so even if you switched an old site to Gutenberg, Photonic wouldn’t break as a result. Of course, you could use it just as well in the block editor as a true block instead of a shortcode – it is really down to the configuration of your site.

I tried to update the settings for the “block” but it will not actually update the shortcode, so I copied a new version inside an actual “shortcode” block underneath.

True, but if you were using the block instead of copying the shortcode, your block would get automatically updated.

There are currently multiple users who use the GB block for Photonic and several more who use it in the shortcode mode (particularly with plugins such as Elementor, or with Disable Gutenberg).

There is really just one unique case where you would have to use a shortcode, and that is if you are trying to display videos from Google Photos and your photos are not available at the maximum resolution (refer to this thread as an example).

Are there specific issues you are facing inserting a Photonic block with TwentyNineteen (in looking at your site I think that is the theme you are using)? While none has reported this as an issue, I would be happy to investigate this as a bug.