Have found that when visitors to my sites go to a photo album created by jAlbum, then hit the 'return' arrow that the domain name and URL masking is lost.

For decades have used 'masking' to hide the true URL field data, so visitors only see the mysite.com (example), and they do not see the true url... \mysite.com \pictures\ 20260315 \index.html

Have found jAlbum seems to clear that masking when you hit the return option.
After months digging, have found that there is a setting created in the Index html code that is flushing the masking, when people leave the photo album page to go back to the menu.

In the html code, after the previous menu page url link, that is used by the 'return arrow', there is the URL and then the coding... target="_parent"

Some testing by manually editing the html coding, to _self finds the masking issue stops. Hitting the return arrow takes visitors to the menu page ok and the masked domain url line holds...
. . but now using that _self seems to cause the first 10-20 thumbnail images to not load (the empty window box is there, I have rows of empty boxes, then a handful of thumbnail images only for the last few pictures).

I am using the Tiger skin.

Not finding an option in the Settings to change this.
Wondering if others have found this ?
If there is a setting i did not find to address this ?

thanks!
Frolin

What happens if you delete the target=_whatever attribute entirely?

ETA: And what are you entering as the URL under Settings > Pages > Link to external homepage?. The skin knows nothing about your masking - it should just take the address you've entered, and feed it to the href on the page.

You should never have to make manual edits to an album page.

I'll have to leave this one to Laza. I have no idea why he's using target attributes at all. The only time I use them in my skins is if the user wants to open a web location in a new tab, instead of taking the visitor away from the album site entirely.

And I think that "lazy-loading," which is what the "20 thumbnails" phenomenon relates to, is completely misguided. It produces an inferior visitor experience regardless of the visitor's connection speed. It's utterly pointless.

Jeff,

Test note...

Just took a 2017 photo album created with previous software, and edited the 'return' link, copied in the same link from from the current album.
Renamed the server folder, created new folder same name, copied in the 2017 files and tested...

Did not have the lost Masking issue.

So to me it seems... the previous software, does not loose the URL masking, as found with jAlbum, in the same setup. That is... same website not a test site, same home page, same photo menu page, just swapped the files in the 2026-03 folder.

Not pointing finger, just testing the past with the current to verify, where to be trouble-shooting...

Frolin

That's really a separate discussion. But Tiger uses "lazy-loading." When you arrive at the page, it doesn't immediately download all of the thumbnails. It waits until you scroll down to see the next batch. Because reasons. The result is that the page feels sluggish, no matter what kind of connection you've got.

Without lazy loading, while the visitor is looking at the first page's worth of thumbnails, the remainder are downloaded in the background. So when he scrolls down, the images are all there already. He doesn't have to wait for them.

Jeff,

Thanks for clarifing the "lazy loading" meaning.
Not sure that is the case here.

When I edit the 'target=' piece of the html code, or completely remove that portion, the first several rows of thumbnails never load. Have waited a couple minutes on the screen, that comes up fast (I have high speed). These boxes never load.

And if I click on any of the empty boxes, I get a small round cycling icon in the screen middle. I wait a couple minutes, nothing loads. Back to the album page, nothing loaded either.

So not lazy or slow, these thumbnails and the full size pictures, do not load when editing the 'target=' piece of the Return coding.

Remember that with almost any skin, you can modify what it's doing. Don't like the thumbnail layout? Change it! You've usually got a choice between fixed-shape thumbnails and non-fixed. You don't have to settle for the default presentation of anything.

A couple of skin demos:

(demo albums removed)

Neptune is better suited to non-fixed-shape thumbnails, and it limits the border options. Saturn is happier with fixed-shape, and has more border options (borders, drop-shadows, etc.). But with either skin, you can change the thumbnails - fixed-shape with Neptune, non-fixed with Saturn.

Either skin gives you complete freedom for your descriptive text - just a few lines, or The Great American Novel, complete with its own formatting. Don't plant it in the album description - in either skin, go to the Code > Top & Bottom Info tab, which gives you more control over things like the display width for your text.

I've noticed you doing something odd in some of your albums - you're adding a big wide border around the image, then putting caption text in that border (screenshot). Looks weird, and the text is often hidden by the control bar. Why not just enter that text as the comment for the picture, and let it show below the slide image?

He's using a frameset to pull this off, which is why things like target="_parent" go haywire.

As you'd expect, the site is a disaster on a phone - friends don't let friends use framsets.