ANNOUNCE: yet another Slideshow (beta)

[neilw]

Because none of the existing ones did quite what I wanted, I've created another Slideshow template, based on the jQuery Cycle plugin. See the temporary doc page.

Basically, the template will take all the images attached to a (selectable) page and make a slideshow out of them. Features:

1. Simple to use. Just attach a bunch of images to a page, and call the template.
2. Preserves image aspect ratio, unlike image.slideshow(). This was actually the primary motivation for creating this template in the first place. Each image as made as large as possible to fit in the specified width and height while maintaining original aspect ratio, then centered vertically and horizontally.
3. Uses webview for each image, so it comes up quickly, even with a lot of images.
4. Selectable image display order. If the current page is the image source, then the order of the image gallery at the bottom of the page is automatically set to match the slideshow order (if your skin supports it; doesn't show on the dev wiki but does on Fiesta).
5. Auto slideshow title: If the source page for the images is not the current page, the title of the source page is placed above the slideshow as a title. This feature will probably be altered in the future to be more flexible and controllable.

I'm considering this just a beta right now, not because it doesn't work but merely because the features aren't completely fleshed out yet. But it's plenty usable and useful in its current form.

Enjoy.

[rberinger]

Because none of the existing ones did quite what I wanted, I've created another Slideshow template, based on the jQuery Cycle plugin. See the temporary doc page.

Basically, the template will take all the images attached to a (selectable) page and make a slideshow out of them. Features:

1. Simple to use. Just attach a bunch of images to a page, and call the template.
2. Preserves image aspect ratio, unlike image.slideshow(). This was actually the primary motivation for creating this template in the first place. Each image as made as large as possible to fit in the specified width and height while maintaining original aspect ratio, then centered vertically and horizontally.
3. Uses webview for each image, so it comes up quickly, even with a lot of images.
4. Selectable image display order. If the current page is the image source, then the order of the image gallery at the bottom of the page is automatically set to match the slideshow order (if your skin supports it; doesn't show on the dev wiki but does on Fiesta).
5. Auto slideshow title: If the source page for the images is not the current page, the title of the source page is placed above the slideshow as a title. This feature will probably be altered in the future to be more flexible and controllable.

I'm considering this just a beta right now, not because it doesn't work but merely because the features aren't completely fleshed out yet. But it's plenty usable and useful in its current form.

Enjoy.

Wonderful! Love It! I was actually going to be creating a new gallery myself but now I don't have too! I love when others do my work for me.

Thanks for sharing NeilW.

[neilw]

Just added several options to Slideshow:
1) each image can be a link to the original
2) file descriptions can be place underneath each image as a caption
3) there's a bit more control over title behavior
4) there's an "effect" option, but it doesn't yet do anything.

Thanks to rberinger for suggestions 1 and 2.

[neilw]

Transition effects are now supported. I've demoed the highly funky "shuffle" effect on the doc page.

The template automatically selects either the "full" or "lite" version of the plug-in depending on which effect is selected. If you only use the default "fade" effect, you can get away with the "lite" version which is only 3KB vs. the full version which is almost 24KB.

Done for the moment.

[crb]

Wow, you two (and jQuery) never cease to amaze me. Awesome work neilw.

[rberinger]

Wow, you two (and jQuery) never cease to amaze me. Awesome work neilw.

This one was all NeilW I just whined for more features.

[crb]

Sure, but you're really pushing each other harder.

If only there was one of you two that wanted to implement my API features.

[rberinger]

Sure, but you're really pushing each other harder.

If only there was one of you two that wanted to implement my API features.

Which API features??

[crb]

Today I'm keen on OpenID (for Google Apps) and user-only administrators...

[neilw]

Slideshow now supports controls (pause/resume, forward/backward), and you can pass additional options straight to the plugin.

Oh, and the doc page now supports try-your-own-effect.

Basically it's now ready for publishing on the App Catalog, minus the documentation (might toss it up there with the current temporary doc page, and then clean it up later).

One area I'd like some input on is how to offer reasonable style customization of the whole thing, including the title, overall slide area, controls, etc. without going too crazy. It looks OK right now, but probably should allow more user control.