Imagescroller_XH - a CMSimple_XH Plugin

Imagescroller_XH facilitates displaying a scrolling slideshow of images (optionally with links and with a description). It has no back-end functionality to manage the galleries. Instead the images have to be uploaded via FTP or the CMSimple file manager. Additional information for the links and the description has to be entered manually in a special text file. If you want to edit this file from CMSimple_XH's back-end, you can use Ajaxfilemanager_XH, which also allows resizing the images online.

Please do read this documentation! Support might not be given otherwise. It's generally a good idea to read the documentation, before you encounter any problems!

Important Notice

Imagescroller_XH couldn't be tested so far in various environments. It is a so called BETA version. Use with caution!

Requirements

Imagescroller_XH is a plugin for CMSimple_XH. It requires a UTF-8 encoded version and jQuery4CMSimple.

Installation

The installation is done as with many other CMSimple_XH plugins. See the CMSimple_XH wiki for further details.

  1. Backup the data on your server.
  2. Unzip the distribution on your computer.
  3. Upload the whole directory imagescroller/ to your server to CMSimple_XH's plugins directory.
  4. Set write permissions to the subdirectories config/, css/ and languages/.
  5. Switch to "Imagescroller" in the back-end to check if all requirements are fulfilled.

Settings

The plugin's configuration is done as with many other CMSimple_XH plugins in the website's back-end. Select "Imagescroller" from "Plugins".

You can change the default settings of Imagescroller_XH in "Plugin Config". Hints for the options will be displayed when hovering over the help icon with your mouse.

Localization is done in "Plugin Language". You can translate the character strings to your own language, or customize them according to your needs.

The look of Imagescroller_XH can be customized in "Plugin Stylesheet".

Usage

To display an image scroller with all all images in the folder images/my_gallery/ alphabetically sorted , insert in a page:

{{{PLUGIN:imagescroller('./images/my_gallery');}}}

To display the image scroller on all pages, you have to set the autoload configuration option to 1, and to insert in the template:

<?php echo imagescroller('./images/my_gallery');?>

If you want to link the images or add titles or descriptions, you have to create an info file. This is best placed in the same folder as the images, and can have any name you prefer. To edit this file you can use any text editor you prefer, but it is important to save the file as UTF-8 without BOM.

The file contains a record for each image you want to show; records are seperated by a single empty line. The records have the following fields: filename, URL, title, description; the fields of the record are written on separate lines and have to be in this order, but you can omit trailing fields, e.g. if you don't need a title and description, just write the filename and the URL. If you want to skip a field, just enter a single space in its line. The filename of the image has to be relative to the info file; the URL can be relative to the current CMSimple (sub-)site or absolute. An example info file looks like:

image1.jpg
http://www.example.com
First Photo
This is the first photo for the image scroller.

image37.jpg
?A_CMSimple_Page

image2.jpg
?&mailform
Contact

image3.jpg
http://3-magi.net/
 
My favorite website ;)

To display the image scroller just call imagescroller with the path to the info file, e.g.

{{{PLUGIN:imagescroller('./images/my_gallery/info.txt');}}}

Note that all images should have the same size (i.e. dimensions). Otherwise they will be resized to the size of the first image in the gallery, and in the back-end a warning will be shown.

Limitations

Though it's possible to show more than one image scroller on a single page, the controls work simultaneous for all. E.g. if you pause one scroller, all others will be paused too.

License

Imagescroller_XH is licensed under GPLv3.

© 2012 Christoph M. Becker

Credits

Imagescroller is powered by jQuery.SerialScroll. Many thanks to Ariel Flesler for publishing this nice jQuery plugin under GPL.

The plugin icon is designed by Everaldo Coelho. Many thanks for publishing this icon under GPL.

This plugin uses Oxygen icons from the Oxygen Team. Many thanks for publishing this icons under GPL.

This plugin uses free applications icons from Aha-Soft. Many thanks for making these icons freely available.

And last but not least many thanks to Peter Harteg, the father of CMSimple, and all developers of CMSimple_XH without whom this amazing CMS wouldn't exist.