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Slideshow Folder

Turns ordinary Images and Folders or Smart Folders into full-featured interactive animated slideshows. Uses Zope 3 development techniques and the Aeron Glemann's "Slideshow 2" javascript library.

Current release
Slideshow Folder 4.0

Released Jul 30, 2008 — tested with Plone 2.5, Plone 3

A release that incorporates "Slideshow 2," a major update to the underlying mootools slideshow javascript library.

More about this release…

Get Slideshow Folder for all platforms (0 kB)
Product Package (final)
Get Slideshow Folder for all platforms (0 kB)
Product Package (rc2)
Get Slideshow Folder for all platforms (0 kB)
Product Package (rc1)

Experimental releases

Upcoming and alpha/beta/candidate releases

  • Alpha releases should only be used for testing and development.
  • Beta releases and Release Candidates are normally released for production testing, but should not be used on mission-critical sites.
  • Always install on a separate test server first, and make sure you have proper backups before installing.

Release roadmap for Slideshow Folder…

Slideshow Folder 3.0 (Unreleased) Planned release: Dec 11, 2007
Plone 3 compatibility
Slideshow Folder 4.1 (Unreleased)
Include support for additional transition effects from underlying "Slideshow 2" javascript library. Provide a slideshow portlet. More granular permissions.

Project Description

About

Slideshow Folder provides a simple, elegant animated slideshow for Plone.

Slideshow Folder integrates the Slideshow 2 javascript class into Plone. Slideshow 2 a powerful, feature-rich, easy-to-customize slideshow library -- big thanks to Aeron Glemann all of the hard work he's poured into it!

Slideshow Folder offers the following features:

  • Animated slideshows with configurable transitions
  • Navigation thumbnails
  • Image captions
  • Intelligent preloading of images to save bandwidth
  • A play/pause/forward/reverse slideshow controller
  • Looping and random-order slideshows
  • Optional support for "lightbox" style image pop-ups
  • Look and feel completely customizable via CSS

Demo

You can see a short screencast demonstration of Slideshow Folder 4 at:

http://blip.tv/file/1076312


Design Rationale

Slideshow Folder uses Zope 3 development techniques to enable normal Plone Folders, Collections and Images with configurable slideshow views.

We wanted to develop a slideshow product for Plone that would avoid creating custom content types for the images and slideshow folders in order to allow easy installation, re-use of existing images in the site and to avoid "stranding" content in future upgrades or when you remove the product.


Dependencies

Slideshow Folder is easiest to install and use under Plone 3.x, but also supports Plone 2.5.2+. However, in order to use Slideshow Folder under Plone 2.5, you must be comfortable installing software from SVN checkout.

Slideshow Folder requires:


Installation

Plone 3.x, buildout-based installer

If you are using Plone 3.x via a buildout-based installer, simply add "Products.slideshowfolder" to the [eggs] section of your buildout.

  • Beginning with Plone 3.1, Plone's universal installer for Unix uses buildout.
  • Plone 3.2 and higher will use buildout for Windows, Mac OSX and Unix universal installers.

Plone 3.0.x, or other non-buildout installer

Slideshow Folder installs in the conventional way. Unzip the tarball and copy the product folder "slideshowfolder" into your Zope Products directory and restart your Zope instance. You can then install it into your Plone site from the Plone Control Panel or the ZMI's portal_quickinstaller. If required, Slideshow Folder will automatically install CMFonFive for you. Uninstall it the same way.

Plone 2.5.x, non-buildout installer

Download Slideshow Folder and its dependencies, listed above.

Install Slideshow Folder, CMFOnFive and Five in your Zope instance's Products folder as normal.

plone.app.form must be checked out from SVN and installed in your Zope's instance's lib/python/plone/app/form directory. It can be a bit tricky to unpack the directories correctly. Tip: you get a directory called plone.app.form, but you need to go to your Zope instance's lib/python folder and do:
mkdir plone (if it doesn't exist)
cd plone
mkdir app (if it doesn't exist)
cd app
mkdir form
then go to your unpacked plone.app.form directory and do:
mv plone/app/form/*  yourzopeinstance/lib/python/plone/app/form


Plone 2.5.x, buildout-based installation

Add "Products.slideshowfolder" to the [eggs] section of your buildout.

Consult buildout documentation for tips on installing CMFOnFive, Five tarballs and plone.app.form from SVN. Warning: this will require some experience using buildout for more complex installations.


Using Slideshow Folder

Each Folder and Collection in your site will have a new option in its "action" menu -- "make slideshow". Choosing that will select a slideshow view for that folder and give you a new "Slideshow Settings" configuration tab. As soon as there are published images in the folder, you'll see the slideshow. (Collections rely on the criteria that you put in them to render the images for the slideshow. Non-images are ignored. That means that workflow restrictions are based solely on your Collection's criteria.)

To change the slideshow's settings, see the new "slideshow settings" tab on the folder.

Each image's Description will be used for its caption.

Each slideshow will have an "disable slideshow" option in the action menu. This will revert it to being a normal Folder (or Smart Folder), including deleting the slideshow settings. (It will not delete any content, though.)

Note: The slideshow will only include published images in the folder. You can customize this (rather crudely) by customizing folder_slideshow.pt and calling the setWorkflowFilter method on the slideshow view. (Options include "None" or any valid workflow state.) Consult the interfaces.py for documentation on those methods. (Alternatively, you can use a Collection and not place any workflow restrictions on your criteria.)

Note: Only a subset of the options for Aeron Glemann's library are supported via the 'Slideshow Settings' tab. See http://code.google.com/p/slideshow/wiki/Slideshow for the full list of options. If customization beyond the options exposed via the web interface is needed, you can customize slideshow_settings.js.pt to specify the additional options.

Note: You may use your own custom image content type as long as it implements the Products.slideshowfolder.interfaces.ISlideshowImage interface (which requires an Archetypes ImageField named 'image' in its schema.) (Plone 3.0+ only.)


Limitations

Slideshow Folder currently has several limitations, most of which flow from the Slideshow 2 javascript class it is based on.

  • Transitions cannot be set on a per-slide basis, only for all the slides in the slideshow.
  • Each image in your slideshow must be the same size and orientation. If your image is too small, it will be rescaled. If your image is too large, it will be cropped randomly. Slideshow Folder cannot gracefully handle a mix of landscape and portrait-oriented photos.


Credits

Slideshow Folder was written by Johnpaul Burbank, with subsequent changes by Jon Baldivieso. Version 4.0 by David Glick.

Initial concept, project management and a few tweaks by: ONE/Northwest, including Jon Stahl and Andrew Burkhalter.

Special thanks to Conservation Northwest for partial funding and beta testing.

Slideshow Folder includes and is based on Slideshow 2, by Aeron Glemann. Slideshow 2 uses the Mootools javascript library.

More information

Please see http://www.plone.org/products/slideshowfolder for more information, updates, documentation and bug reports.

ONE/Northwest is a nonprofit organization that provides technology assistance (including Plone-powered websites!) to environmental NGOs. If you'd like to support our work, including the release of open-source software like Slideshow Folder, please see: http://www.onenw.org/about/supporters/support-our-work