What is the Content Slider and where is some documentation on how to use it?

[StephenKay]

Hi, sorry for all the questions. But I was hoping this was something that would do a slideshow with a bunch of images, like the NivoSlider I have implemented on one of my web sites. But having placed the module on a page, I can't really suss out what it does, and my searches for documentation on this came up nil. I though I once saw documentation on what each module does, but I'm having difficulty locating it... Thanks.

[Mark.B]

Hi, sorry for all the questions. But I was hoping this was something that would do a slideshow with a bunch of images, like the NivoSlider I have implemented on one of my web sites. But having placed the module on a page, I can't really suss out what it does, and my searches for documentation on this came up nil. I though I once saw documentation on what each module does, but I'm having difficulty locating it... Thanks.

There isn't currently any documentation for the content slider.

What it does is pull images that are attached to the first post in featured topics. This is controlled using a JSON string in the module, the default setup is like this:

{"featured":1,"sort":{"created":"desc"}}

You can customise that JSON to pull images from other topics, forums, or anything you specify, using the JSON parameters available in vBulletin.
We have an article that covers the general JSON parameters HERE. These parameters will work in other modules too.

My demo site shows a default configuration of the content slider: www.talknewsuk.com

[StephenKay]

I see. Looks kinda complicated, I'll have to read up on it. Can you share the JSON code to pull all .jpg images out of a directory?

[glennrocksvb]

I see. Looks kinda complicated, I'll have to read up on it. Can you share the JSON code to pull all .jpg images out of a directory?

That's not possible using JSON search. It requires custom coding.

[Mark.B]

What you could do there, depending on the number, is this:

1. Set up a dedicated forum, but set its display order to 0 9so it won;t show in the list of forums).
2. Make a topic in this forum for each image, and upload it.
3. Feature all the images.
4. Set the JSON to search in that forum only (we can assist with that).

The only issue I see with this, is that the content slider also links to the topic. You can probably use css to hide the link but that rather defeats the object of the slider - it's not meant to be a gallery, it's meant to be a means to showcase recent content containing images, as 'featured' by the site staff.
The images in the slider are always skewed slightly to fit - the intention is to get people to visit the topic where the full image is. If you remove that, it's a bit...pointless.

[Wayne Luke]

You can have the content slider show the latest Photo Gallery topics in a channel. Use something like this for the JSON:

{"channel":3,"type":["vBForum_Gallery"],"include_starter":"1","sort":{"created":"desc"}}

This first image in the Gallery will be used as the background in the content slider. The value for channel is the node id of that channel. You can see the node id in the Channel Manager inside the AdminCP.

[Wayne Luke]

The Search JSON is documented here: https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/arti...he-search-json

Basically, any of its variables can be used in the Content Slider. It is just a custom search module.

[StephenKay]

rather defeats the object of the slider - it's not meant to be a gallery, it's meant to be a means to showcase recent content containing images, as 'featured' by the site staff. The images in the slider are always skewed slightly to fit - the intention is to get people to visit the topic where the full image is. If you remove that, it's a bit...pointless.

OK, I at least understand what it's for now. If I just want to have a rotating set of 5 pictures on a home page, I'd be better off using the .js slider code I already have inside a static html module, I guess.

Thanks all for the ideas and suggestions!