Slider Plugin Plugin

The Slider Plugin allows you to hide paragraphs in your articles that appear when the title is clicked. This is based on the mootools library slidefx example.

Developer's Note: I don't currently have time to support this extension and keep it up to date. This code if offered as is for your enjoyment and learning.

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bybobbel on March 4, 2009
Exactly what I needed! I just had problems with IE6/7. It seems to be a conflict with other JS-Plugins (Ninja Shadowbox?!?).
I changed the way JS is included in this plugin:
Instead
$document->addScriptDeclaration($script);
I use
$document->addCustomTag($script);
and extend the $script variable with some wrapping -Tag.
Perhaps someone else has a better solution for such a problem?!?
bysimcfc73 on June 26, 2008
Love the way this worked, its very simple and I have changed my read more sections to using this plugin instead.

I did have an issue with the JCAL component but upgrading the JCAL solved it.

The seperate CCS file is very useful too.
We downloaded and installed this plugin and really liked it.. after further testing we found that it caused errors in IE7 (where the content that would slide down under the title would slide BEHIND the content below it instead of moving it all down.)

We contacted the creator of the plugin, Ian ManLennan, who simply replied and said he didn't know what was wrong, and didn't have IE7 to test the error! After multiple emails asking where we could find a solution - possibly a forum, other users, etc. - Ian basically refused to support this plugin (we have the emails if anyone, including Ian, would like to dispute this).

The bummer is that we really like this module, and can think of many uses for it.. but without the support it deserves, it is just a bunch of useless code.

The Joomla! community is known for developing some of the best feature additions and providing support for those contributions... and this plugin does not mirror, nor live up to, that standard.

I would highly recommend looking for another plugin instead of using this one...

Sorry for the poor review - it is the first we have ever written!! - but this project stands out in a very poor way amongst other contributions from people who will support and respect the joomla community.
Owner's reply

I explained to the author of this comment that other responsibilities prevent me from fixing problems with IE7 at the moment, since I don't have IE7 at the moment, and have other commitments.

If somebody is able to verify the functionality of this extension with IE7, it would be greatly appreciated.

I've installed it, done a test article using it and styled it with an external CSS file within minutes - great stuff!

The only comments I have are:
It would be great to be able to specify the slider speed as a user variable - ideally through the Admin backend (I had a look at the php file & couldn't see anything obvious in there)....I feel the speed is a little slow - but I would also love the option of being able to have the content pop down, rather than slide.

Good work fella - keep it up!
byMoonHawk on March 26, 2008
The plugin is very easy to install and works smoothly.

Unfortunately with it has a showstopper bug (which has been reported)

Articles on one page work without a flaw and look smooth. However, when an article is spread over several pages, any sliders on the first page work as expected, but those on subsequent pages appear opened and the toggle link has no effect.

Recommend if you have articles on one page only and wish to use the slider.
bythiago on February 26, 2008
This is truly an excellent plugin. Thanks for providing to the community. It was easy to install and use. I haven't tried the css yet, but will be trying soon.
bylw_d on February 16, 2008
This is a great plugin, just one question, is it possible to use it within modules, I tried it and I couldn't get it working, maybe it could be tweaked though.

All in all, very good plugin.
bykevin3d on September 22, 2007
Works great. At first I had an issue and after emailing the developer I got a fix in 1 hour 10 minutes!! (as of 9/22/2007 download the bata2 version) Thanks, Ian!

Only thing is I kind of had to dig for the instructions which I found in the README.php file, so I'll post them here:

The elements can be styled using CSS. There are three CSS classes: slideTitleLink, slideTitle and slideBox.

INSTALLATION:
1. Download the archive.
2. Install using the Joomla! Extension Installer
3. Publish the plugin

USE:
In your article, add the following around the text that you want to hide:
{beginslide id="..." title="..."}
...
{endslide}

The id can be any sequence of letters or numbers (but no spaces), and the title can be any valid XHTML string.

You can load an external stylesheet by specifying it in the plugin parameters. You must upload the stylesheet to
your Joomla! server and then specify the path based on the main Joomla! directory (i.e. media/sliders.css).
Thanks for writing this plugin, Ian - it's exactly what I need!

Making the "title", link and slider/content box all configurable using css styles is great, and makes it easy to get this to "fit in" to my overall site look & feel.

The only difficulty comes when using a wysiwyg editor that turns "returns" into divs, as the div tag will "escape" the slider and all following content won't be hidden. Using the html view of the article content to make sure the hidden bits have and tags and no div tags, and all is well!