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I'm looking for some advice on a suitable module to satisfy the following requirements: Essentially what I am trying to create is the ability for someone to add slides and layers for a Layer-Based Slider.

-Each slide would have it's own set of field definitions.
(eg. bg image, link, speed, transition, bgpositoin, bgfit, etc.)

-Each layer would have it's own set of field definitions.
(eg. start, end, easing, x-pos, y-pos, etc.)

-Each layer could be a child of any slide

I have already implemented something like this using ListIt2 and ListIt2 Xlink to link an LI2 instance of Slides and an LI2 instance of Layers, but I'm not that thrilled with the solution.

My other thought was to just build a hierarchy of pages to act as slides, with child pages acting as layers. A slide page would use a specific template containing content blocks acting as field definitions, and a layer page would use a different template containing content blocks acting as the field definitions pertaining to layers. This would be better than the LI2 solution, but I would rather use a module than the core page functionality if at all possible.

I also looked at the cataloger module which I believe is perfectly suited to this purpose, except there are quite a few bugs with it, and it hasn't been updated in a while.

Any other suggestions?

caciavar wrote:I also looked at the cataloger module which I believe is perfectly suited to this purpose, except there are quite a few bugs with it, and it hasn't been updated in a while.

Have you tested it? What are the bugs you are referring to, and how do they interfere with what you are trying to do. The module hasn't been updated in a while mainly because it works (even with a few minor bugs), and because I'm aiming to make some major work on it for a CMSMS 2.0 compatible release. Time being scarce, I still didn't get to finish all I had in mind.

Thanks Fernando,

I did test it, but I found that the links to image thumbnails (both placeholders and uploaded images) were broken.

I just went back and re-tested and found that the links are actually OK. I'm not sure why I encountered that the first time (maybe I didn't download the latest version?), but it seems to be OK now.

I think I may proceed with Cataloger, but if anyone else has any other suggestions or tips/tricks for implementing a layer slider, they would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

caciavar wrote:I did test it, but I found that the links to image thumbnails (both placeholders and uploaded images) were broken.

It is a bug indeed, but with an easy fix: just add the url/path entries to the config.php. Will be fixed on next release.

Sounds great. Thanks for that!

What is your issue with using LI2 as a solution? That is what I would recommend.

Thanks,
Jeff

I just don't find it that clean. I don't like having to switch between instances to add layers and slides.

You could set it up in one module, with a dropdown field that selects the type of record that the entry is. Then set the template to display different fields depending on which type is selected.

Or possibly the better solution (so you don't have the unused fields) is to keep them separate modules but to modify the admin templates so that they link to the other module and you have better access between modules.

Thanks,
Jeff