[tintin74]

Try with this code:

//nivo slider - uf - vb.org version
//set these values as you need them:

//your slider folder - has to be read and writeable
//folder where all slider files are saved
$slider_img_filepath = 'external/unitedforum/slider/';   

//picture width and height !same as in the CSS FILE!
$maxwidth = 650;                                  
$maxheight = 250;    

//do you want images without previewimage to be shown? slider is using the fallback then
$show_articles_without_image = false;           

//picture shown if your articles has no previewpicture
$fallback_img = $slider_img_filepath . 'uf_fallback_slider.png';  

//hardcoded maximum is 20 - if you want more just ask
$number_of_articles_shown = 10;                                
            
//lengh in characters of the article descriptions
$description_length = 95;

//stretch picture or crop them? false = strechting (default) true = cropping (beta)
$crop = false;


//Debug Messages
if($debug_modus)
{
	echo "<span style='color:red;'>DEBUG MODE is ON! </span><br />";
	echo "slider_img_filepath: $slider_img_filepath <br />";
	echo "width: $maxwidth   height: $maxheight <br />";
	echo "Strech or Crop? $crop <br />";
	echo "show_articles_without_image: "; 
        var_dump($show_articles_without_image); 
        echo " <br />";
	echo "fallback_img: $fallback_img <br />";
	echo "#img: $number_of_articles_shown <br />";
	echo "description_length: $description_length <br />";
	echo 'directory ' . DIR . '<br />';

}

$article_type = vb_Types::instance()->getContentTypeID("vBCms_Article");
$time = TIMENOW;
 
if(!extension_loaded('gd'))
{
	echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> Your System does not support the GD-Libary. Please install the GD-Libary.<br />';
}
       
	$article_get = vB::$db->query_read('
        SELECT
            article.pagetext,
            article.previewimage,
            node.url,
            node.publishdate,
            node.parentnode,
            parentnode.url AS parenturl,
            thread.replycount,
            info.title,
            node.nodeid,            
            GROUP_CONCAT( category.category )
        FROM
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'cms_article AS article INNER JOIN
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'cms_node AS node 
                ON (node.contentid = article.contentid AND node.contenttypeid = ' . vb::$db->sql_prepare($article_type) .') INNER JOIN
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'cms_nodeinfo AS info 
                ON info.nodeid = node.nodeid INNER JOIN
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'cms_node AS parentnode 
                ON parentnode.nodeid = node.parentnode LEFT JOIN
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'thread AS thread ON thread.threadid = info.associatedthreadid LEFT JOIN
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'cms_nodecategory AS nodecategory ON nodecategory.nodeid = node.nodeid LEFT JOIN
            '.TABLE_PREFIX.'cms_category AS category ON nodecategory.categoryid = category.categoryid 
        WHERE
            node.setpublish = 1 AND
            node.publishdate > '. vb::$db->sql_prepare($time) .' -34560000 AND
			node.publishdate < '. vb::$db->sql_prepare($time) .'
        GROUP BY node.nodeid
        ORDER BY node.publishdate
        DESC LIMIT 20');
		
    $database_articles = array();
    
    /* my version of sorting the articles via relevance - i'll keep it in case someone is interested*/
    while($article = vB::$db->fetch_array($article_get))
    {
        $article['value'] = ( 5 - ($time - $article['publishdate'] ) / 86400 ) * ( 5 - ($time - $article['publishdate'] ) / 86400 ) * ( 5 - ($time - $article['publishdate'] ) / 86400 ) + (10 * $article['replycount']);
        $database_articles[] = $article;        
    }
    
    foreach($database_articles as $c => $key)
    {
        $sort_value[] = $key['value'];
    }
    
    array_multisort($sort_value, SORT_DESC, $database_articles);    
    
    //
    $i = 0;
    $section_array = array();
    $featured_articles = array();
	
    foreach($database_articles AS $article)
    {

        $section_array[$article['parentnode']]++;

        $categories = explode(',' , $article['GROUP_CONCAT( category.category )']);
     
        if($show_articles_without_image == true OR $article['previewimage'])
        {
            if($section_array[$article['parentnode']] < 50 AND $i < $number_of_articles_shown)
            {
            
                //rebuild image to the height and width we want in the slider 
                //called sprite since i got the code from our sprite addon :P
                $sprite = imagecreatetruecolor($maxwidth, $maxheight);
                if(is_resource($sprite) AND $article['previewimage'] )
					{                   				
                                                if(substr($article['previewimage'],0,10) == 'attachment')
                                                {
                                                       $article['previewimage'] = 'http://www.ilgiramondo.net/forum/' . $article['previewimage'];
                                                };
						$imageinfo = getimagesize($article['previewimage']);
						if(is_array($imageinfo))
						{   
                        $image = null;
                        switch($imageinfo[2])
                        {
                            case IMAGETYPE_PNG:
                            $image = imagecreatefrompng($article['previewimage']);
                            break;
                            case IMAGETYPE_GIF:
                            $image = imagecreatefromgif($article['previewimage']);
                            break;
                            case IMAGETYPE_JPEG:
                            $image = imagecreatefromjpeg($article['previewimage']);
                            break;
                            default:
                            echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> Unknown image format. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
                            break;                        
                        }
                        
                        if(!is_resource($image))
                        {
                            //resiziing did not work - we are using the fallback image.
                            $article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
                            echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> imagecreation failed. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            $img_width = $imageinfo[0];
                            $img_height = $imageinfo[1];
                            
                            imagecopyresampled($sprite, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $maxwidth, $maxheight, $img_width, $img_height );
                            imagedestroy($image);

                            $img_filepath = $slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $i . '.jpg';
                            $success = imagejpeg($sprite, DIR  . ($img_filepath[0] != DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR ?  DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR : '') . $img_filepath);
                            imagedestroy($sprite);
							if($success)
							{
								$article['previewimage'] = $img_filepath;
							}
							else
							{
								$img_filepath = DIR  . ($img_filepath[0] != DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR ?  DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR : '') . $img_filepath;
								echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> imagejpeg failed. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />
								directory: '. $img_filepath ;
								
								$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
							}
                        }
                        
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        //resiziing did not work - we are using the fallback image.
                        $article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
                        echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> picture is not readable.' . $article['previewimage']. '<br /> ';
                    }                  
                }
                else
                {
                    //resiziing did not work - we are using the fallback image.
                    $article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
                    echo '<span style="color:red">Warning:</span> article has no previewimage or sprite is no ressource. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
                }
        

                /*remove everything from the previewtext - html and bb. I do not want bold or colored text there. Cut to a decent length.*/        
                $article['pagetext'] = strip_bbcode($article['pagetext'], true, true, false, true, false);

                $article['previewtext'] = strip_tags($article['pagetext'], '<a>');
                    
                $len = $description_length;
                if ( strlen($article['previewtext']) > $len )
                {                    
                    $article['previewtext'] = substr( $article['previewtext'] , 0 , strrpos( substr( $article['previewtext'], 0, $len), ' ' ));
                }   

                $i++;
                //Build Array
                $article_neu = array();
                $article_neu['description'] = '<h2 style="font-weight:bold; font-size: 14px">'. $article['title'].'</h2><span>'. $article['previewtext'] .'</span> <a rel="nofollow" href="/forum/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '">Leggi Tutto...</a>';
                $article_neu['htmlcaptionname'] = 'htmlcaption' . $i ;
                $article_neu['picture'] = '<a rel="nofollow" href="/forum/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '"><img src="'.$article['previewimage'].'" alt="" title="#htmlcaption'. $i . '" /></a>';
                
                $featured_articles[] = $article_neu;
            }
        }
    }
    
    //Randomize Array
    //shuffle($featured_articles);

	//Debug Messages
	if($debug_modus)
	{
		echo '#articles - featured and databasepull ';
		var_dump(count($featured_articles));
		var_dump(count($database_articles));
	}

    
$output_bits = '
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="' .$slider_img_filepath. 'slider.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="' .$slider_img_filepath. 'slider_uf_theme.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
    <div style="height:' . $maxheight . 'px;">
    <div id="wrapper">
        <div class="slider-wrapper theme-uf">
            <div class="ribbon"></div>
            <div id="slider" class="nivoSlider">';
            
                foreach($featured_articles AS $article)
                {
                    $output_bits .= $article['picture'];
                }
            $output_bits .= '
            </div>';
            
            foreach($featured_articles AS $article)
            {
                $output_bits .= '<div id="' . $article['htmlcaptionname'] . '" class="nivo-html-caption">' . $article['description'] .'</div>';
            }
            
            $output_bits .= '         
        </div>

    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="' .$slider_img_filepath. 'jquery-1.6.1.min.js"></script>
    
    <script type="text/javascript" src="' .$slider_img_filepath. 'jquery.nivo.slider.pack.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    $(window).load(function() {
        $("#slider").nivoSlider();
    });
    </script>
    </div>
    ';
        $output = $output_bits;
 
if($debug_modus === false)
{
	ob_end_clean();        
}