vBulletin CMS Widgets - United-Forum Nivo Slider Widget

Based on the Nivo Slider - all credit for slider awesomeness goes to them.
vB4 implementation goes to me.


What it is:
A slider for cms articles, it gets the articles via database, uses (if possible) the previewimage there and resizes it to slider size *update 1.1.0 cropping function included.

Livedemo on a Big Board (>2.000.000 posts)
the nivo slider on our site is customized to fit our heavily customized cms. Default look of this addon is shown in the picture below


facts about the nivo slider

Originally Posted by nivo slider homepage

- ~ 600.000 downloads
- 16 transition effects
- a ton of options
- different available themes
- ...

Installation

• upload all files (attached zip file) in the folder where you do need them - this has to be the same folder you will set via $slider_img_filepath (see picture)
  
  
  
• create a new php-widget and insert the following code:
  

  // DEBUG MODUS !
  $debug_modus = false;
  
  if($debug_modus === false)
  {
  	ob_start();
  }
  
  //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 < $number_of_articles_shown)
              {
  				if($debug_modus == true OR !file_exists($slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $article['nodeid'] . '.jpg'))
  				{
  					//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'] )
  					{                   				
  						$imageinfo = getimagesize($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.
  								echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> imagecreation failed. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
  								$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
  							}
  							else
  							{
  								$img_width = $imageinfo[0];
  								$img_height = $imageinfo[1];							
  								
  								if($crop == false)
  								{									
  									imagecopyresampled($sprite, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $maxwidth, $maxheight, $img_width, $img_height );
  									imagedestroy($image);
  								}
  								else
  								{
  									//cropping
  									$ratiox = $maxheight / $img_height ;
  									$ratioy = $maxwidth / $img_width ;
  									$new_height = $img_height;
  									$new_width = $img_width;
  									
  									if ($maxheight > $img_height OR $maxwidth > $img_width)
  									{
  										if($ratiox > $ratioy)
  										{
  											$new_height = round($img_height * $ratiox);
  											$new_width = round($img_width * $ratiox);
  										}
  										else
  										{
  											$new_height = round($img_height * $ratioy);
  											$new_width = round($img_width * $ratioy);
  										}										
  									}
  									$cropx = $new_height - $maxheight;
  									$cropy = $new_width - $maxwidth;
  									
  									imagecopyresampled($sprite, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $new_width, $new_height, $img_width, $img_height);
  									imagedestroy($image);
  									
  								}
  								
  								
  								$img_filepath = $slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $article['nodeid'] . '.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.
  							echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> picture is not readable.' . $article['previewimage']. '<br /> ';
  							$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
  						}                  
  					}
  					else
  					{
  						//resiziing did not work - we are using the fallback image.
  						echo '<span style="color:red">Warning:</span> article has no previewimage or sprite is no ressource. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
  						$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
  					}
  				}
  				else
  				{
  					//we already have the image, no need to resize or crop anything
  					$article['previewimage'] = $slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $article['nodeid'] . '.jpg';
  				}
  
                  /*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 href="/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '">read on</a>';
                  $article_neu['htmlcaptionname'] = 'htmlcaption' . $article['nodeid'] ;
                  $article_neu['picture'] = '<a href="/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '"><img src="'.$article['previewimage'].'" alt="" title="#htmlcaption'. $article['nodeid'] . '" /></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. 'nivo-slider.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="' .$slider_img_filepath. 'nivo-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();        
  }

• set refresh time to something big!
• save - add the widget to your layout - enjoy

Custom settings:

At the top of the php-widget code you can see the following:

// DEBUG MODUS !
$debug_modus = false;

if($debug_modus === false)
{
	ob_start();
}

//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 = 5;                                
            
//lengh in characters of the article descriptions
$description_length = 95;

If you change $maxwidth and $maxheight you need to edit the nivo-slider_uf_theme.css file, here:

.theme-uf #slider {
    margin:0px auto 0 auto;
    width:650px; /* Make sure your images are the same size */
    height:250px; /* Make sure your images are the same size */
}

Width and height have to be the same value in your php-widget and in the css file.

In additon to these settings i also included a "value/relevance function". Meaning the slider doesn't show your latest 5 articles, but instead weights them based on age and comments.

As older an article is the less likely it will show up in the slider.
More comments make it more likely.

This behaviour can be easily changed. I didn't include an if condition cause every board has different needs and i don't know whats best for you.
In addition conditions like "articles just from this section - or these sections, or this category, with a minimum of 10 posts" can be included via one single if condition. Again, i don't know what your board needs or what your category names are.

You can also modify the preview length (more words, less words), the preview style (color fontsize, fontweight .... Again different forums different needs. It's highly customizable.

Support:

Support and requests for the slider itself should be asked here http://nivo.dev7studios.com/
Same goes for different slider themes - a lot is possible, even thumbnails - again this is part of the nivo slider and not the vb4 implementation.

If you have any questions regarding the settings - or want different settings (which have to do with vb4) - ask, and i'll try to come up with some code // show you where you have to put what.

Slider not working. No idea why?

You will find a FAQ in the first comment, which will be kept up to date:
FAQ

The widget here is completely free. No charge, no branding.
But, we do not mind donations either. If you want to give us something. Since we are advertising free and fan based we are happy about every small donation.
( On Forumhome bottom right paypal button: http://www.united-forum.de/forum.php )



That's all
Hope it works for you.
Regards Mooff

[DoDe]

In opera after installing this add-on my background of the entire website is white even if in doc_background is black.
In explorer, chrome and firefox is ok.
What could be the cause?

[mmoore5553]

I found a weird issue. Everything is working fine but after some time the captions do not show up. There is no text. Anyone else run into this at all ?

[DoDe]

Any chance to get some solution for my problem with the white background of the entire web page on opera browser?

[mmoore5553]

I love this mod but found one error. If you let it just run for awhile it will crash. The text goes away. I think this is an issue with javascript. Is there a way to use built in vb javascript or workaround ?

Also is there a way to just have it on cms homepage ?

[ablaye]

Why does it so long to load the first image??
If you go to my site at http://www.ndakaru.com/ , you can see when you load the page that the box when the slideshow is displayed stays white for a while (a few seconds) before the display starts.
Is there any way to speed this up?

Thanks

[Mooff]

@DoDe
Doesn't happen on our page with opera so without a link to your page it's though to guess what might be happening.

@mmoore5553
that text disapearing bug is a nivo slider bug, not a bug comeing from my vbulletin bridge to the slider.
The FAQ should provide enough hints to switch out the jquery file.
Having widgets just showing up on the homepage and not above articles is independent of the slider. But was already answered somewhere in this thread and multiple times on vb.org. Please do a quick search.

@ablaye
I do not experience this behaviour while loading your site.

[jack-d]

I set this up as is and it worked fine, vB 4.1.8 but I chose to pull from a specific section modifying the code as in this post,

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2233429&postcount=144

After that change I only get the fallback image now. The path is correct and the section ID is correct because it is pulling the title and text of the article but only the fallback picture.

Been reading through this for hours and can't find a solution.

Anyone have any ideas.


EDIT: Fixed, problem with png files I have found out. No transparent bg images because of the effects.

[SRSC]

Originally Posted by jo8jo

Hi, the slider widget works fine for me :up: Great work

One more problem i cannot solve:
I'm using this mod: VBCMS Threads promoted to articles link to forum thread no more article pages to link by clicking "Read more" to the original forum thread - not to the article!

The code in "vbcms_content_article_preview" changes to this:

<vb:if condition="$preview_chopped">
<span class="cms_article_readmore"><a href="{vb:raw vboptions.bburl}/showpost.php?{vb:raw session.sessionurl}p={vb:raw postid}">{vb:rawphrase read_more_phrase} <img src="{vb:stylevar imgdir_cms}/read_more-{vb:stylevar right}.png" alt="{vb:rawphrase read_more_phrase}" /></a>
</span>
</vb:if>

Original code:

<vb:if condition="$preview_chopped">
<span class="cms_article_readmore"><a href="{vb:raw page_url}">{vb:rawphrase read_more_phrase} <img src="{vb:stylevar imgdir_cms}/read_more-{vb:stylevar right}.png" alt="{vb:rawphrase read_more_phrase}" /></a>
</span>
</vb:if>

I want to click on the slider image or preview text and get forwarded to the forum thread - not to the article. I think i need to change the following php codeof the slider widget code to get the effect from above:

<span>'. $article['previewtext'] .'</span> <a href="/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '">More</a>';
                $article_neu['htmlcaptionname'] = 'htmlcaption' . $article['nodeid'] ;
                $article_neu['picture'] = '<a href="/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '">

I would be thankful for your suggestions

you can use my modified code:

// DEBUG MODUS !
$debug_modus = false;

if($debug_modus === false)
{
	ob_start();
}

//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 = 'slider/';   

//picture width and height !same as in the CSS FILE!
$maxwidth = 600;                                  
$maxheight = 300;    

//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 = 5;                                
            
//lengh in characters of the article descriptions
$description_length = 200;

//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,
            article.postid,
            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 < $number_of_articles_shown)
            {
				if($debug_modus == true OR !file_exists($slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $article['nodeid'] . '.jpg'))
				{
					//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'] )
					{                   				
						$imageinfo = getimagesize($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.
								echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> imagecreation failed. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
								$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
							}
							else
							{
								$img_width = $imageinfo[0];
								$img_height = $imageinfo[1];							
								
								if($crop == false)
								{									
									imagecopyresampled($sprite, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $maxwidth, $maxheight, $img_width, $img_height );
									imagedestroy($image);
								}
								else
								{
									//cropping
									$ratiox = $maxheight / $img_height ;
									$ratioy = $maxwidth / $img_width ;
									$new_height = $img_height;
									$new_width = $img_width;
									
									if ($maxheight > $img_height OR $maxwidth > $img_width)
									{
										if($ratiox > $ratioy)
										{
											$new_height = round($img_height * $ratiox);
											$new_width = round($img_width * $ratiox);
										}
										else
										{
											$new_height = round($img_height * $ratioy);
											$new_width = round($img_width * $ratioy);
										}										
									}
									$cropx = $new_height - $maxheight;
									$cropy = $new_width - $maxwidth;
									
									imagecopyresampled($sprite, $image, 0, 0, 0, 0, $new_width, $new_height, $img_width, $img_height);
									imagedestroy($image);
									
								}
								
								
								$img_filepath = $slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $article['nodeid'] . '.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.
							echo '<span style="color:red">Error occurred:</span> picture is not readable.' . $article['previewimage']. '<br /> ';
							$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
						}                  
					}
					else
					{
						//resiziing did not work - we are using the fallback image.
						echo '<span style="color:red">Warning:</span> article has no previewimage or sprite is no ressource. ' . $article['previewimage']. '<br />';
						$article['previewimage'] = $fallback_img;
					}
				}
				else
				{
					//we already have the image, no need to resize or crop anything
					$article['previewimage'] = $slider_img_filepath . 'slide_' . $article['nodeid'] . '.jpg';
				}

                /*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 href="http://yoursite.com/forum/showpost.php?p=' . $article['postid']. '">Xem chi tiết</a>';
                $article_neu['htmlcaptionname'] = 'htmlcaption' . $article['nodeid'] ;
                $article_neu['picture'] = '<a href="http://yoursite.com/forum/showpost.php?p=' . $article['postid']. '"><img src="'.$article['previewimage'].'" alt="" title="#htmlcaption'. $article['nodeid'] . '" /></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. 'nivo-slider.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="' .$slider_img_filepath. 'nivo-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();        
}

Change red text color with your forum url. The result is when you click to preview text or picture it will go to the post that you promoted

[ablaye]

Originally Posted by Mooff

@ablaye
I do not experience this behaviour while loading your site.

Yes, it does take quite a while to load the slides. Go to http://www.ndakaru.com and watch the box that says "A LA UNE". It takes a few seconds for the slides to load.
Any idea on how to make the slides load at the same time as the rest of the site?

[DoDe]

Originally Posted by Mooff

@DoDe
Doesn't happen on our page with opera so without a link to your page it's though to guess what might be happening.

Please take a look on the www.dfgrom.com

I use the standard style to have a better understanding. The vbulletin version is v4.1.8 and the default color of the background should be: #e9e9e9 but it's white. If you look into the source code of the webpage you will notice that there is no white color at all. This is a strange bug only noticed in opera browser.