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

[kenp]

Yes it does

[HellRZR]

Good day,

I have a strange problem that reading all the post and the FAQ I couldn't find n answer. I couldn't get the images to display, my articles where using attachments, I changed the image from attachment to a fixed image via an IMG tag and the image finally showed up. But not, when I select the READ MORE, it points to the wrong link?

The article resides at http://www.mywebsite.com/forums//con...hp?articlename
however the read more link points to :
www.mywebsite.com/content.php?articlename?

Also I would want to change "value/relevance function" to pick up the last 10 articles posted regardless of comments.

Great mod and thank-you for all the support you have been providing.

[initiald]

Is there anyway to make it auto resize to fit when I shrink the browser? Thanks!

[Noli]

Hi,

i get this error in the debug info: Warnung: getimagesize(attachment.php?attachmentid=5073& cid=18) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in [path]/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code (Zeile 133)
Error occurred: picture is not readable.attachment.php?attachmentid=5073&cid=18

if i try to open the attatchment here monkeydesk.at/attachment.php?attachmentid=5073&cid=18 the link gets redirected by vbseo. i think thats the problem. do you have a idea how i can fix this? thx

[AaronMiller]

First, I would like to say thank you for such a fantastic mod.

Second, I was wondering if it is possible to select a specific article (a welcome article) to display first in the rotation and then allow the rest of the articles to be pulled dynamically?

I looked at the FAQs but I didn't see anything quite like this. Thank you for your assistance.

[basilrath]

Just worth mentioning the codeline
PHP Code:
$article_neu['picture'] = '<a href="/content.php?r=' . $article['nodeid'] . '-' . $article['url'] . '"><img src="'.$article['previewimage'].'" alt="" title="#htmlcaption'. $article['nodeid'] . '" /></a>';
youl probably have to drop the r= out for direct links to be achieved correctly

[avitor]

installed all as the guide and i can't make the images to show up
just the image not show
any help to fix this please ?
this steps i dan
1 downloaded and upload the folders and files to the defoult direction as your guide in top of this thread
created widget php direct ->copy and paste the widget cod >edited the bsckground image direction(the background image shows fine.)
my site can find here
www.horadot.co.za

i see in this thread few people have same problem like my one.and the stop to ask after time that the problem not be resolved.
thanks loot for this mod what i m sure that is works fine.just need to know litle more about php
or beter den me
maybe i can ask for professional to help me .i can pay
thanks

[Reycer]

The only thing I can get is the fallback image. I have set the folder to 777 read/write, but nothing no matter what I do I get no image from the articles.

Here's my Debug Message:

DEBUG MODE is ON!
slider_img_filepath: slider/
width: 950 height: 250
Strech or Crop?
show_articles_without_image: bool(false)
fallback_img: slider/uf_fallback_slider.png
#img: 10
description_length: 95
directory /home/content/87/9173587/html

Warning: getimagesize(http://www.xxxx.com/sliderattachment.php?attachmentid=45&cid=24) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in [path]/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code on line 137
Error occurred: picture is not readable.http://www.xxxx.com/sliderattachment.php?attachmentid=45&cid=24

Warning: getimagesize(http://www.xxxx.com/sliderattachment.php?attachmentid=44&cid=24) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in [path]/packages/vbcms/widget/execphp.php(191) : eval()'d code on line 137
Error occurred: picture is not readable.http://www.xxxx.com/sliderattachment.php?attachmentid=44&cid=24
#articles - featured and databasepull int(2) int(2)

[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();        
}

[Reycer]

Figured out that it is my hosting company. I had to rewrite my php.ini file and make a php5.ini. Allowing URL_fopen. So far still hasn't worked though. I'm about to give up on this hosting company and go with another. argh.