Include in jCarousel module
quicksketch - October 18, 2007 - 01:46
| Project: | Carousel Panel Style |
| Version: | 5.x-1.x-dev |
| Component: | Documentation |
| Category: | task |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | Wim Leers |
| Status: | closed |
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Description
Hey Wim, this is a great expansion to panels, but I'm finding the winding dependency list daunting (from the guy that wrote cck_slideshow (3 dependencies in that one!).
Since this module is so directly tied to jCarousel, do you think it'd be feasible to include it with the jCarousel module directly? It's a common practice for a main module to provide functionality optionally if other modules are installed:
<?php
if (module_exists('panels')) {
include('panels.inc');
}
?>Basically rename panels_carousel.module to panels.inc and drop it in the jCarousel module directory. What do you think?
#1
Since I really wanted jCarousel to be a small, stand-alone developer-ish module only, I decided to do it this way. I know both modules are small, but I think the granularity is good in this case. Especially since the jCarousel plugin isn't the most stable jQuery plugin there is (I could make Carousel Panel Style a different jQuery plugin, such as jCarousel Lite).
What we really need IMHO is some sort of general jQuery Plugin Collection module.
P.S.: do you have any experience with jCarousel and dynamic loading/removing of items? I have failed to get it to work properly.
#2
Small modules are all fine, but there's no penalty if panels module isn't installed for including it all in one package. Because jCarousel module is so small, I avoid using it altogether, until I find that it's a dependency for a module that actually does something, like this one. Think if CCK had separate projects for every module implementation they support: content_pathauto and content_views would be separate projects. It wouldn't make any sense there to have to download 3 projects just to get CCK working completely.
This is the same, smaller case. jCarousel has this panels integration, which should be wrapped up in the central module. If jCarousel views integration were written (allowing a jCarousel block or something), that'd be part of the module also.
Btw, I haven't tried jCarousel with dynamic load (yet). I'll keep you posted if I implement it somewhere.
#3
Just to let you know that I agree now.
I'll merge several modules:
jstools' tabs module (I will become co-maintainer) + panels_tabs (mine) + views_tabs (nedjo's) + cck_fieldgroup-tabs (nedjo's) = tabs (nedjo & me)
jcarousel (mine) + panels_carousel (mine) + views_carousel (mine, unfinished, *with dynamic loading*) = carousel
We couldn't get dynamic loading to work properly, or at least the caching part (i.e. only keep a limited number of items in the carousel to not slow the carousel down too much). I'm in touch with the jCarousel author about this.
#4
Awesome, thanks Wim. I think from the simplicity side, a single module for all jCarousel functionality makes sense. Especially because if I'm not using panels, I don't feel the need for using jcarousel module at all.
I tried pretty hard to get this working also with mild success. The biggest problem I had was trying to start the paging in the middle of the list (i.e. The ajax behavior only worked when clicking the right arrrow).
Anyway, great to hear that it's all going to be bundled up.
#5
For us, the problem was the caching part, *not* the dynamic loading part (I guess you quoted the wrong part :). I.e. we wanted the carousel to only keep the current set of viewed items, the previous, and the next. The other items would go to "storage" and loaded in again when requested. This messed up jCarousel in all sorts of ways...
I hope I'll find the time somewhere in the next few weeks to cooperate with the author to get this fixed, or to even get this functionality in jCarousel itself.
Didn't you experience big slowdowns after a lot of items have been loaded?
P.S.: that views_bookmark patch isn't forgotten... I'll force myself to do it this weekend ;) :)
#6
#7
#8
I've heard others tell me the exact opposite of this. Since nobody else has been feeling strongly about this, I'm closing this. Sorry that I never found the time to get this done!