How to show blocks or views using nodecarousel...

I posted a few details here about how I created the second site you referenced. However, the setup is not trivial. The Nodecarousel project page states that the module provides An easy-to-use method for displaying nodes using the jCarousel library for jQuery. This is true, but should include assuming you're familiar with Drupal, Node Queue, theme overrides, PHP, and CSS. If any of this is new territory for you, then implementing NodeCarousel will be an ambitious project. It's a highly customizable module, but it's not a drop-in solution (like some of the Joomla modules that provide this capability). If that's what you're looking for, then you can probably stop reading now.

The Node Queue module simply gives you the ability to designate which nodes will appear in the carousel. Get comfortable with the operation of this module before trying to use it with a carousel. The nodes in the carousel are standard story nodes. I used CCK to add fields to the story content type. One field is a URL to the image used in the node, and another field is a URL that the picture links to. I could have used the ImageField and ImageCache modules here, but I chose to go this route instead.

In my node.tpl.php template, I detect the presence of data in these fields, and then display the picture as a link to the CCK link field... here's an excerpt:

<?php if ($node->field_story_image[0]['value']) { ?>
  <?php if ($node->field_story_image_url[0]['value']) { ?>
    <a href="<?php print $node->field_story_image_url[0]['value'] ?>">
  <?php } ?>
  <img class="story-pic" src="<?php print $node->field_story_image[0]['value'] ?>" title="<?php print $node->field_image_description[0]['value'] ?>"/>
  <?php if ($node->field_story_image_url[0]['value']) { ?>
    </a>
  <?php } ?>
<?php } ?>

The CSS for the node carousel block is fairly simple:

.jcarousel-container-horizontal {
	width:auto;
	border: none;
}

.block-nodecarousel ul {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

.block-nodecarousel {
	border-top: 5px solid #002E5B;
	border-bottom: 5px solid #002E5B;
	padding-top: 5px;
	margin-bottom: 15px;
}

.block-nodecarousel .node.odd img.story-pic {
float:left;
margin-right: 8px;
margin-left: 0px;
}

View the CSS from the popsci site for another theming example.

All of this is within the context of a custom theme that I created to match the ZenPhoto theme used for the picture galleries on the site.

As mentioned in my previous post, there are problems with IE6 when viewing this site. Additionally, Michelle mentions that she had problems viewing the site in Opera. My own testing with Opera doesn't show a problem. But she's smarter than me, so I probably overlooked something. For this particular site, it's not enough of a concern to warrant fixing it... the target audience is a small group of family members who are using less problematic browsers. If I were using the module on a site that targeted a wider audience, I would want to make these other browsers work.

BTW, this is probably more of a Post-Installation topic than a Drupal Showcase topic.