ARCHIVE: Views Carousel

unfortunately the title says all...

after messing around for hours, i couldn't find PROPER documentation, so i HAD to resort to invent my documentation and in the process, invent my method as well
it is really a unclean BUT working method, for creating custom skins

instructions are the following:

first, we need to edit jcarousel module...
- navigate to jcarousel module directory (/sites/all/modules/jcarousel)
- edit jcarousel.module as following:
_____________________replace this____________________
// Add the skin CSS if it hasn't been added yet.
if (!isset($jcarousel_added['skin'][$skin])) {
if ($skin == 'tango' || $skin == 'ie7') {
drupal_add_css("$jcarousel/jcarousel/skins/$skin/skin.css");
}
elseif (!empty($skin_path)) {
drupal_add_css($skin_path, 'theme');
}
$jcarousel_added['skin'][$skin] = TRUE;
}
_____________________with this____________________
// Add the skin CSS if it hasn't been added yet.
if (!isset($jcarousel_added['skin'][$skin])) {
if ($skin == 'tango' || $skin == 'ie7') {
drupal_add_css("$jcarousel/jcarousel/skins/$skin/skin.css");
}
elseif (!empty($skin_path)) {
drupal_add_css($skin_path, 'theme');
}
else {
drupal_add_css("$jcarousel/jcarousel/skins/$skin/skin.css");
}
$jcarousel_added['skin'][$skin] = TRUE;
}
_________________________________________________
the else clause i added will force jcarousel to map other skin names to their respective paths inside the skins dir.
it will make sure you can add as much custom skins as you want.

following this, we deploy our new skin...
- navigate to jcarousel subdirectory and then skins (/sites/all/jcarousel/jcarousel/skins)
- here create a directory for your new skin and put the files inside
OR
- if you haven't created them yet, duplicate for example, tango to another directory name, and edit the skin as you please
(make sure you edit the directory, files and classes names (inside the skin.css) to match all the same name. use no spaces)

after this, it's time to edit viewscarousel module...
- navigate to viewscarousel module directory (/sites/all/viewscarousel)
- edit viewscarousel.module as following:
_____________________replace this____________________
function options_form(&$form, &$form_state) {
parent::options_form($form, $form_state);
$form['skin'] = array(
'#type' => 'select',
'#title' => t('Skin'),
'#default_value' => $this->options['skin'],
'#options' => array('ie7' => t('IE7'), 'tango' => t('Tango'), 'custom' => t('Custom')),
);
_____________________with this____________________
function options_form(&$form, &$form_state) {
parent::options_form($form, $form_state);
$form['skin'] = array(
'#type' => 'select',
'#title' => t('Skin'),
'#default_value' => $this->options['skin'],
'#options' => array('ie7' => t('IE7'), 'tango' => t('Tango'), 'your_skin_directory_name' => t('your_skin_name'), 'custom' => t('Custom')),
);
_________________________________________________
replace your_skin_directory_name and your_skin_name.
this piece of code adds your skin to the views carousel skin list.

- last... test it!

the versions i used are:
jcarousel 6.x-1.1
views carousel 6.x-2.x-dev (2010-07-11)
drupal 6.17

One of the (undocumented) carousel view style options is to use a skin of "custom". If you select that, it will remove the skin identifiers, so you won't see ".jcarousel-skin-tango" on any of the blocks. You still get the other .jcarousel identifiers, however, so you can just add the appropriate rules to your site's CSS file.

To get this working, set the view's skin to "custom." Then make a copy of the "skin.css" file in the Tango skin's folder, and delete every instance of ".jcarousel-skin-tango". (Example: ".jcarousel-theme-tango .jcarousel-container" becomes just ".jcarousel-container") Then copy & paste the contents of that file into one of your theme's CSS files, or otherwise load it directly within your theme.

Unfortunately, the option to add a custom css class to the view doesn't work with this module, so it's not very easy to have different skins for different carousels on your site. But you could certainly theme the view and add additional selectors.