Work on 6.x-2.x has begun. This will see a complete rewrite of the module to move away from the current 'custom content-type' approach and instead, Views will be used to power the Rotor Banner. This way, you can create as many Rotor blocks as you like, each one with their own settings.

To get you started with version 2:

  1. Install the Views module
  2. Install the Rotor module
  3. Create some nodes in what ever way you like (probably cck+imagefield + whatever else. Or, you could just use the Image module that comes with Drupal)
  4. Create a new View
  5. Add a block display to the View
  6. Set the 'Style' of the block to display as 'Rotor'
  7. Set up the Rotor settings - size, speed, effect etc (you set these from within the View settings - click on the settings icon next to the Style setting)
  8. Optionaly create a row template for your new View, to style your items the way you want.

As you can probably see, my idea for version 2 was to get away from having our own dedicated 'Rotor Item' content type and instead, allow people to Rotate through what ever content they like. However, it may be that this makes things a little too difficult for people who just want to quickly set up a rotating banner, and I may end up adding the Rotor Item content type back in for those people. Perhaps the Views style plugin should be an addition to to the existing Rotor Item content-type approach.

I want you to try the new version and compare it to the old one. Tell me:

  • What you like/don't like about each version
  • Which one you prefer
  • What could be done better
  • Anything other ideas you have to make it work better

Comments

WiZeR’s picture

WiZeR commented

Yes I am developing a site for a Magazine and the Editor just wants to have static areas which contain ads and then be able to change the images when he gets new sponsors. I liked the old way Rotor worked, just wanted a way to have 3 or 4 separate instances. This might be a little complicated for him and his team to work out.

That said, I do understand what your saying and I think it's an interesting concept. It just might be a little complicated for ads that are meant to be administered by non-technical users.

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

Try with the latest code in CVS - I have added the Rotor Item content type back in and set up a default View which provides a rotor block ready for use.

slamdunk’s picture

slamdunk commented

Any demo link to get a quick view what it looks like?

excell’s picture

excell commented

I would also like to see a demo before downloading - thanks!

junro’s picture

junro commented

Hello, just testing the 2.0 version^^

Nice module but I don't see the difference with the views slideshow module. Could you give us some advantage?

sk_mamp_nb’s picture

sk_mamp_nb commented

I have tried this and so far it looks great.

@Junro: one difference I noticed between the views slideshow and this module is that (for me) the views slideshow was unable to output fields selectively even when the type was specified as fields rather than node but this module does that brilliantly!

I have a node, created with CCK, that has an image field, I wanted a slideshow running for those images and when clicked I wanted to be directed to the node. I know this module does much more than that but I was tearing my hair out because of my inability to use the other modules effectively for example the views rotator module was starting up by loading all the images before falling into place, (the .clear_block {overflow:hidden} wasn't working for me).

So thank you guys!

pbrough’s picture

pbrough commented

I have been looking at this to solve a problem with a site. The main reason I came to this module first is that I could have tabs, it seems that in 2.x dev tabs are not avaliable (or at least I can't find them) and I would like to have several rotors on the site, at least 5. Does any one know where it has been hidden?

The module is great apart from this, integrating it in to views is great, much easier to configure.(except the tabs)

Cheers
Phil

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

@pbrough: I haven't got round to doing the tabs support for 6.2. Patches welcome! I'll probably get onto it in the next week or three.

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

I have a image size of 120 X 418 which I want to display. But the rotor image displays it in size 120 X 200. How do I change that ? I am not able to find in the new setup in views. But I feel the new rotor with views should be more refined. Sadly I know very little about views. To work I found the earlier rotor easier. Please upload some video tutorials.

Zdenko000’s picture

Zdenko000 commented

Hi,

I have install the module version 6.x-2.x, and it works fine.

But how/where can I define a Link-URL for the showing images ?

e.g.
I have a node type "airport" and there is a image (insert with cck-image).
This images are shown in the view.
Now I want to have a link to the homepage of the airport when I click on the image.

Currently I can only assign a link to the node (in the views settings).

Is there such a possibility ?

Thanks

(and sorry for my bad english :)

bwv’s picture

bwv commented

Brilliant! You can see an example here:

http://drupal123.com (look at the block on the top left).

I would not change a thing. This is terrific work, thank you. Incorporation into Views is outstanding. Clearly, the possibilities with a module like this are limitless. My hat is off to you.

(For the record, at first I had created a view that would filter image items to go in the rotor block. That did not work, so I switched the filter to rotor item, added an image to each rotor item that I created, and that did the trick.)

Ron Chandy’s picture

Ron Chandy commented

Hello

Lately I updated Views, Now the rotor does not work. Is there a bug ? I get only one view. Rotor works well if I do not update views. Any suggestions ?

Ron

tracer76’s picture

tracer76 commented

Hi is there a way/modul to get this rotor with images like this ?
Top
http://www.siba.se/StartPage/StartPage.aspx

tracer76’s picture

tracer76 commented

Hi. For me it works great both in IE 7 and FF 3. Im developing a webshop which will sell styling car parts like turbos
and i have a big advertise banner in top of the page which now is rotating :) but one thing is not working,
the tabs don't show up just simple text. Have i missed something or ?.......
Have a look: www.i-cc.se/turbo

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

tracer76:
Tabs are in the new 6.2 beta release.

tracer76’s picture

tracer76 commented

Hi mrfelton. Thanks for the update, now lets see how it will work :)

tracer76’s picture

tracer76 commented

It says that this is missing when i want to install it
Upload_element (missing) ??

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

I should have put a note about this in the release notes... see #375058: Warnings after Beta1 2.0 for an explanation.

tracer76’s picture

tracer76 commented

Hi again. I cant figure out how to get Tabs to show up or is the tabs only text links ? if so
is there a way to theme them ?

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

@tracer76 - You can turn the tabs on when configuring your rotor block - in the vies page, click on the ajax settings wheel next to where it says "plugin style=Rotor"

The tabs are clickable text links, each wraped wraped in

butler360’s picture

butler360 commented

I saw in another thread you said it might be a good idea to still include the current functionality using custom content types, and I'd agree with that approach. I'd appreciate the additional flexibility of the 2.0 module but I also appreciate the simplicity and ease-of-use of the 1.x version.

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

@butler360: The new beta/latest -dev release does have the the custom content type 'Rotor item', and it has one view with a block already set up to create a rotor block out of them. The rotor block settings are controlled from within the view.

butler360’s picture

butler360 commented

Ah, in that case I'll be trying this out. Thanks.

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

There is a new Rotor2 demo site here: http://rotor2.kirkdesigns.co.uk/
Feedback appreciated.

bwv’s picture

bwv commented

Hi, I have been struggling to get other content types (image, for example) to work in the rotor view. After adding some images to your demo (and seeing that the image dimensions were way off), I decided to experiment. (If I have re-invented the wheel, or otherwise replicated a functionality that I was unaware existed, please let me know.)

I uploaded and activated the imceimage for cck module (the imagefield module is not compatible with some other modular dependencies); then I added a new field to the rotor content type. I also created a taxonomy that applied to the rotor content type (I am building a harry potter site, so the term I am using for this example is Hogwarts).

I then did the following:

Content, create, rotor item. Enter tab text, add an imce image, add the taxonomy that will render this content unique to the block view that I will be creating. Add several rotor items such as these to provide a slide show of sorts that will be in the block.

Create a new view. Add this field: Content: imce image - (field_imceimage) Then add these filters: Node: Type = Rotor item, Taxonomy: Term = Hogwarts

Set the variables in the rotor settings (fade, speed, dimensions of block) then add a block display.

Results are here: http://dracodormiensnunquamtitilland.us/hogwarts-crests

Hope this helps someone.

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

@bwv: What do you mean when you say that the "image dimensions were way off"? Using the Image field provided in the Rotor Item content type, you may upload images at any size you like. You are able to specify the final size of the Rotor block in the Views Rotor configuration for your Rotor block. Altering the size like this, only crops your rotor block content to your chosen size (by applying overflow:hidden to the rotor_items div) - it is your responsibility to ensure your images are the correct size when uploading them. I do intent to add Imagecache support in the next week or so, which will give you a lot more control over the image size.

I fail to understand why you would add you add an imceimage cck field and bypass the provided image upload field...

Adding taxonomy to the Rotor Item content type is a perfectly good way of narrowing down the Rotor items returned in your view. Possibly a better way would be to install the nodequeue module, and use this as a views filter - that would give you control on the exact order that the Rotor items appear in.

bwv’s picture

bwv commented

When I added a rotor image and clicked submit, the image that I added appeared in the block at the upper right sidebar of your demo site. (I acknowledge that I may have not used the demo correctly.) I assumed that this was the default behavior of the demo; I am glad to know that I was mistaken.

Regarding the image upload field, perhaps this problem is unique to me, but I have consistently been unable to create new rotor blocks by using that field. The default rotor block that you included in the module package worked great. When attempting to create new rotor blocks, I could not get the images to display in the view. I too was puzzled by this. Ergo, I added the imceimage cck field.

I will try again, and report back. I will also try the nodequeue module, which sounds like it would be a good fit.

Thanks for writing, I assume this is all operator error, and will be glad to know if this is indeed the case.

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

@bwv: In the demo, creating a new Rotor Item WILL make it show in my Rotor blocks straight away - this is the intended behaviour. Those two blocks are set up to simply rotate through ALL published Rotor Items.

Now, I think there may be some confusion here... You say "I have consistently been unable to create new rotor blocks by using that field". Well, creating a new Rotor Item (weather you use the upload field I provided, or one of your own), does not create a new Rotor block. To create a new block, you must create a new view display which has Style="Rotor" and Row Style="Rotor".

Perhaps the easiest way to create a new rotor block, is to clone the existing view, rather than starting a new view from scratch - this will give you a starting point that you know is good. You can then alter the filters etc to get it to display exactly how you like it.

However, one shortfall of my demo is that, whilst you are able to create new Rotor blocks using the Views interface, you are unable to actually add any blocks that you create to a page region! I'll try and correct that now.

bwv’s picture

bwv commented

Thank you... I understand about the need the create the view first. I think that the principal point of confusion for me was the Row Style="Rotor," and I appreciate you clearing that up. I was trying to add a field to the block view, when in fact that was not necessary; indeed, that appears to have been why the images that I had uploaded with the built in functionality of the rotor item were not appearing as I thought they should. I just tested using your instructions, and it works as you indicate. Apologies if I inadvertently added to anyone's confusion. Regards, david

dddave’s picture

dddave commented

About Views2 Support:

I am trying to get my head around displaying custom made content (other then rotor item content which is no problem due to all the default stuff) rotorstyle. I created a block from an existing view but I cannot figure out how to display the content of three fields (titel+imagefield+textfield) as one rotoritem. Everything I do gets me only the fields as separate items.
Oddly I was able to produce this behaviour: The rotor displays one field after another (titel content 1 -> image content 1-> text content 1-> titel content 2 ->image content 2 and so on). With every display change another grouptag is highlightened so that for titel 1 the correct group tap is marked but when image 1 is displayed the group tap for the second content is marked.

Any hints how to achieve that rotor graps all three fields as one item? Can Rotor2 do this?

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

Seems there was a bug preventing other content from rotating properly. Try with the latest CVS. You have the right idea. It should be as easy as creating whatever view you like, and setting it's Style to 'Rotor'

dddave’s picture

dddave commented

Works like a charm. Thanks a million!

sunshinee’s picture

sunshinee commented

Recently upgraded from the 6.x-1 branch of rotor. No issues so far, and LOVING the views integration, which made an already great module even more flexible. Thanks for the time and effort!

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented

great. I'll wait another week or so to see I anyone has any complaints/problems and then I'll make an official release.

mrfelton’s picture

mrfelton commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Closing this since Rotor2 has been out for a while, and about 50% of Rotor banner user shave already switched.