Comparison of Rotator / Slider modules

This page came about as a result of this post in the Duplicated Modules Hall of Shame group. The linked post lists several modules that provide either tabbed content or rotating content. I see two general use cases here:

• A device to provide access to large amounts of regular site content from one area of the page (tabbed content).
• A device to showcase featured content, often on the home page, in an eye-catching manner (rotating /sliding content).

I am limiting this comparison page to the latter use case. My own module, Quick Tabs, was included in the original list linked to above, but as it does not provide any real rotator or slideshow type functionality, I am leaving it out here. It is open to discussion whether the ideal eventual outcome of any consolidation between the best features of the best of the modules would be a package that includes both types of feature.

Available Modules

There are many modules that provide some sort of slideshow / rotator functionality.

• Dynamic display block - Enables you to create and present blocks of content in a dynamic way. Uses the jQuery Cycle Plug-in.
• Views Rotator - a Views style plugin using the Cycle jQuery plugin with a small number of options for controlling transition behaviour.
• Views Cycle - a Views style plugin using the Cycle jQuery plugin, with an option for tabs, several transition effect options and other transition behavior settings.
• Views Slideshow - a Views style plugin using its own JavaScript for the rotation, also including a tabs option and a small number of transition behavior options. The Drupal 6 (dev) version is an extensible API that allows other cycles, rotators, and carousels to plug into the module, so they don't need to recreate the Views functionality.
• Views Slideshow: ImageFlow - offers an ImageFlow option to Views Slideshow, similar to Apple's CoverFlow.
• Slideshow Creator - adds an input format filter to allow you to add slideshow creation code to the body of a node. This module has been deprecated
• Featured Content Slider - select nodes based on content type and create up to 3 blocks of featured content.
• Slider - create a "slider" content type with a multi-value nodereference field to create carousel-style sliders of the referenced nodes.
• EasySlider - create a list-style view with a block display and the view results are displayed in a carousel style slider.
• Node Carousel - create carousels of nodes based on nodequeue or custom values using a hook in your own module.
• Views Carousel - a Views style plugin using the jCarousel jQuery plugin for the rotation, suitable for e.g. a scrollable thumbnail viewer.

Other modules that I should probably include here when I have time:

• Views Accordion - a Views style plugin using the Accordion jQuery plugin

Other modules that I will not be looking at:

• Couloir Slideshow - this seems more like a Lightbox gallery type solution... without the Lightbox.
• Frontpage Slideshow - this requires a paid 3rd party library.
• CCK Multimage - a fork of the abandoned CCK Slideshow module which creates slideshows from multivalue imagefields. Only available for Drupal 5

Overview

Module Overview

Module	5.x	6.x	Documentation	Demo Site	Last Update
Dynamic display block			ddblock.myalbums.biz Handbook page README.txt	http://ddblock.myalbums.biz	2009-Feb-26
Views Rotator			README.txt	http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/	2008-Dec-16
Views Cycle			README.txt	http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/	2009-Mar-20
Views Slideshow			Handbook page (5.x only) README.txt	http://drupalhub.org/videos	2009-Mar-30
Views Slideshow: ImageFlow			README.txt	http://finnrudolph.de/ImageFlow	2009-Mar-30
Slideshow Creator			Handbook page README.txt	http://www.malsup.com/jquery/cycle/	Deprecated
Featured Content Slider			README.txt	www.iGadgets.be/ (Example site)	2009-Jan-10
Carousel style modules
Slider			README.txt	http://jqueryfordesigners.com/demo/coda-slider.html	2009-Mar-06
EasySlider	dev	dev	README.txt	http://mulpo.com/	2009-Feb-04
Views Carousel	dev	dev	Handbook page README.txt	http://sorgalla.com/jcarousel/	2008-Dec-16
Node Carousel		dev	README.txt	http://sorgalla.com/jcarousel/	2008-Apr-19

Feature Overview

This feature comparison is based on a spreadsheet done by stephthegeek.
For the purposes of discussion and comparison of these modules I'm going to use the word tab to refer to "the bit that you click on to switch to the next piece of content" - in many of the rotator modules this is refered to as a thumbnail.

Module	Tabs	Tab content	Main content	Nav links	Behaviour options	Styles included
Dynamic display block		Numbers, prev/next, links, images, custom	Image folder, node, nodequeue, blocks, views		Speed, timeout, all jcycle effects, custom, etc.	5 ddblock themes included, commercial themes available
Views Rotator			Output of a View	Optional	Speed, pause on hover	None
Views Cycle		Choose a field from your View	Output of a View		Speed, numerous effects, event trigger	One skin provided
Views Slideshow		Title and teaser of the node	Output of a View		Speed, fade effect, sort order	None
Views Slideshow: ImageFlow		Image and Link	Output of a View (Images only)		Slider, Aspect Ratio, Cursor, Start Position	None
Slideshow Creator			Images that you manually select		None	None
Featured Content Slider		Numbers	Nodes of a chosen type		Animation speed, animation direction	None
Carousel style modules
Slider		Node titles	Nodes from a multi-value CCK noderef field		None	None
EasySlider			Output of a View		None	None
Views Carousel			Output of a View		Speed, orientation, easing effect	Two skins provided
Node Carousel			Based on nodequeue or custom content	Optional	Speed, orientation	None

Detailed Analysis

Dynamic display block

Benefits over other modules:

• Multiple input possibilities: Images from a folder, node, Nodequeue, Blocks (e.g recent comments), Views
• 5 example themes available with number pager, prev/next pager, link pager, image pager and image/link pager
• Commercial themes available
• Examples available of different settings
• Well documented
• In advanced slideshows you make fields available to the ddblock themes via preprocess functions (flexible)

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• Ajax loading of content
• Support for more jquery plugins as output
• Not available as views style plugin
• In advanced slideshows you have to make fields available to the ddblock themes via preprocess functions

Of note:

• Uses the jQuery Cycle plugin

In summary:
Flexible module with multiple input options. Most needed settings of jQuery Cycle plugin configurable in configuration page, otherwise you can use custom jQuery Cycle plugin settings field to set other settings. Can work together with jQuery Easing plugin. For tabbed content easy to combine with Quicktabs module.

Views Rotator

Benefits over other modules:

• Simple to install (doesn't require downloading a plugin as it's included in the module)
• Very clean and smooth UX
• This useful feature is achieved in very few lines of code - the module files are few and short.

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• The options are very limited.
• It includes the jQuery Cycle plugin at the start of its own js file, which seems less than ideal to me - but given that there currently is no real solution for jQuery Plugin management in Drupal as yet, it's probably no worse than any other way of doing it.

Of note:

• This is a Views style plugin
• Uses the jQuery Cycle plugin

In summary:
This is quite a minimalist approach to the rotating Views idea. There are no transition effect options and - most significantly - no tabs. Otherwise, it is a very clean solution.

Views Cycle

Benefits over other modules:

• Optional tabs that can be configured to hold the output of any field from your View.
• Offers all the transition effects that come with the full jQuery Cycle plugin as options
• If using tabs, you can choose whether the transition happens on hover or click of the tabs.
• Straight-forward configuration

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• Need to download the jQuery Cycle plugin separately, which some may find awkward.
• No prev/next links
• The skin that's provided with the module is quite buggy. Also, regardless of skin option, the output behaves strangely with regard to the ordered/unordered list of the main content - the first item gets its bullet or number displayed and the others don't.

Of note:

• This is a Views style plugin
• Uses the jQuery Cycle plugin

In summary:
Views Cycle is a pretty powerful variation on the rotatable Views theme. The configurable tabs are a huge plus. Unfortunately they don't as yet work with combined fields - see this issue.

Views Slideshow

Benefits over the other modules:

• Extensible API
• Has an option for tabs
• Seems like it is highly configurable for different use cases.

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• Configuration options are quite confusing
• Lacking the generous selection of transition effects that Views Cycle provides, this module only provides fade or nothing, though that's probably enough for most people's needs. (However, as future plugins to Views Slideshow are made available, this should be alleviated.)
• Tab content is not configurable

Of note:

• This is a Views style plugin
• Uses its own js for the rotation
• Has an API that allows other plugins to extend the functionality

In summary:
This module seems a little rough around the edges and could do with some clearer directions on the configuration screen. I didn't know what I should set things to at first as I didn't understand what the options meant. I played around with the settings a bit and realised that "Slideshow Mode: Thumbnail hover" means that you can have tabs that trigger the rotation, they do this on hover, and they contain the title and teaser of the node. Except that when I tried it with a View that was outputting just title and an imagefield, the thumbnails contained the title and the imagefield and the rotating content consisted of title and teaser, which is not the expected behaviour. There's also a "Mouse hover" option which has one single radio button, "hover", but it seems there would be other options if the "Hover Intent" module were installed and enabled. Overall, highly configurable but not a very intuitive interface.

Views Slideshow: ImageFlow

Benefits over other modules:

• Implements a CoverFlow-like slideshow
• Uses the API offered by Views Slideshow and Drupal.behaviors, so it's lightweight

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• Requires a third-party JavaScript plugin, which has a small fee for commercial uses
• The "reflection" option normally offered by the plugin is not currently available

Slideshow Creator

Of note:

• Uses jQuery Plugin module to add the Cycle plugin.

In summary:
This module is a very rudimentary solution to the slideshow idea. It involves creating a new input format so that you can place code like this into your node body:

With the other options out there I woudn't see much point in using something like this.

Featured Content Slider

Of note:

• Creates up to 3 blocks of sliding nodes
• Uses its own js code which is not jQuery

In summary:
This pulls nodes of a given type into a slider block. You can create up to 3 blocks using different node types for each. The JavaScript code suggests there is ajax loading functionality but I did not manage to see this in action. Also, the js code is needlessly bulky as it does not leverage jQuery at all, never mind jQuery plugins. Otherwise, a fairly smooth UX.

Slider

Of note:

• Uses its own js in conjunction with jQuery.scroll.js to achieve a carousel effect.

In summary:
There's a fair bit of set-up involved here to create a slideshow and it's based on CCK multi-value nodereference fields. Not very flexible.

Easy Slider

Of note:

• Uses the Easy Slider jQuery plugin, which ships with the module.

In summary:
Very similar to Slider, except that it works with Views.

Views Carousel

Benefits over the other modules:

• Easy set-up
• Provides good basic styles

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• Easing effect option is a textfield with directions sending user to a jQuery docs page for options; one has to scroll down and search to eventually find this: 'There are two built-in values, "linear" and "swing".' - one would expect more options when being sent all the way to another site to find out what they are.

Of note:

• This is a Views style plugin
• Uses the jCarousel jQuery plugin

In summary:
A good, clean UI with straight-forward configuration options, an exemplary implementation of the jCarousel jQuery plugin for Drupal sites.

Node Carousel

Benefits over the other modules:

• Apparently has an AJAX option (untested)

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

• The module is not well maintained and the documentation is out of date.
• No functional 6.x version available - looks like development simply stopped on this before it was ready
• No Views integration

Of note:

• Works with Nodequeue
• Uses the jCarousel jQuery plugin

In summary:
I spent a lot of time trying to get this to work in 6.x. There is either a cvs tagging problem or a lack of adequate documentation: - the jcarousel plugin does not come with this module although it exists in CVS, and there are no instructions as to where to get it or where to put it. I stuck the plugin into the module directory and still my Nodecarousel did not do anything. Also there were numerous php notices.

Bottom line

I keep coming across remarks like this in project descriptions and issue queues:
- "EasySlider is being developed into a views plugin"
- "I'm thinking of rejiggering it as a views extension" (Nodecarousel)
- "I am planing its integration with Views" (Featured Content Slider)
and feel like shouting "Somebody STOP THEM!!!!" Seriously, there has already been so much duplicated effort here, it's time for that to stop and for some consolidation to happen. Within the somewhat broad use case of eye-catching, rotating content, I see at MOST two distinct use cases, meaning justification for at MOST two modules here:

1. Passive User: throw featured content at them while they're on your front page
2. Active User: allow users to navigate / scroll through content to find what they're looking for (e.g. thumbnail images in a gallery)

The modules that I think best exemplify these two use cases are {Views Cycle OR Views Rotator} and Views Carousel respectively. There's no reason why features from Views Rotator / Views Cycle / Views Slideshow couldn't be incorporated into one module and likewise with all the carousel/slider-type modules for the latter use case.

My exploration of these modules also highlighted for me the dire need for a standard way of including jQuery plugins, as per this thread. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could just choose "jQuery plugin" as your Views style and then in the settings for that style you would choose which plugin to use, e.g. Cycle, Accordion or Carousel. Of course there are different config options for each of those but... maybe getting closer to that ideal isn't too wacky an idea.