This page came about as a result of this post that lists Tabs and Slideshow Modules in the Similar Module Review group. The linked post lists several modules that provide either tabbed content or rotating content.
There are 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).

This comparison page is limited to the latter use case. 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.

Also, note a caution about misusing carousels: http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/

Most popular modules overview

There are many modules that provide some sort of slideshow / rotator functionality, so it can be difficult to decide which one to use. The most popular are shown below; there may be other less popular modules which meet your specific needs more fully, but looking first at the most popular is a good place to start. The actual number of installs for all the rotator/slider modules is shown in the table further down the page (Note: the number of installs changes weekly, and so you should check the actual number of installs on the individual project pages).

  • Views Slideshow a Views style plugin using jquery cycle. Provides 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.
  • jCarousel This module allows developers and themers to make use of the jCarousel jQuery plugin. It includes a developer API that other modules can use, as well as Views integration in the 2.0 version so that you can turn any list of content or images into a carousel.
  • Flex slider provides a client-side automatic adaptation of the slides size according to the window size (Responsive). Can work with the Views module. Poor documentation.

Other available modules overview

The following modules do not have as many installs as those listed above, but they all provide some sort of slideshow / rotator functionality.

  • Dynamic display block Enables you to create and present blocks of content in a dynamic and attractive way. Uses the jQuery Cycle Plug-in.
  • Views Slideshow Liquid Slider A fully responsive, HTML5 jQuery content slider for both web and mobile devices.
  • Backstretch This module provides a field formatter and Context integration for jQuery Backstretch - A simple jQuery plugin that allows you to add a dynamically-resized, slideshow-capable background image to any page or element.
  • Content Glider Another jQuery plugin for image slider, very easy to use.
  • Juicebox This module provides an integration between the Juicebox HTML5 responsive gallery library and Drupal. Juicebox is in many ways the successor of Simpleviewer and offers a powerful and flexible image gallery front-end.
  • Views Nivo Slider a Views style plugin using the Nivo style slider. Drupal 6 version requires imagecache, imagefield and jquery update.
  • Views Slideshow: Dynamic display block a Views slideshow plugin which enables you to present slideshows in an attractive way.
  • Views Slideshow Xtra is an enhancement module for Views Slideshow, providing the ability to create animated slideshow overlays. This module can also help automate the creation of any Drupal 7 Views Slideshow, using the Views Slideshow Xtra Example sub-module, which creates a Slide content type, a default Slideshow View, and example Slide nodes.
  • 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 and other text fields.
  • Featured Content Slider - select nodes based on content type and create up to 3 blocks of featured content.
  • Views Fraction Slider - select fields base formatting and allows you to animate multiple elements per slide. Set different animation methods like fade or (from) left, delays and easing for each element, or simple set some defaults in the plugin options. You also have full layout/design control through html and css (every html-element can be animated).
  • Slider - create a "slider" content type with a multi-value nodereference field to create carousel-style sliders of the referenced nodes.
  • Ajax Slideshow - Sequential presentation of any of the site nodes, using various effects. The slideshow is ajax-based which means the page load-time is agnostic to the amount of content included.
  • Media Nivo Slider - Provides the ability to expose the content of a Media Gallery to a Nivo Slider block.
  • Nivo formatter - Nivo formatter is an image field formatter that transform any image field
    to awesome Nivo Slider image gallery.
  • Nivo Slider - Nivo Slider is a stand-alone solution for creating a simple slideshow for your website.
  • Owl Carousel - Owl Carousel provides a modern feature rich responsive slider.
  • ResponsiveSlides - Provides a responsive slideshow style option for Views using the super-lightweight (1kb) ResponsiveSlides.js plugin.
  • Views Ticker - Provides a style for Views module to display scrolling tickers. Horiztonal, vertical, fade in/out, and a "typing" style are provided.
  • Views Slideshow Cycle2 - Updates Views Slideshow from Cycle to Cycle2. You get responsive design, lazy loading, and a few other improvements. Views Slideshow Cycle2 uses jQuery Cycle2, a module you can use from any module or theme code. Beta testers welcome.
  • Slick Carousel - A full-featured views and field formatter that handles responsive images and video.
  • Extra Block Types (EBT): Slideshow - module provides ability to add an EBT block with FlexSlider.
  • Extra Block Types (EBT): Slick Slider - module provides ability to add an EBT block with Slick Slider.
  • Extra Block Types (EBT): Carousel - module provides ability to add an EBT block with provides ability to add a block with Tiny Slider.
  • Mega Slider (MD Slider) Easy solution for any slider on your website. Mega Slider (MD Slider) is responsive slider module with touch-swipe navigation. Friendly admin user interface and powerful timeline manager, you can add text, image or video and create fancy slider. Highly customizable slider for Drupal ^9 || ^10.

Deprecated modules

  • Coda Slider - A nice jQuery plugin for image slider and support thumbnail navigator. Deprecated - maintainer recommends Content Glider instead.
  • Views Carousel - a Views style plugin using the jCarousel jQuery plugin for the rotation, suitable for e.g. a scrollable thumbnail viewer. Deprecated - maintainer recommends jcarousel
  • Views Rotator - a Views style plugin using the Cycle jQuery plugin with a small number of options for controlling transition behaviour. Deprecated - maintainer recommends Views Slideshow instead.
  • 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. Deprecated - maintainer recommends Views Slideshow instead.
  • EasySlider - create a list-style view with a block display and the view results are displayed in a carousel style slider. Maintainer recommends Views Slideshows instead.
  • Node Carousel - create carousels of nodes based on nodequeue or custom values using a hook in your own module. Maintainer recommends Views Carousel instead.
  • CCK Multimage - a fork of the abandoned CCK Slideshow module which creates slideshows from multivalue imagefields. Only available for Drupal 5
  • Fancy Slide - create slideshows with thumbnails, descriptions and a selection of transition effects by using the imagecache module and optionally a nodequeue. Not supported anymore. Only available for Drupal 6.

Other modules that could be included:

Other modules won't be included:

Module documentation/demo comparison

Module 5.x 6.x 7.x 8.x 9.x 10.x Installs Documentation Demo Site
                 
Views Slideshow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 128,754 Documentation
README.txt
 
Flex Slider No No Yes Yes Yes No 72,995 Documentation http://flex.madebymufffin.com/demo/
Slick Carousel No No Yes Yes Yes Yes 65,478 Documentation http://kenwheeler.github.io/slick
jCarousel No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 27,089    
Nivo Slider No No Yes No No No 16,293 Documentation http://nivo.dev7studios.com
Owl Carousel No No Yes Yes Yes No 18,624 Documentation http://owlgraphic.com/owlcarousel
Views Nivo Slider No No Yes No No No 7,286 Documentation http://nivo.dev7studios.com/
Dynamic display block No Yes Yes No No No 2,270 ddblock.myalbums.biz
Handbook page
README.txt
http://ddblock.myalbums.biz
Views Ticker No Yes Yes No No No 4,747 README.txt http://viewsticker.inettity.com/
Views Slideshow: Dynamic display block No Yes dev No No No 941 README.txt (V1.x)
README.txt (V2.x)
Tutorial (V1.x)
Tutorial (V2.x)
http://ddblock.myalbums.biz
Slideshow Creator No Yes Yes No No No 558 Documentation http://wingedhearts.org/grounded/carpetpython
Nivo Formatter No No beta1 No No No 932 README.txt http://nivo.dev7studios.com
Media Nivo Slider No No Yes No No No 1,274 Documentation http://nivo.dev7studios.com/
Extra Block Types (EBT): Slideshow No No No Yes Yes Yes 148 Documentation FlexSlider
Documentation EBT
Demo EBT Slideshow
Extra Block Types (EBT): Slick Slider No No No Yes Yes Yes 70 Documentation Slick Slider
Documentation EBT
Demo EBT Slick Slider
Extra Block Types (EBT): Carousel No No No Yes Yes Yes 66 Documentation Tiny Slider
Documentation EBT
Demo Tiny Slider

Demo EBT Carousel
Featured Content Slider Yes Yes No No No No 257 README.txt www.iGadgets.be/ (Example site)
Views Carousel dev dev No No No No 219 Handbook page
README.txt
http://sorgalla.com/jcarousel/
ResponsiveSlides No No Yes No No No 50 Documentation http://drastikbydesign.com/demo/responsiveslides-demo
Liquid Slider No No Yes No No No 154 Documentation http://liquidslider.kevinbatdorf.com/
Views Slideshow: ImageFlow No Yes No No No No 87 README.txt http://finnrudolph.de/ImageFlow
Slider No Yes No No No No 33 README.txt http://jqueryfordesigners.com/demo/coda-slider.html
Ajax Slideshow No Yes No No No No 24 dofinity's page
README.txt
news.com
Fancy Slide No Yes No No No No 23 README.txt http://fancy-slide.drupaldemos.org

Module feature comparison

This feature comparison is based on a spreadsheet done by stephthegeek.
For the purposes of discussion and comparison of these modules, the word tab refers 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 Yes Pagers with Numbers, prev/next, links, images, custom and scrollable pager Image folder, node, nodequeue, blocks, views Yes Speed, timeout, all jcycle effects, custom, etc. 15 free ddblock themes, commercial themes available.
Views Slideshow Yes Title and teaser of the node Output of a View No Speed, fade effect, sort order None
Views Slideshow: Dynamic display block Yes Pagers with Numbers, prev/next, links, images, custom and scrollable pager Output of a View (Mapped fields) Yes Speed, timeout, all jcycle effects, custom, etc. 6 free slideshow themes, commercial themes available.
Views Slideshow: ImageFlow Yes Image and Link Output of a View (Images only) Yes Slider, Aspect Ratio, Cursor, Start Position None
Slideshow Creator Yes Next/Prev Images that you manually select Yes Allows you to place slideshows anywhere within any text field. With speed, timeout, all jcycle effects, etc. Style with html surrounding the slideshow and with css.
Featured Content Slider Yes Numbers Nodes of a chosen type Yes Animation speed, animation direction None

Carousel style modules

Views Slideshow Liquid Slider Yes Defined by Views Field Output of a View Yes Duration, auto adjust height, responsive Style with html surrounding the slideshow and with css.
Slider Yes Node titles Nodes from a multi-value CCK noderef field Yes None None
Views Carousel No Output of a View Yes Speed, orientation, easing effect Two skins provided
Node Carousel No Based on nodequeue or custom content Optional Speed, orientation None
Ajax Slideshow Yes Titles, Numbers, Images, Any field brought by views, Prev/Next, Custom Any set of nodes or views object (controlled by a view) Yes transition type, transition speed, slide duration, w/wo navigation, w/wo border, viewport height, content source, w/wo teaser, advanced options. node template based
Fancy Slide Yes Thumbnails to move to a given slide Images from a node or a nodequeue Optional Slide duration, transition, transition duration, transition direction, manual/automatic advancement Defaults provided
Nivo Formatter Yes Thumbnails, Next/Prev, Dot Images from a Image Field Optional sliceDown, sliceDownLeft, sliceUp ,sliceUpLeft, sliceUpDown, sliceUpDownLeft, fold, fade, random, slideInRight, slideInLeft, boxRandom, boxRain, boxRainReverse, boxRainGrow, boxRainGrowReverse, speed, ... 3 Defaults provided, Nivo Slider themes.
Nivo Slider Yes Next/Prev, Numerical, Keyboard Images uploaded through the module Optional sliceDown, sliceDownLeft, sliceUp ,sliceUpLeft, sliceUpDown, sliceUpDownLeft, fold, fade, random, slideInRight, slideInLeft, boxRandom, boxRain, boxRainReverse, boxRainGrow, boxRainGrowReverse Includes the three default Nivo Slider themes
Views Ticker No Output of a view No Speed, Direction, length of pause Horizontal, vertical, BBC (typewriter-like), Fade

Detailed analysis

Dynamic display block

Benefits over other modules:

  • Multiple input possibilities: Images from a folder, node, Nodequeue, Blocks (e.g recent comments), Views
  • 15 example themes available with number pager, prev/next pager, link pager, image pager and image/link and scrollable pager
  • Commercial slideshow 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
  • 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. Multiple pager 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, 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. "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. When tried 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: Dynamic display block

Benefits over other modules:

  • Mapping of field to slideshow themes. (v2.x)
  • 6 example themes available with number pager, prev/next pager, link pager, image pager and image/link pager and scrollable pager or a combination of these (v1.x - v2.x)
  • Commercial slideshow themes available (v2.x)
  • Example module available with different pager settings (v2.x)
  • Well documented (v1.x - v2.x)
  • Possibility to make fields available to the slideshow themes via preprocess functions (flexible) (v1.x - v2.x)
  • For more information see project page.

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

  • Ajax loading of content

Of note:

  • Uses the jQuery Cycle plugin

In summary:
Flexible module with several available slideshow layouts. Multiple pager 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 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.
  • Allows slideshows to be placed anywhere within text content by use of an input filter.
  • Allows slideshows to consist of arbitrary images or entire directories of images.

In summary:
This module involves creating a new input format so that you can place code like this into your node body: [slideshow: 2, img=|http://drupal.org/sites/all/themes/bluebeach/logos/drupal.org.png|drupal.org|Drupal|The ultimate CMS. Download it now!|Drupal|, img=|http://www.mysql.com/common/logos/mysql_100x52-64.gif|http://www.mysql.com|MySQL|Free and reliable SQL server and client.|_self|, dir=|files/|yes||Generic Photos|Aren't they great?||]

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. 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:
There is either a git tagging problem or a lack of adequate documentation: - the jcarousel plugin does not come with this module although it exists in git, and there are no instructions as to where to get it or where to put it. With the plugin in the module directory, Nodecarousel did not do anything. Also there were numerous php notices.

Ajax Slideshow

Benefits over other modules:

  • Ajax-based slideshow which means scalability. The slideshow content can grow bigger without negatively impacting the page load-time.
  • Slides can contain any content item (node) rather than images only
  • Content and sequence ease of control due to the utilization of the views module for managing the slide set.
  • Plug & Play – standard installation and the slideshow is up.

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

  • Need to implement additional out-of-the-box tabs styles.

Of note:

  • Uses Views and JQuery plugins

In summary:
Straightforward, easy to install and manage module that allows sequential presentation of any set of content items. Performance is not dependent on the number of content items selected.

Fancy Slide

Features:

  • Input from either a single node or from a nodequeue.
  • Large number of settings.
  • Integrates with imagecache to resize images automatically.
  • Control bar with automatic thumbnails and image descriptions.
  • 'Pluggable' transitions to provide the possibility to add further transitions using jQuery.
  • Theme functions exposed to theme developers to build straight into themes.

Areas in need of improvement:

  • No views integration.

In summary:

An early but stable slideshow module that aims to provide a nicer, fancier interface to the end user than other offerings, while maintaining an array of customisation options. More work is needed to bring views integration to the module.

Bottom line

You often 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)
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, there are 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)

Two modules that exemplify these two use cases are well {Views Cycle OR Views Rotator} and Views Slideshow 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.

There is also a strong 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.

Comments

tryitonce’s picture

I found this page traing to get slideshows to work on my multi-lingual sites.

After getting slideshow_creator to work on the basis of the book by Mark Nobel (Drupal 6 Site builder Solutions) I realised this module was not working on a mulit-lingual site and then I found it was no longer supported.

Next came ddblock - http://drupal.org/project/ddblock - but it it also not working across language switching.

It might be useful to add a column in the comparison table for the "Multi-lingual Sites".

Next I will try - http://drupal.org/project/views_slideshow .... fingers crossed ...

ppblaauw’s picture

Have a look at the issue: Multilingual settings are not saved in the issue queue of the dynamic display block module for more information how to set up multi-lingual slideshows with the dynamic display block module.

There are several multi-lingual sites on the internet using the dynamic display block slideshows successfully.

Crell’s picture

views_rotator is going to be folded into views_cycle for Drupal 6. So that's at least one fewer too many options. :-)

--
Larry Garfield
http://www.garfieldtech.com/
Thinking Functionally in PHP: https://leanpub.com/thinking-functionally-in-php

cookiesunshinex’s picture

Thank you very much for this article.

I was searching for what you describe as a "passive user" type block to add to my home page so to automatically scroll through featured content.

This post has really made sense of what is out there.

I wish there were more cases of this kind of information on drupal.org because there are getting to be so many modules out there that the most consuming part of developing a site in Drupal is characterized as either wading through the modules available to accomplish a task or the theming of the site.

I also wish there were more video examples of what a module does or how it works.

wwwoliondorcom’s picture

I tried many but can't get any to work

Hello,

Please can you just tell which module is supposed to be the EASIEST to setup and use and that will work on any browser?

I tried many and failed with all, so please can you just give me one name so that I feel super retarded if I can't get it to work? :-)

It should really be the easiest but reliable, as it's not for fun but just to show pictures of an Ubercart products catalog.

Thanks a lot.

tryitonce’s picture

Hi there,

from a book I learned about setting up "Slideshow Creator". It is not maintained any more, but it is working and is running still on www.sds-i.com for one of clients.

Otherwise we use Views Rotator and Views Slideshow - but you need CCK for that and understand Blocks and Views.

Slideshow Creator needs to have the images in the right location and you need to set the Input Format correctly - then all you need is to enter the syntax in any block or page and remember to activate the right Input format.

This might still be a good way to get a slide show going.

Using the other two modules I came across this problem - Setting a Fixed Height in a Slide Show - http://drupal.org/node/194672#comment-1851616.

Hope this helps -

druplicate’s picture

I would suggest adding two very important attributes to the comparison, SEO friendliness, and graceful degradation in the absence of javascript.

Ddblock for example, is SEO friendly (whereas most people know that Flash is generally not), but does not work at all with javascript disabled, although it's being considered (http://drupal.org/node/396892) for a future version.

Usually you can get around this limitation by sniffing if js is disabled in the browser, and then using a different template altogether or just providing alternate functionality within your template. It may seem clunky but that's the only way I know around the issue at the moment.

Surprisingly, Drupal doesn't seem to have focused on the issue of javascript degradation much in the past, though it is being actively discussed for D7. Even the seemingly simple collapsible fieldsets in CCK forms do not degrade gracefully, in fact they don't work at all (collapsed sets won't open).

I've seen endless discussions about how many people actually disable js with numbers cited between 85% and 99% as reported by various sources, but ultimately you have to take stock of who your typical visitor is. Then of course there's the whole issue of accessibility with screen readers for the blind, and other similar issues.

chriscohen’s picture

With regard to adding the Fancy Slide module to the list above, I was requested to add this information by VeryMisunderstood:

Available Modules section

  • Fancy Slide - create slideshows with thumbnails, descriptions and a selection of transition effects by using the imagecache module and optionally a nodequeue.

Module Overview

  • Module: Fancy Slide
  • 5.x: No
  • 6.x: Yes
  • Documentation: README.txt
  • Demo Site: none
  • Last Update: 2009-Sep-11

Features Overview

  • Module: Fancy Slide
  • Tabs: Yes
  • Tab content: Thumbnails to move to a given slide
  • Main content: Images from a node or a nodequeue
  • Nav links: Optional
  • Behaviour options: Slide duration, transition, transition duration, transition direction, manual/automatic advancement
  • Styles included: Defaults provided

Detailed Analysis

Fancy Slide

Benefits over other modules:

  • Input from either a single node or from a nodequeue.
  • Large number of settings.
  • Integrates with imagecache to resize images automatically.
  • Control bar with automatic thumbnails and image descriptions.
  • Well documented.
  • 'Pluggable' transitions to provide the possibility to add further transitions using jQuery.
  • Theme functions exposed to theme developers to build straight into themes.

Disadvantages or areas in need of improvement:

  • No views integration.

In summary:

An early but stable slideshow module that aims to provide a nicer, fancier interface to the end user than other offerings, while maintaining an array of customisation options. More work is needed to bring views integration to the module.

gdh-1’s picture

I have tried several modules, and finally selected fancy slide.

it's easy to configure, and can work with imagefield/imagecache, and can work with nodequeue, which is also a great module.

thanks for provide such a useful module

DocMartin’s picture

Thanks for the Fancy Slide info.

just checked project page, and looks good. Reminds me of Galleria/Views Galleria (tho I'm yet to try these) - perhaps these too merit place on list.

____________________________
DocMartin and Hong Kong Outdoors

druplicate’s picture

This might be an alternative way of adding text to images and then using a generic rotator module - as opposed to ddblock, for example.

http://fusiondrupalthemes.com/story/100330/getting-more-out-imagecache

Haven't tried it - perhaps a bit cumbersome, but then ddblock isn't a walk in the park either, particularly for custom displays.

cwgriesel’s picture

I need a slideshow tool that allows users to create a slideshow out of the photos they have uploaded as attachments to a node. It could be one node per photo or multiple photos per node, I don't care. The point is there could be hundreds of these slideshows on the website, as each user builds their own set of slideshows. I don't see the question of user-generated slideshows addressed in this review, and as I read through the documentation of various options, many of them expect the tool to be used as a single slideshow on the front page that is edited by the administrator. This is not what I need -- I need user-generated slideshows. I think views slideshow can handle this -- are there any other options?

MkeHack’s picture

I have a similar need for user managed slide shows that must have an intutive user interface and user setup since this will be administered by a user. Have you researched this any further? I can spend some time helping if you have an approach.

Thanks Steve

ppblaauw’s picture

@cwgriesel and @MkeHack

When using the dynamic display block module it is the admin of the side who installs and configures the ddblock slideshow style layout.

Users could be allowed to provide the content for the slideshow.

There are different options:

  • User adds nodes with a title, a slidetext and one image. These nodes will be added to a slideshow. (in this option user provided content would be added to a featured slideshow, e.g. show 10 most recent posts, or you can also let a moderator decide which posts are promoted to the featured slideshow.)
  • User adds nodes with multiple images (each can have a title and description). From the multiple images a slideshow will be made. (see for a tutorial: How to create an Advanced slideshow with multiple imagefield images in a node.

Both configurations would show the user a create node screen. The first one with one image to upload, the second option with (a limited amount of) multiple images to upload.

In both cases image cache can be used to scale images if needed for the slideshow, but the slideshow could also handle e.g images with different heights.

I am sure similar configuration can be handled by other slideshow module, just want to share what is e.g. possible with the dynamic display block module for your drupal site.

Hope this helps you both and others further.

green monkey’s picture

I've been reviewing Rotator and Slider modules for about two days now. They are in the same boat as related content was, until FC. This module does this and that one does that. Each with thier trade offs of pros and cons and with less attention to javascript degradation (<- new knowledge for me).

I like DdBlock, as it offers the most in eye candy, but I have found Ddblock to be confusing to install for embedded content. I'm also seeing some differences between IE8 and FF and a few unexpected effects during a browser refresh.

This review has been very helpful and the goal of picking a module to be right on target. As mentioned above and sorting through these modules there are a few points I try to remember as I sort through the eye candy (the two well defined points from post above and two of my own requirements):

  • Passive User: throw featured content at them while they're on your front page
  • Active User: allow users to navigate / scroll through content to find what they're looking for
  • The SEO factor
  • Will it work with Views (self feeding of new nodes)

Thank you for this comparision review, it has been very helpful.

AdrianB’s picture

From the project page of Nodecarousel:

Look - this hasn't been touched for a while, and I've noticed now that Views Carousel works pretty darn well, and uses the same jCarousel library that this module did. I suggest using that module instead of this one.

Rhino’s picture

Just wanted to thank you for this comparison, I was only just beginning to try and compare the slideshow modules that I found (I too am looking for passive user slideshows of node types for front page), and stumbled onto this. THANK YOU!

DBSLLC’s picture

So to users who have also been looking for users to be able to upload images to a gallery and then make a slideshow of them: have you had any success so far? What was the module combination you ended up with???

Thanks!

drupaledmonk’s picture

I use view carousel and it works great for me. I have created a view so when a user uploads an image it immediately shows up in my view carousel. Try it out.

DocMartin’s picture

I use Views Slideshow, with images added through Views Gallery (imagecache creating various image sizes/categories that views slideshow can use). Mainly for small slideshows in blocks.

- also find the Image Flow worth a look.

Have the Views Carousel in use, but so far haven't got into editing css, which you evidently need for optimum carousel. [With Image Flow, a nifty thing is that it resizes according to size of space it has: can be big on a page, small in sidebar; but more for flicking thro images than as carousel]

____________________________
DocMartin and Hong Kong Outdoors

rcross’s picture

I came across this module as well: http://drupal.org/project/views_slideshow_ddblock not sure if there is any relationship to ddblock

DocMartin’s picture

Looks like it's from the ddblock team; on their site it says: "The module has similar functionality as the dynamic display block module."
http://ddblock.myalbums.biz/node/970

____________________________
DocMartin and Hong Kong Outdoors

rhouse’s picture

It's all very well to say "with so many other options why would you want anything so basic?" But the comparison chart shows that this is the only module that allows manually selected images. I have a site with hundreds of slideshows based on individually selected images.

If it is so basic, if much better solutions are available, can someone tell me which module that happens to be? Cheers!

yadranko’s picture

Nice comparison. After so much trying I realize that none of these modules can show a slideshow of static blocks. That is to allow a selection of multiple prebuilt static html blocks and then display them one after another.

DocMartin’s picture

But if you put the html in nodes or comments, Views slideshows can work - leading to result being the same. (I write quickly; not sure if missing something)

____________________________
DocMartin and Hong Kong Outdoors

JimNastic’s picture

This might be a good candidate for your list
http://drupal.org/project/galleryformatter

ralexanderclark’s picture

Dude this is sweet!!!

enli’s picture

I would like to spend a few words about Rotor Module. I think this module is very easy to set up and use.
Unfortunately many Rotator/Slider modules are very difficoult to set up instead. Rotor Module is the best module that fits my needs. In fact it is used to display a news and an image that is related to that news. Unfortunately it still has a missing feature: it doesn't display a short teaser.
However, I guess this feature will be easily added. I also modified my theme in order to best use this module by creating a block-views-rotor-block_1.tpl.php and editing the rotor.css file within module directory and .css theme file. It was not very difficoult and this may not be necessary with other themes.
You can take a look a my rotor module in action by visiting http://www.lamaddalenapark.it.
Hope my post will be useful to some of you.

jazzitup’s picture

Is there any module or just a jQuery script (with or without Drupal support) that would be a close match to this Flash feature? http://osc4.template-help.com/wt_29072/index.html

The closest I've found so far is ImageFlow. Demo: http://imageflow.finnrudolph.de/

hilrap’s picture

Is there any module available yet, that would work similar to the Conveyor Belt slideshow from Dynamicdrive (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14/leftrightslide.htm ) ?

fortr’s picture

there isn't slideshowcs
Benefits over other modules:
Several parameters can be customized such as the images to display, zooming, position, transition:
X refers to the initial position, in percentage.
Y refers to the final position.
Zoom is the size of the shown picture relatively to its original size. Write the number in the format: 1.4 (decimal number with "." for floating point.
Time is how long the picture is displayed (in seconds)
Set the number of blocks you want to show (max 20)
For more information see project page.
http://drupal.org/project/slideshowcs
Of note:
The module uses jQuery plugin Cross-Slide
In summary:
Slide Show CS is a module which provides a block (or more block) with a fancy slide show effect.

MakeOnlineShop’s picture

Survey/Poll to know which module people are happily using ?

Hi,

Is it possible what is the module that most of the Drupal users are using ?

I read good things about Dynamic Display Block, is it really the best ?

Thanks.

acouch’s picture

I would like to add Views Galleriffic to this comparison.

Available Modules section

* Views Galleriffic - create slideshows with thumbnails, descriptions and a using Views.

Module Overview

* Module: Views Galleriffic
* 6.x: Yes
* 7.x: Yes
* Documentation: README.txt
* Demo Site: http://aaroncouch.info/galleriffic
* Feature: http://aaroncouch.info/galleriffic-gallery-feature
* Last Update: 2011-Jan-23

Features Overview

* Module: Views Galleriffic
* Tabs: Yes
* Tab content: Thumbnails to move to a given slide
* Main content: Images from a view
* Nav links: Optional
* Behaviour options: Slide duration, transition, auto play, pager, history, captions.
* Styles included: Default css included.

Detailed Analysis

Views Galleriffic

Benefits over other modules:

* Content comes from Views. Easy to control content for gallery.
* Best for a beautiful image gallery. If you want another kind of gallery use Views Slideshow.
* Can use fields from different nodes or fields from a single node for gallery.
* Easy setup, all settings options are available in the views style.
* Integrates with imagecache / image styles to resize images automatically.
* Navigate gallery with keyboard.
* Theme functions exposed to theme developers to build straight into themes.

In summary:

This is your best bet for a beautiful image gallery integrated with views. See http://www.twospy.com/galleriffic/ for gallery options.

This is specifically designed for an image gallery but can also be used for a front page gallery or carousel. Thus it is easy to setup but rigidly defined for that purpose. If you need more flexibility I would recommend Views Slideshow

Aaron Couch

drupal: DKAN
work: http://govdelivery.com
me: http://aaroncouch.info

Fiable.biz’s picture

If you want to add this module, please add it yourself in the text body, rather than as comment: log in, and click on "Edit".

http://Fiable.biz Web site creation.

acouch’s picture

I'd be willing to help update this page? How can I get access to do so?

Aaron Couch

drupal: DKAN
work: http://govdelivery.com
me: http://aaroncouch.info

cookiesunshinex’s picture

Good idea.

This is already out-of-date. I use view carousel on one of my sites, and I know see that it is no longer maintained in favor of jcarousel.

leemako’s picture

Just a quick thanks to the author - just the article I needed, saved me lots of time needlessly installing and uninstalling these modules.

emutile’s picture

In practice what rotator or slider module has the best support historically.

Does anyone have practice using one for the last few years from Drupal 6 and if so which one is stable, is well supported and works great?

Thank you all in advance!

evanmwillhite’s picture

My agency is using these three regularly, and I would highly recommend them. We've used some others on this list too, but only sparsely and they were for specific client requests (e.g., Ajax Slideshow for, well, an ajax slideshow). For Slideshows, View Slideshow in particular is incredibly powerful/customizable. Galleriffic is a nice out-of-the-box solution that looks and works great. For a carousel effect, Views Carousel is awesome and similar to Views Slideshow in that it's easily extended depending on the project.

emutile’s picture

Thank you for the tip. I will check out Views Galleriffic, and I think it looks like Views Carousel has been dropped:

"Project Information
Maintenance status: Abandoned
Development status: Obsolete"

Assuming you meant jCarousel, as it looks recent.

Thanks!

evanmwillhite’s picture

Exactly right - used the latter but now use jCarousel. Sorry about that! Hope these help.

dongtian’s picture

It is sweet

peronas’s picture

Shameless self plug to get my new Media Gallery based Nivo Slider module added to this list.

Media Nivo Slider

Project page: http://drupal.org/project/media-nivo-slider

The Media Nivo Slider module provides Nivo Slider functionality to Media Galleries (http://drupal.org/project/media_gallery). This module provides the ability to take any media gallery and expose it's images as a Nivo Slider slideshow which is contained in a Drupal block. These Nivo Slider blocks allow you to easily add a slideshow to various pages and in various regions of your site.

The Nivo Slider blocks are individually customizable so each of your slideshows can have different transition effects, speeds, etc. In addition, since the Nivo Slider blocks are sourced from a media gallery, the ordering of images in the slideshow can easily be changed by simply re-ordering the media in the gallery. This also allows for strictly curated slideshows and the ability to easily have the same image be a part of multiple slideshows if desired.

Dependencies

  • Media Gallery Module
  • Libraries Module
  • Nivo Slider jQuery Plugin
rhouse’s picture

I think the value of avoiding duplication is greatly overestimated.

Yes there probably are too many slideshow modules. It is a real phenomenon that someone, full of enthusiasm, starts a module, loses interest, and the few dozen users are left out in the cold. But is a single-minded adherence to eliminating duplication the answer? Take the "only two modules" listed by the article: neither of them covers Slideshow Creator, which has no substitute and has 1,500 users at time of writing.

Here's the basic problem with the "no duplication" religion: human beings are creative by nature. If they can't create, they most likely won't contribute at all to merely polishing someone else's idea. Central organisation is necessary to eliminate duplication, and central organisation is a very bad way to get creative work done. Do the rationalisation mavens have a purpose? Yes. There are undoubtedly things that can be consolidated to good effect. But usually that will happen only after the original creation. And the best target is probably neither the multifarious confusion of modules we have now, nor the hyper-rationalised and probably impossible "two modules" proposed by the article text.

pardalman’s picture

Pardalman and many other people like this page!

unleash’s picture

thix for the great article

knalstaaf’s picture

jazzitup’s picture

May I suggest adding a sortable table with a column that shows popularity (how many times each module has been downloaded up to the current date) and a number of features included? I think that would be a great touch to this page.

Fiable.biz’s picture

Do you know which of these many modules, if any, have the following features?

  • client-side image size adaptation, so that I can decide that the gallery would have as width, let's say 100% of the containing region's width,
  • server-side image size adaptation, to do the same thing, at least for tablets and handhelds, in order to save bandwidth.

In some commercial themes of Dynamic display bloc, there is client-side image adaptation, but not server-side one.

http://Fiable.biz Web site creation.

vojnar’s picture

Views Slideshow: Dynamic Display Block
For me it is a mess... Took half a day to figure out, very confusing documentation, messed up installation process, no settings in site settings regardless thats where half of the tutorial videos is rolling, example files missing, at the end I cant even change the width in css, the thing does not respond unless *{width:100%;} is deleted from my system css. I had a bad feelings about at the beginning, but because of the reviews plus the number of installs I decided to go ahead with it, which was a huge mistake, It just feels like some I went back 10 years of time when you had to pull out your hair in order to make any step of the setting up process to be completed, and then at the end it wont work ....

marcoka’s picture

I also made my own small list for my purpose.
http://www.netzflut.de/artikel/sliderfaderjsfxgallery

knalstaaf’s picture

PlayfulWolf’s picture

My need is to display a view of image fields as slideshow or gallery with pager as small pictures. Views Slideshow built-in Cycle is ok, but no ajax support.
Simple task but can not find any solution at all. Anyone? Any modules available???

swim’s picture

Sorry for the super late reply but hopefully this will help others. Owl Carousel by OwlFunk supports lazy loading! You can find it here.

peterx’s picture

Cycle2 replaces Cycle. Cycle2 adds lazy loading and responsiveness.
This module loads Cycle2 for use in code and themes:
https://www.drupal.org/sandbox/peter/2499419

This module replaces Views slideshow cycle in Views slideshow:
https://www.drupal.org/sandbox/peter/2498091

Both modules are in use at a couple of sites and could use your beta testing. contact me through the contact page with details of what you need. I will look at setting up a demonstration page you can copy.

website_designing’s picture

I am a new starter in Drupal, I like this so much, i have experience of various technologies, but this is really awesome

redhatusr’s picture

knalstaaf’s picture

Vegas Background jQuery Plugin is a fullscreen slideshow module.

GiorgosK’s picture

https://www.drupal.org/project/jssor
should also be included

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GiorgosK
Web Development