DDblock doesn't animate

I had this same issue, and Philip was kind enough to help me troubleshoot. For me, there was confusion about in what directory the "css and image files" and theme files should go. (At least, I believe that was the issue.)

Your directory would look something like this:

/sites/all/themes
     /yourtheme
           /custom ---> DDBlock theme files root folder
               /modules
                     /ddblock
                            /images
                            /upright10
                            /upright20
                            ...
          /ddblock ---> DDBlock unzip of file: basic_slideshow_extra_info_v1.1.zip
                {custom.css}
                /images

My configuration was Advanced and using Views.

Of course, always good to check your file permissions.

@gkatsanos

The Basic slideshow tutorial, Advanced slideshow tutorial and video tutorials can be found at http://ddblock.myalbums.biz

A basic slideshow use images from a folder or one node of a content type (HTML).
An advanced slideshow uses CCK, views and ddblock themes.

Other tutorials can be found in the How to section.

Hope this help you further, please let me know.

#3

What functionality do you want to accomplish?
What tutorial did you use?
What steps did you do?
What did you expect?
What is not as expected?

These are some of my questions which are useful to help you better.

In your first post I assume you want to make a basic slideshow using one node of a content type.
What HTML code did you use in the node?
What are your configuration settings of the ddblock?
Do you have a link to the site?

Tip: Just to inform you.

Giving detailed descriptions in an issue will quicken getting the right answers, putting the priority to critical for a support request will not give you quicker answers.

There are no issues with to much text to describe what is the issue.

Information about posting issues can be found at: Issue queue handbook
Reading this will make your issues more fruitful and will probably give you quicker answers in the future.

Set status to normal.

Yep, actually mine is broken now again too. The view works, and just displays the ddblock items one atop the other, as a normal threaded content. The HTML shows them in a ddblock styles div, but no template is being applied.

Only thing that I did was to add taxonomy filter.

Very frustrating. I have no idea what is causing it to go awry.

Version: DDBlock Advanced, with View
Preprocess: Basic Plus preprocess code
Theme: Upright10
Pager: numeric
Effect: default Fade in/out

I find the DDBlock config settings are confusing. It seems that you must always create an Instance; however, for mine, the only "original block" it shows to associate with that instance is some old referenced view no longer selected. Not the one checked in the Settings blocks config.

Also, in the Settings page, there are many theme blocks (and custom blocks) listed, except the actual theme block (theme region) where I am using the DDBlock. It makes sense that I would set that as the settings Block. Instead, I have had to set the Views block. And, that is not working, so confused about that.

This did work for 2 minutes. Then the client decided that they wanted to be able to create a slide from within the story edit form. So, I added the slideshow fields there and a taxonomy field for "slideshow". Then added the taxonomy term filter to the View.

Again, the View itself works.

Philip was kind enough to help me troubleshoot, and it had to do with the field names. So, I'll pass along my tips:

For Advanced Slideshow:

1. Create 1 View, with a Block display.
   • Include the word "View" in its name. Example: "DDBlock Slideshow News Item View" (no quotes, of course)
   • Under FIELDS, commit to the order of the slideshow fields, and do NOT change. Changing this can cause the (CCK) field names to change and then not match what is in the Template.php file. Example:
     + Node Title
     + Slideshow Page
     + Slideshow Image
     + Slideshow Text
     + Node Teaser
2. Create 1 Instance, under the DDBlock site config.
   • Include the word "Instance" in its name: Example: "DDBlock Slideshow News Item Instance"
3. On the DDBlock config Settings tab, associated your Views block with this Instance, by checking that view name checkbox.
4. Admin --> Site Building --> Blocks. Assign your DDBlock Instance to the desired theme region. (If you assign the Views block instead, you will see threaded slides, rather than the DDBlock. This is why it is good to include the words "View" and "Instance" in the relevant blocks, for clarification.)
5. Always configure (DDBlock Instance config) with one of the included themes, to test that the DDBlock is working correctly. After, you can go through the steps to configure for a custom theme. But, start with the smallest number of variables for easier troubleshooting.
6. IMPORTANT: If you add the Slideshow fields (for pager, slide, slide text) to any other content item*; change the order of the fields within your View; or add any other CCK fields to the views, it will likely change your field names -- hence, not matching your Template.php file.

   You certainly can do any of the above, but you must verify that the Template.php file code (re: field name) matches the current field names used in the View.

* Since these CCK fields are written to one CCK table, if you use the fields more than once, CCK has to modify the names (append/prepend) so as not to overwrite the other instance of those fields in another content type.

Did I explain that correctly, Philip?

#7

I did not mean that you have to describe all settings of all modules used (There is no point doing that like you say), but i mean: when you give enough information about your issue, I can help you better and give the right answers on the right questions, instead of having to assume what you want to accomplish, what code you used in your settings and what steps you did.

My tip about posting issues is just to help you to get quicker and more accurate answers on your issues.

Another tip is searching the issue queue on all issue to find similar question, so you can get direct answers on your issue and don't have to wait for it.

The way you describe is you use 2 nodes and want to use these with the ddblock module.

When you want to have this setup you need to create a view for the nodes, the view needs a views block display. For this views block display you need to make a ddblock instance. this ddblock instance you can now configure.
All this is described in the advanced slideshow tutorial.

When you use add block in the ddblock settings page you are using the basic options of the ddblock module and can use images from a folder or a slideshow from one node (made by HTML code)
All this is described in the basic slideshow tutorial.

Hope this helps you further, please let me know.

From what I can see what you want to accomplish: (Show node post data, node title and node teaser in a slideshow)

I would advise you to use one of the other slidehow modules which you can find in the slideshow comparison

The dynamic display block module is more flexible and has more functionality then the other slideshow modules you can use with Drupal. But this flexibility comes at a price, it involves more steps to use this flexibility and users which are not that familiar with PHP have more difficulties to make the module work.

When you don't need this flexibility and all the functionality and just want to cycle nodes, it is better to use one of the other slideshow modules.

Hope this explains enough.

The flexibility of the module lies in using preprocess functions to combine fields provided by CCK and Views.

We tried to think of a User interface for all these options, but this would make the module complex and at the moment the module was developed there was not really a simple way to make multistep forms. Maybe in the future we will add a user interface for the most simple cases.

For users with experience in PHP and the drupal theming system adjusting the preprocess functions makes the module flexible and we will add more and more code snippets to use in the preprocess functions.

Also other module maintainers are not sitting still and e.g. the views_slideshow module, which is also by far the most used module, has improved a lot.)

I would use this module, when I had to develop your functionality.

Hope this helps you further, please let me know.

I can not agree with you. Drupal is build with PHP and when you want to override something you need to have some PHP knowledge.

Like said before, just use a module which does not require some PHP knowledge.

This is the last thing I have to say about this issue.