Blog: Modules

SlideShowPro Integration Module Makes Creating Slideshows Easy

It's been lying in our drawers for months, and I've finally had the chance to dust off and upload the SlideShowPro Integration module that Stefano Malozzi (stefano73) wrote and I wrote a filter for. SlideShowPro is one of the prettier and more flexible Flash slideshows out there. Alas it's not  free, but the $29 cost doesn't tear holes into your pockets either.

The really cool thing about SlideShowPro is that it can be fed by an XML description of albums and images, which paves the way to easy integration with Drupal. The SlideShowPro module allows you to build an XML description of a slideshow with views. You can then embed this slideshow with a simple tag like [ssp|path=path/to/slideshow].

Watch this screencast to see how it works:

The current version of the module can turn images and albums of the image module into SlideShowPro slideshows. It should be possible to turn other image resources - like CCK nodes with imagefield pictures - into slideshows too by overriding the theme_slideshowpro_feed() function.

Great work on the module Stefano!

One of the biggest battles in this year’s midterm elections isn’t between Democrats and Republicans – it’s over women’s reproductive rights. Next week South Dakotans will vote on whether to keep the state’s blanket ban on abortions. There’s no question that this vote will play a major role in many other states’ policies on abortion. So you want to know the results, right? It just got easier for you to get them without being chained to your television or computer next Tuesday.

Bèr Kessels recently opened his cooool drupal module /tagadelic/, so that it is easier for other modules to build their own tag clouds.

Simplenews is a Drupal module that lets you send a newsletter to registered users and non-users alike from your Drupal-powered website. It’s really quite easy to use and blends well with the rest of Drupal. The basics of Simplenews let you create multiple newsletter categories, from which you can send out regular or irregularly planned newsletters to a list of subscribers. Keep reading to learn how we plan to improve Simplenews...

Text message powered campaigns are getting even more practical. At the Drupal Meet-up in DC last Thursday we ran up a nice $280 bar tab running our first field test of an SMS gateway API and a couple last-minute modules we put together to have a website (Drupal powered) talk to cell phones.

We're investing some research and development into TinyMCE and are collecting all the complaints from our clients and anyone else who uses it, as well as comparing to the reported issues on Drupal. We're talking about usability issues, not failure for it to load or run in the first place. Please reply in a comment or send us an email with any complaints or issues you have with TinyMCE that are not on the list below. We'll let you know if we're able to improve anything and post what we find.

Documented TinyMCE issues:

-paragraph / line break inconsistencies
(if you have this issue, please explain it in more detail)

-bolding of the entire content when bolding single element

I installed a pre-forms API upgrade version of TinyMCE on Drupal 4.6/4.7 running on the TinyMCE 2.0RC. Until you really use it, it's hard to know what will make it better. Then, once you use it, you use it or get used to it in a way slightly different from another person. What if it just worked right for everyone?