I was working on a fast-paced project, a Joomla website update, and the client wanted a flash-like header on the home page that changed the image every few seconds and stopped after three images. I’m not a flash developer and didn’t think I could complete this requirement within the deadline. Meanwhile, I searched the Joomla Extensions directory and found a GREAT FREE image rotator that did almost exactly what the client requested: Joomlaworks Simple Image Rotator. The only problem was that the image rotator did not stop the rotation. The client was OK with this, but it was NOT their ideal.

I posted a question on the Simple Image Rotator forum; I asked if there was a way to stop the image rotation. pansoru (username) wrote back and asked why I wanted to stop the image rotation. I explained that my client wanted to play three images, each with a message and then end on the last, and most important image/message.

A few hours later, I received an email from the forum:

“Well as panosru, i love to help people, lucky you i love to do it and as joomlaworks!

Replace the mod_jw_sir.js with the one i attached to this post.

after that open the js file and go to line 14. Somewhere on this line i have the totalImages = 4 code, replace the 4 with the number of the pictures that you want to show, in your case the number is 3.

Tested on: IE6/IE7/Firefox 2/Safari 3/Opera 9″

Simply because he likes helping people, panasru modified the script so I could configure it to stop after x number of images had displayed. It worked perfectly. Now that’s service! I was so delighted, I donated $20 dollars to Joomlaworks.

What’s more, Joomlaworks makes several other commercial Joomla plugins that are GREAT:

• Simple Image Rotator Pro (12 Euros) - This is an extended version of the simple image rotator and many great features. This extension allows you to add multiple slideshows to any content page, AND it has the ability to popup a larger image if the users clicks an image.
• Front Page Image Rotator (22 Euros) - This extension allows you to insert a slideshow on your home page that rotates through articles and images. For example, if you sell products, the Front Page Image Rotator can rotate the products and images.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 10:23 am and is filed under Joomla Plugins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.