I have just put together this little plugin after the umpteenth request to add a slider to a site. Yes I know there are a fair few available in the WordPress plugin directory but I really do like simplicity and the others don’t generally offer that. This one doesn’t give you every option under the sun however what it does do is create a nice friendly and idiot proof interface and enactment interface…
Data Entry
Your clients can add their own slides to the system using a custom post type interface which the plugin adds automatically. There are literally three options per slide and two of them are optional! You need to add the URL of the slide, the caption if there is one and the link for the slide (again, if there is one). The idea being that you just add the slides and don’t spend the entire day wondering which transition looks best. I have gone for a simple fade between slides which seems to suit most people and a 3.5 second delay between transitions (control for this coming in the next version) which is long enough to read the slide but not long enough for them to get bored of the image or wonder if it’s one of those sliders you need to manually forward!
Adding the Slider
Simple… I added a shortcode for you [sb_slider], what more do you need? For those that want to add it to their template then they can do by using the PHP function call as follows:
<?php echo sb_sl_get_slider(); ?>
I would recommend using this next version just in case you decide not to use the plugin and deactivate it. It will prevent you getting a fatal error.
<?php
if (function_exists('sb_sl_get_slider')) { echo sb_sl_get_slider(); }
?>
So there we have it. A nice basic slider which you can use time and time again for free (Nivo Slider themselves charge $15 for their WordPress plugin although I am sure it’s likely better.. nothing quite feels as good as ‘free’ now does it).
Download
Download it here and let me know what you think: SB Slider (11.88 kB)
Limitations
The obvious flaw is that you can only have one set of slides so if you wanted to have one slider on the homepage and one on the blog for instance it wouldn’t work yet. I plan to add categories to the plugin to make this possible at some point.
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