Feedback on SlideShowPlugin

Initial version based on ideas in Codev.TWikiReplacingPowerpoint; there is lots of room for improvements.

I'm so pleased to see how this has turned out! -- GrantBow - 11 Jan 2003

To see how it work, click on "Start presentation" in the Example section of SlideShowPlugin.

-- PeterThoeny - 17 Nov 2002

Incremental update released: Added "Start presentation" and "End presentation" buttons to make it more obvious that there is a different view mode; added %SLIDENAVFIRST%, %SLIDENAVPREV%, %SLIDENAVNEXT% template keywords.

-- PeterThoeny - 19 Nov 2002

Excellent work and fully in the sense of wikiwiki ! I would recommend to add the parameter ?skin=print&... as first one to the Button rendering in sub renderSlideNav to enforce the slide effect also for sites using FlexibleSkin (or other skins)

-- SvenTissot - 20 Nov 2002

This is amazing! I love it! IMHO this plugin deserves to be in standard distro. I'l try to convert some TWikiPresentations into this format over the weekend.

-- PeterMasiar - 21 Nov 2002

Posted updated version using the print skin.

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Nov 2002

Very nice.Could it be arranged for each slide to be exactly one screen away from the previous one, so presenters can use Page Up/Page Down to navigate? That would make it about as easy to use as PPT when presenting. Not sure how, I guess that needs some CSS?

-- MartinWatt - 25 Nov 2002

I do a fair number of lunch and learns, and I always hated typing comments into the powerpoint presentation (have to go to another screen etc). Because of this people trying to use my on-line lunch and learn slides (hosted in twiki of course), missed out on a lot of supporting/clarifying talk that wasn't present in the powerpoint presentation.

One thing I would like to see in the slide show plugin is a way to start/end commentary between slides. It wouldn't show during the presentation (or maybe it would if a urlparam show commentary was set). This would let me write my slides and commentary in line with the slides where the commentary will do the most good.

Also I noticed that the table definition use 720 as the width. Is there a problem with letting the slide use 100% of the width of the screen (useful for full screen presentations). Using 100% of the height would be great too, but I am not sure what the HTML would be to do that.

Quips, comments, evasions, questions or answers?

-- JohnRouillard - 27 Nov 2002

A commentary section for each slide sounds like a sensible enhancement. Any suggestion for the syntax?

Yes, 100% for the slide template is better. I do not think that it is possible to define 100% for the height. Anybody knows how to do that?

Another useful enhancement would be a header slide template that looks different from the regular slides.

-- PeterThoeny - 27 Nov 2002

I originally though of %COMMENT% %ENDCOMMENT%, but that is too useful to embed HTML style comments, or internal TWiki only comments that aren't shipped to the browser into the page.

Maybe %TALK% %ENDTALK%. After all it is describing what you talk about. The ENDTALK could be optional since it is implied by a higher level header.

Example if slides are introduced using ---++, then talk headers would be headings after %TALK% using ---+++ to ---++++++. The next use of ---++ would start a new slide.

-- JohnRouillard - 27 Nov 2002

An incremental updated is posted.

A comment section starts now with a ---+++ Comments heading, and ends where the next slide starts. The heading level should be one or more level lower then the slide heading level. There is a HIDECOMMENTS setting where you can define if comments are shown in the slides or not.

Slide show table width is now 100%.

-- PeterThoeny - 15 Dec 2002

I was trying to promote Twiki some more as a tool for collaboration on presentations. I tried to save presentation from page SlideShowPlugin as a local HTML page to be able to view/present it off-line. I found out that previous/next links in anchors are not relative, and I'll get to online version again. Is it possible to create relative links, and be able to save presentation as a page? It will be really cool!

-- PeterMasiar - 10 Jan 2003

Regarding the 100% height, I'm not sure how its done, but PLies http://www.rot13.org/~dpavlin/presentations/XLSies_to_PLies/all.htm seems to do it in IE 5. Maybe CSS and javascript? All you really need is a single rubber length to push the slide footer to the bottom of the displayed screen.

Also the PLies page talks about RelativeLayers as solving this issue as well.

-- JohnRouillard - 19 Apr 2003

The Default Slide Template of Plugin version 14 Dec 2002 has a small buglet where the logo is not displayed correctly: The image source should be changed

• from: <img src="%ATTACHURL%/logo.gif" ...
• to:    <img src="%PUBURL%/%WEB%/SlideShowPlugin/logo.gif" ...

Fixed here at TWiki.org, but not yet rolled out into a new version.

-- PeterThoeny - 17 May 2003

There is an entry at AutomaticSizingOfEditWindow that describes how to make a table fill 100% of the screen vertically. DavidJeske says:

...I added a table around the TEXTAREA which is height=80% width=99%, and then the textarea is set to height:100%;width:100% in a style. ...

In order to do any of this, you need to REMOVE the XHTML DTD specification from the htmldoctype macro in twiki.tmpl. It seems that HTML-3/4 changed the rules for percentage based heights. In order to get reasonable behavior, you have to let the browser stay in "compatibility" rendering mode by leaving out the DTD specification.

Can the removal of the XHTML DTD be done by using a specific template/skin for viewing the slide show?

-- JohnRouillard - 24 May 2003

After looking at http://www.siteexperts.com/tips/html/ts07/page1.asp I came up with this HTML that when refered to using the #top link will display the table filing the display area size (even with the browser in fullscreen mode) and not show the lines of text before or after the table. I used the following browsers:

opera 7

worked, but had to refresh the display when switching from regular to full screen mode.

opera 6

worked

mozilla 1.4b

worked

IE 5.5

worked

slimbrowser 3.53

worked

amaya 7.2

didn't work. Not even when I told amaya to interpret as html 4 transitional.

Konqueror 3.1

Failed. Also for future tests, the web page outlined below can be found at http://www.yeoldeclue.com/tabletest.html KDE 3.2 is out soonish apparently so it might work then. -- MichaelSparks - 02 Aug 2003

<html>
<BODY LEFTMARGIN=0 TOPMARGIN=0 MARGINWIDTH=0 MARGINHEIGHT=0>
Here is more text. Will this show up on the screen or not?

<TABLE WIDTH=100% HEIGHT=100% CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=2 BORDER=0>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=LEFT>
<a NAME="top"></a>
  Top Left
</TD><TD WIDTH=100%></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=TOP>
  Top Right
</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD COLSPAN=3 align=center>
  Centered
</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN=BOTTOM ALIGN=LEFT>
  Bottom Left
</TD><TD WIDTH=100%></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT VALIGN=BOTTOM>
  Bottom Right
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

<a NAME="bottom"></a>
Here is more text. Will this show up on the screen or not?
</BODY>
</html>

The location of the top label inside of the <TD> tag was needed to get mozilla to jump to the right location. It showed the line before the table otherwise.

-- JohnRouillard - 25 May 2003

Problem Statement

Solution

Here's the raw code:

<script language="JavaScript">
    function launchSlideshow( ) {
        win = open("%SCRIPTURLPATH%/view%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/%WEB%/SlideShowPlugin?slideshow=on&skin=print#GoSlide1", "Slideshow", "titlebar=0,width=850,height=700,");
        win;
        return false;
    }
</script>

<form>
<input type="button" value="Start <nop>SlideShowPlugin Slideshow" onClick="return launchSlideshow()" />
</form>

And here's an implementation of the above, that launches the slideshow example from SlideShowPlugin:

The above example doesn't include scrollbars, and is not resizable. If you want those options use this instead:

        win = open("%SCRIPTURLPATH%/view%SCRIPTSUFFIX%/TWiki/SlideShowPlugin?slideshow=on#GoSlide1",  "Slideshow", "titlebar=0,width=850,height=700,resizable,scrollbars,");

Personally I prefer the no scrollbar look. Also, based on the content of your slideshow you might have to adjust the height and width values.

I'm a happy camper now

-- MartyBacke - 02 Aug 2003

--Added result near to JohnRouillard's comments.

-- MichaelSparks - 02 Aug 2003

I am creating a custom slideshow presentation, based on css layout. I have a few remarks/improvements:

• This plugin is not in CVS.
• The plugin uses skin=print.
  • I think skin=slideshow is more logical for something mostly used on screen. And I need to put the css somewhere. I will attach my template as soon as I have ironed out the formatting.
  • This makes it impossible to use a skin: if I have a template file the skin is simply ignored. I propose to use the SKIN variable when skin=slideshow is called. So if I have set SKIN to 'pattern', skin=pattern.slideshow is called. See attached patch.
• Analogous to pattern skin, the css can be set to a topic. This makes it easy to change width and height.
• Line 141, $slideText =~ s/%SLIDETEXT%/$slideBody/go; needs an extra newline: $slideText =~ s/%SLIDETEXT%/$slideBody\n/go;, otherwise bullet lists are not closed properly. Of course I can add an empty line to the template, but this is not neat.
• For a css layout, it is easier to also have a SLIDECOMMENT variable. So line 151 changes from $text .= "\n$slideComment\n\n" if( $slideComment ); to $text =~ s/%SLIDECOMMENT%/\n$slideComment\n/go;

-- ArthurClemens - 23 Apr 2004

Eric Meyer has written a CSS slideshow: see the demo. The setup is very similar to the current SlideShowPlugin, and should be easy to adopt.

-- ArthurClemens - 15 Oct 2004

New version posted in Plugin topic:

• Added support for %SLIDECOMMENT% template keyword (thanks ArthurClemens)
• Added benchmarks

Arthur, I did not add the other things:

• Skin support: I need to investigate. Looks like it should be done conditionally, enabled with a Plugin setting.
• Extra line in $slideBody: I do not think this is needed; the rendering could introduce an extra p tag. The example slideshow with bullets works. Make sure to have now leading spaces following %SLIDETEXT%

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Nov 2004

I '''really''' like the Eric Myer CSS slideshow. It is one of the few web slideshow setups that I don't mind using. If it could be edited Wiki Style, that would be even better.

* It works like Opera Slideshow * Works in most browsers (gecko, Safari, opera, explorer) * You can move between slides as easily as in PowerPoint?

-- ChrisTennant - 07 Dec 2004

I created a Opera Show CSS style for use with our Cairo Wiki. In contrast to Eric Myer's solution it is not portable to the other browsers of course but it still saves me from having to create content both for the wiki and powerpoint.

If you use Opera, you can try (Press F11 in Opera):

http://projects.mi.fu-berlin.de/w/bin/view/Main/ChristopherOezbekOperaShowCSS

to see how it is done or

http://projects.mi.fu-berlin.de/w/bin/view/SE/SeminarOpenSource2004

for an example of how it is used.

-- ChristopherOezbek - 13 Dec 2004

checked .zip into CVS

-- WillNorris - 19 Jul 2005

It's fairly simple to incorporate the S5 stuff. Here are the basic steps:

• Download all the support files and put it in a place where TWiki can find them (I put them in pub/ui/).
• Create template/view.s5.tmpl. This should contain at least the minimal stuff that is required.
• Create a template topic for the slide content, and put this into it:

%STARTINCLUDE%
<div class="slide">
<h1>%SLIDETITLE%</h1>
%SLIDETEXT%
</div>
%STOPINCLUDE%

• Modify SlideShowPlugin.pm to incorporate the changes needed for S5.
  • Delete the default nav and getting rid of all the extra hrules, breaks, etc. that are being added.
  • We also added a few more parameters that are passed through SLIDESHOWSTART: title, author, date, style (s5 or original). These are used to change some details in view.s5.tmpl.
  • Remember to change the presentation skin to s5 from print.
  • S5 allows you to separate presentation and handout content, which ties in well with SlideShowPlugin's scheme.
  • See also Support.ChangeTemplateFromPlugin.

That should do it. This is really a nice setup and works extremely well. More creative things can be done, like auto-generating the title page, etc.

-- PankajPant - 15 Sep 2005

Great Pankaj, why don't you package your modifications as new SfiveShowPlugin? or something similiar.

-- FranzJosefSilli - 16 Sep 2005

I've attached a tarred/gzipped collection of all the files (S5.tgz). Use at your own risk. I've never done this before, so it would be good if someone could sanity check the files. Note that it overwrites SlideShowPlugin.pm (so make a backup of the old version).

Typical usage would be:

%SLIDESHOWSTART{template="TWiki.SlideShowS5Template" \
                style="s5" \
                title="Presentation Title" \
                author="Your Name"}% 

If you don't specify the style parameter, it will revert to the original format (remember to also change the template name).

-- PankajPant - 16 Sep 2005

I've started giving presentations using SlideShowPlugin, and have some comments. See GlewCommentsOnUsingSlideShowPlugin.

-- AndyGlew - 26 May 2006

Has the S5 stuff been updated for TWiki4? Or rather, has someone or is there another area for it? I really like the S5 slideshow, but it almost seems as if it should be its own plugin, rather an an add on here.

-- EricHanson - 07 Sep 2006

Did you try SlidyPlugin yet?

-- FranzJosefSilli - 08 Sep 2006

If the slide can be exported to local, it would be great!

-- ShashaLuan - 25 Sep 2006

Yeah, SlidyPlugin seems to be hardcoded for the W3 look, whereas I would like to allow each slideshow to determine look and feel, exaclty what S5 does

-- EricHanson - 06 Oct 2006

S5.tgz breaks SlideShowPlugin.pm in Twiki v4 in a couple of places; To fix

• line 88 of SlideShowPlugin.pm replace TWiki::formatTime with TWiki::Time::formatTime
• line 136 TWiki::Prefs::getPreferencesValue with TWiki::Func::getPreferencesValue

-- GlennRoberts - 17 Oct 2006

There is also a hardcoded path in the templates/view.s5.tmpl that you may also need to change...

-- GlennRoberts - 17 Oct 2006

Bug: When transitioning between slides, and when starting up the slide show, the plugin ignores any URL parameters that might have been applied. If that parameter is essential in making the slide show work, you are out of luck.

-- ThomasWeigert - 19 Nov 2006

That feature was never supported; this is the first time it comes up. Can you give a use case?

-- PeterThoeny - 19 Nov 2006

Here is an example use case: I have a generic presentation for project reviews. It consists of a set of standard slides, which are instantiated by specific project data based on a URL parameter which gives the name of the project. But this parameter is lost.

This is the same issue that I fixed a little while ago with the printable mode which also lost all the URL parameters passed.

I use this style a lot: Generate a generic topic that pulls information together based on a passed URL parameter and then renders it in a nice way. Using slide show was a step to further enhance this.

This is not a hard enhancement. You can just copy how I did the printview URL parameters.

-- ThomasWeigert - 19 Nov 2006

Got it, looks useful; plugin should be enhanced accordingly.

-- PeterThoeny - 19 Nov 2006

The patch to lib/TWiki/Plugins/SlideShowPlugin/SlideShow.pm attached will take care of this. However, it will only work for TWiki 4.1., as it relies on an update to the Func API.

-- ThomasWeigert - 20 Nov 2006

While you are at it, the pattern skin uses ?template=viewprint to get the printable mode. Using ?skin=print results in font that is different from the TWiki if pattern skin was used.

However, there appears to be a problem with pattern skin in that if I force the viewprint template in your plugin, the title line is cut (it is as if the table is limited to grow only to a certain font size, and does not allow fonts larger than +2).

-- ThomasWeigert - 20 Nov 2006

Thomas, thanks for the patch, but I was already working on it. I made the enhancement compatible with older TWiki releases.

I did not change skin=print to template=viewprint because this would make the plugin PatternSkin specific.

New plugin release 12011 checked into SVN, posted in plugin topic, and updated twiki.org:

• Preserve URL parameters in slideshow (suggested by ThomasWeigert)
• Changed logo in default template to T-logo
• Fixed warning errors introduced by 1.005

-- PeterThoeny - 20 Nov 2006

Start each slide with a "---+++" heading and add text like paragraphs HAS to be 3 x "+" to become "Slide xx" >>> "---+++"

-- NorbertKress - 07 Nov 2007

I'm missing an EXIT-button while presenting

-- NorbertKress - 07 Nov 2007

(I moved above comments from SlideShowPlugin to here)

Good point to add an exit button to the default slideshow template.

-- PeterThoeny - 08 Nov 2007

Just wanted to say how delighted I am witrh this plugin. I "scared" a co-worker last week. He saiid "There's PowerPoint? in my TWiki page!" :-)

-- VickiBrown - 02 Feb 2008

Although I agree with Peter that using template=viewprint is not the best answer, I am also trying to resolve the problem that SlideShow? does not use the expected TWiki font. I tried forcing the font with a some local CSS file; that isn't working either. I assume I'm missing something.

Can someone give me a clue for a way ensure that I use the expected TWiki fonts in my slides?

-- VickiBrown - 25 Apr 2008

You can define your own slideshow template that defines your preferred style (font, color) and layout. Copy the existing template from the SlideShowPlugin page to your own page, modify as needed, and point to it in your presentations.

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Apr 2008