Slide Show Plugin

Create web based presentations based on topics with headings

On this page:

Introduction

There is already a de facto standard for presentations, so why this plugin? This plugin makes sense for organizations that already have lots of content in Foswiki: It is easy to create a web based presentation that contains many links to related content. The plugin does not try to compete with the bells and whistles of other presentation programs. However, the markup of Foswiki and other plugins such as Foswiki:Extensions/ChartPlugin, Foswiki:Extensions/GaugePlugin, Foswiki:Extensions/SpreadSheetPlugin, Foswiki:Extensions/JHotDrawPlugin can be used to create appealing presentations.

Any topic with headings can be converted into a slideshow. Each slide starts with a "---++" heading. There are two modes to view a topic:

You can start the presentation by clicking on the "Start presentation" button.

Syntax rules

How to create a slideshow

How to create your own slide template

To create your own template topic, copy the "Default Slide Template" section below into your own slide template topic and customize it to your needs. It can be activated as the default template in the plugin's TEMPLATE setting, or per slideshow with the %SLIDESHOWSTART{ template="MyOwnSlideTemplate" }% setting.

Example

This is a short example of a slideshow. You should see a "Start presentation" button if this plugin is installed:

Start presentation

Slide 1: Introduction

This is slide one.

On this page:

Slide 2: Hamlet meets his father's ghost

Slide 3: This is rather upsetting

Slide 4: Meanwhile...

Comments

Slide 5: Please tune this template

Tune the look of this template by using CSS (slideshow.css attached to this document).

Comments

One-liner: this text is not shown in the slide if HIDECOMMENTS is set to "on".

This text is not part of the slideshow.

SlideShowPlugin preferences

You can override the default settings for the plugin by defining the following preferences.

Preference Meaning Default
SLIDESHOWPLUGIN_TEMPLATE Default template for slides: SlideShowPlugin
SLIDESHOWPLUGIN_COMMENTS_LABEL Label for Comments section Comments
SLIDESHOWPLUGIN_HIDECOMMENTS Hide text starting with a ---+++ %COMMENTS_LABEL% heading  

Default slide template

You can create a new topic (MyWeb.SlidesTemplate) somewhere and add STARTINCLUDE <your template> STOPINCLUDE to it. Afterwards, you can add %SLIDESHOWSTART{template="MyWeb.SlidesTemplate"}% to show your presentations with this new template.

Customizing the look of your presentation

Just customize the attached slideshow.css file to improve the view.

Current default template

The part between the rulers defines the default format of a slide: 
%STARTINCLUDE%
<div class="slideText">
<h1>%SLIDETITLE%</h1>
%SLIDETEXT%
%SLIDECOMMENT%
</div>
<div class="slideShowFooter">
<div class="foswikiRight slideShowControls">%SLIDENAVALL%</div>
<div class="foswikiLeft slideShowNum">Slide %SLIDENUM% of %SLIDEMAX%</div>
%CLEAR%
</div>
%STOPINCLUDE%

Plugin installation instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. "Extensions Operation and Maintenance" Tab -> "Install, Update or Remove extensions" Tab. Click the "Search for Extensions" button. Enter part of the extension name or description and press search. Select the desired extension(s) and click install. If an extension is already installed, it will not show up in the search results.

You can also install from the shell by running the extension installer as the web server user: (Be sure to run as the webserver user, not as root!) 
cd /path/to/foswiki
perl tools/extension_installer <NameOfExtension> install

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See https://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

Change History

09 Mar 2021: (2.40) Foswikitask:Item15021: multiple enhancements to SlideshowPlugin
06 Sep 2016: (2.32) Foswikitask:Item14125: fix encoding of url parms of "start presentation" button; Foswikitask:Item14170: improved button layout
08 Apr 2016: (2.31) Foswikitask:Item14022: Change all foswiki.org links to https.
08 Sep 2015: (2.30) Foswikitask:Item13685: add support for scrolling slides
03 Mar 2015: (2.21) Foswikitask:Item13281: improved printout
10 Jan 2014: (2.20) Foswikitask:Item13198: Fully qualify default template topic.
Foswikitask:Item12583: Revert to simple decimal version strings.
28 Nov 2012: (2.1.6) Foswikitask:Item11267: Convert to perl version strings.
06 Apr 2012: (2.1.5) Foswiki:Main.RichMorin documentation cleanup
Foswikitask:Item11649: SlideShowPlugin un-necessarily breaks jquery widgets (TABPANES for eg are just blank).
28 Aug 2011: (2.1.4) URL encoding of query parameters did not include the parameter names
11 Apr 2011: (2.1.3) Version released with Foswiki 1.1.3. Only a minor change related to how the plugin is being upgraded
24 Nov 2010: (2.1.2) Changed the VarSLIDESHOWSTART so the example does not add to the TOC of the Macros listing
12 Sep 2010: (2.1.1) Restored default template to HTML table as the CSS one was unfinished and not at all showing what the plugin can do. Re-added the 20 empty lines after each slide so you do not see the next slide below. Changed from using cover to using skin so the left bar margin in pattern skin is not destroying the layout
31 Jul 2010: Foswikitask:Item9415 - Documentation updates
17 Jun 2009: 2.0 Arthur Clemens: optimize to default template and CSS to make the plugin work with older templates.
31 Mar 2009: GilmarSantosJr: Foswiki:Tasks/Item1401 - Make it work in persistent environments
18 Feb 2009: Fixed HIDECOMMENTS to really hide the comment if value is on - otherwise the comment is shown in the comments section; added customizable COMMENTS_LABEL for all non-English speaking people. Updated default template and css; cleaned up code: now uses a cover instead of a skin so the style of the installed skin is used (unless redefined in the css file); use a custom template; when in slideshow mode, hide topic text; removed extraneously generated spaces; improved error messages; from the button "End presentation" link back to the start button.
05 Feb 2009: Updated graphics; made html and css validate.
21 Jan 2009: Exchanged the current default skin by something which is not written in totaly broken html and looking acceptable ( still needs an update, still table ugly design..). You can style by CSS now
Tuned the docs a bit
16 Dec 2008: Foswiki version
02 Aug 2008: Fixed corruption of preview
29 Sep 2007: Added VarSLIDESHOWSTART and VarSLIDESHOWEND to have them listed in System.Macros
12 Feb 2007: fixed construction of view urls (TWiki:Main/MichaelDaum)
19 Nov 2006: 12011: Preserve URL parameters in slideshow (suggested by TWiki:Main/ThomasWeigert); changed logo in default template to T-logo; fixed warning errors introduced by 1.005
16 Mar 2005: 1.005 Crawford Currie prepped for Dakar, and fixed multiple evaluation bug
21 Nov 2004: 1.004 Added support for %SLIDECOMMENT% template keyword (TWiki:Main/ArthurClemens); added benchmarks
21 Mar 2004: Internal change: Fixed unofficial function call
14 Dec 2002: Added %SLIDENAVALL% template keyword; added HIDECOMMENTS setting
23 Nov 2002: Added %SLIDENAVLAST% template keyword; using print Skin for presentation mode
19 Nov 2002: Added "Start presentation" and "End presentation" buttons; added %SLIDENAVFIRST%, %SLIDENAVPREV%, %SLIDENAVNEXT% template keywords
17 Nov 2002: Initial version