Joomla Extensions
RokStoriesLatest Version: J1.5 2.2 - J2.5/J3.0 1.13
Easy to Use Dynamic Featured Content RokStories is a great module to display your articles and accompanying images as a featured item. The module itself is facilitated by Mootools to transition between images and articles seamlessly. Perfect for showcasing featured articles or image on your site.
RokStories provides a vast assortment of configuration options and parameters to give you more control over how your dynamic content is displayed as well as providing a lightweight and fast loading experience.
Summary Features
- Content Transition: The module transitions through content items, whether they are full text, a single image or combination of both.
- Article Controls: Advanced selectors for content, choose from categories, sections and authors and control the order.
- Customisable Opacity: Thumbnails can be set from transparent to opaque
- Navigation Interactions: Parameters to set whether to change news by clicking or hovering over the thumbnails
- K2 Support: Fully compatible with the powerful content constructive component K2.
- Standalone Styling: Inbuilt theme allows the module to be used on any site.
Screenshots
History
RokStories first made an appearance with the May 2009 Joomla Template Release, the SolarSentinel template. It was made a standalone module in June 2009 with its own independent styling to allow it to be used on any template.
Installation - Joomla 1.5
Downloading the Extension Files
- RokStories Module (mod_rokstories.zip) This file is the module package you will use to install RokStories into Joomla.
Using the Joomla Installer
From the Menu in your Joomla Administrator, go to Extensions → Install/Uninstall.
Next, browse for your mod_rokstories.zip file you downloaded and then click Upload File & Install.
Accessing the Module Page
Next, go to Extensions → Module Manager. From the list, find RokStories and open it to be brought to the RokStories Module Manager page, which lists all the available options for the module.
Requirements
RokStories has the following requirements in order to operate:-- Joomla 1.5x - ensure you are using the latest version
Configuration
Below is a list of options that appear in Extensions → Module Manage → RokStories.
K2 Content options only appear after the K2 component has been installed
Load built-in StyleSheet: The module has inbuilt module styling so set this to Yes if you wish for it to work standalone. As we override this file from the template, you still need to set this to Yes for the styling to work.
Layout Type: RokStories is built with two layout types, these are Showcase and Default. Showcase is a slideshow type format, with the focus on the images with preview arrows and the ability to disable the text entirely; in contrast to Default mode which is more traditional, with a series of images being display with their accompanying content. It is best to see live examples to see the differences.
Content Type: Choose between two content types, either Joomla Core Content or K2 Content. Select whichever is most applicable to your content management.
Joomla Section: If you selected Joomla Core Content as your content type, then this option allows you to specify a particular section which RokStories will load their content from.
Joomla Category: If you selected Joomla Core Content as your content type, then this option allows you to specify a particular category which RokStories will load their content from.
Joomla Frontpage Items: Set to Show if you wish to load articles that are set to appear for the Frontpage Content Component or set to Hide if you wish for them to not appear.
K2 Category Filter: If you selected K2 Content as your content type, then this option allows you control whether to load your content from all K2 Categories or make a selection from a list.
K2 Filter Items by Category: If you chose Select as your K2 Category Filter option, then this setting will become active in which you can select the categories you wish to load the module content from.
K2 Featured Items: Select between Show or Hide depending on whether you wish for the Feature Items in K2 to appear in RokStories.
Item Image Size: Specific the image size you wish to use from the K2 component. Either, XSmall, Small, Medium, Large or XLarge.
Max Number of Articles: Set a limiting value for the number of articles to publish in RokStories, this is most prominent when using default mode as each article displays a thumbnail.
Item Ordering: Set the order of the module content. For example, if you set to Oldest First then the oldest content item will be loaded in tab 1. There are a variety of options to chose from.
Allowed HTML Tags: The module automatically strips out all HTML tags and leaves just the content and the first image. This is to prevent the module from being distorted by incompatible HTML code. However, this option allows you to specify specific HTML tabs that will not be stripped, ideal if you still wish to add some diversity to your content. Simply insert the text of the tag, minus the < > elements, separated by commas such as a,i,br which will not strip all links, all italic text and line breaks.
Content Position: Either Left or Right for the position of the text, the images will be placed on the opposite side. Also, there is an option for None if you wish to use RokStories as a slideshow, best with the Showcase layout type enabled.
Show Title: Show or Hide the title being displayed from the content item.
Show Date: Control whether the creation date of the content item appears in RokStories.
Show Article: Set to Hide if you wish to display just the image and no text.
Show Link: Select whether to show the Read More button or to hide it.
Width of thumbnail (px): Set, in pixels, the width of the thumbnails, only applicable to the Default layout type.
Width of thumbnail display (px): Set, in pixels, the width of the large image, only applicable to the Default layout type.
Author: This option allows you to select articles from a particular author.
First Article: Control which content item appears first in RokStories, set the number of the article (its order number from the article manager).
Thumb Opacity: Set the opacity of thumbnails, between 0 and 1. Only applicable to the Default layout type.
Navigation Interaction: Choose between Click or Mouseover as the trigger to transition the content items.
Autoplay: Enable this option for RokStories to automatically rotate through its articles.
Autoplay Delay (ms): Set the number of milliseconds (1000 milliseconds = 1 second) for each article to appear before it rotates to the next article.
Show Label Title: Show or Hide the caption on top of the main image display. Only applicable to the Showcase layout type.
Show Previews on Arrows: Select whether to show preview of the next image when hovering over the arrows. Only applicable to the Showcase layout type.
Fixed Previews: Choose whether to have the previews in a fixed position or not. Only applicable to the Showcase layout type.
Linked Labels: Control whether the label / captions link to the full content item. Only applicable to the Showcase layout type.
Changelog
This is a non-exhaustive changelog for RokStories, inclusive of any alpha, beta, release candidate and final versions.
