Dynamic, Rotaing Header Images for Joomla

For Joomla:

Back up any edited files before proceeding.

There is a post at the Artisteer forum which explains how to create a new Joomla module position (edited for brevity).

Decide where to place the module position in your template’s HTML (index.php). For example, we’ll be adding a "header" position to my template. We find the position in the file where we want to add the module and insert code similar to the following:

<!-- begin header -->
<div class="art-Header">
<jdoc:include type="modules" name="header" style="xhtml" />
</div>
<!-- end header -->

Create this new module position in your template details file, “templateDetails.xml”. Find the file in Joomla’s root directory, “template’s”, in your default template folder.

Find the tag in your XML file and insert a new tag. It will look something like this:

<positions>
<position>left</position>
<position>right</position>
<position>top</position>
<position>banner</position>
<position>header</position>
<position>footer</position>
<position>pathway</position>
<position>user1</position>
<position>user2</position>
<position>user3</position>
<position>header</position>
</positions>

I tried three Joomla 1.5.x slide show modules. Although it may not have as many transition options, ImageSlideShow is the easiest to set up. Just download the free extension and upload it in Joomla’s administrator. Assign the module to the header position, set it up...and you’re done.

Another free Joomla extension is Shape5’s S5 Image Fader and S5 Image and Content Fader. Set up is simple and it has more options and very good forum support.

RokSlideShow offers even more image transitions with text captions, but it may be best suited for other areas of a website.

If you need a static, random image rotator, Random Image Plus is a good choice.

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